Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman Announce ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo’ 50th Anniversary Live Album

August 30, 2024

Today, Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman of the legendary country-rock pathbreakers the Byrds celebrate a half-century of their landmark sixth album Sweetheart of the Rodeo with a new live release. The forthcoming project, titled Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, With Marty Stuart And His Fabulous Superlatives Celebrate The 50th Anniversary Of Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, sets to tape the artists’ 2018 anniversary tribute tour, which brought the unforgettable songs to life once more with some help from Stuart and his band. Set to release on Aug. 30 on vinyl and CD via Friday Music, this soul-stirring revival of the 1968 masterpiece stands as a testament to its massive influence and continued pertinence five decades later.

The 50th Anniversary Of Sweetheart Of The Rodeo release features 24 tracks recorded throughout the 27-stop tour, hand-selected from the ensemble’s setlists by Mick Conley, Stuart’s longtime producer and audio engineer. “It was one of the best tours—if not THE best—I was ever on in 60 years of being in music. Every night was exciting,” Hillman offers, “I couldn’t think of anybody else to do that presentation with other than Marty and the Superlatives,” including a tried and true backing lineup of guitarist Kenny Vaughan, drummer Harry Stinson and bassist and steel guitarist Chris Scruggs. “Listening to this live recording puts me right back on stage with Roger, Marty, Kenny, Harry and Chris,” the artist attests.

“I love the songs and playing with wonderful musicians,” McGuinn concurs. “I loved playing with Marty and the Superlatives, and Chris too. It’s a great band to play with, and they are pros.”

Recalling a tour hailed as not just a reprisal of the 1968 project, but a full-scale salute to the legacy of the Byrds and the unprecedented cosmic country sound they pioneered, the new album reaches far beyond the original 11-song tracklist. Country classics and relatives like Hillman’s “Time Between,” Bob Dylan’s “My Back Pages” and Porter Wagoner’s genre staple “Satisfied Mind” open the album to illustrate the sonic forebearers to the revolutionary release. After a second section comprising a diligent resequenced reproduction of the original tracklist, the live collection concludes with an encore of other Byrds staples “So You Want to Be a Rock ‘n’ Roll Star,” “Eight Miles High” and “Turn! Turn! Turn!”

“Everybody won,” Stuart recalled of the acclaimed tour. “That’s my thought: As a band, we got to be the Byrds, and Roger and Chris got to be Roger and Chris without having to put up with anything that had to do with band life, and the audience saw things and heard things that they never thought they’d ever see again or have never heard or seen before, right?”

Byrds fans who missed out on the 2018 tour can relive the magic and celebrate the memory of Sweetheart of The Rodeo with the live collection, available on all streaming platforms now. To secure a physical copy of the album, visit fridaymusic.com.

Read on for the complete tracklist.