The Byrds

The Byrds were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1964, led by Roger McGuinn and his distinctive jangly twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar. Alongside Gene Clark, David Crosby, Chris Hillman and Michael Clarke in their classic lineup, the band pioneered folk rock by fusing the harmonies and songwriting of Bob Dylan and traditional folk with the energy of the British Invasion.

Their breakthrough covers of Dylan's «Mr. Tambourine Man» and Pete Seeger's «Turn! Turn! Turn! (To Everything There Is a Season)» topped the charts and defined the sound of mid-1960s American rock. As the decade progressed, the band kept reinventing itself, moving into psychedelic and raga rock with the groundbreaking «Eight Miles High», then helping invent country rock with the 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo, featuring Gram Parsons and songs like «You Ain't Goin' Nowhere».

Despite constant lineup turnover, with McGuinn as the sole constant member until the group disbanded in 1973, The Byrds left a lasting influence on generations of guitar-driven bands, from country rock and Americana acts to power pop groups drawn to their chiming twelve-string sound.