The 1971 Amsterdam Broadcast

In their first five years together, The Byrds had popularised folk-rock (Turn! Turn! Turn!, Mr Tambourine Man), rode the dizzying updrafts of 60s psychedelia (Eight Miles High, So You Want To Be A Rock'n'roll Star) and ushered in the country-rock era (You Ain't Goin' Nowhere, You Don't Miss Your Water), all on the way to establishing themselves as a walking encyclopaedia of Americana history. The Bob Dylan songbook helped them get there, but so did a rotating cast of visionary bandmates, among them Roger McGuinn, Gene Clark, David Crosby and Gram Parsons. That wide-ranging history is given full flight on The 1971 Amsterdam Broadcast, in which that year's iteration of the group, featuring McGuinn, Clarence White (guitar, mandolin), Skip Battin (bass), Gene Parsons (drums, banjo - no relation to Gram) and Jim Seiter (percussion), delivers a set of traditional folk tunes, reimagined Dylan classics and Byrds originals, offering a history lesson in songs that still feel as alive as anything ever committed to tape.