The Byrds

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The Byrds didn't so much fit into musical genres as they created them. When Roger McGuinn, Chris Hillman, David Crosby, Gene Clark and Michael Clarke got together to form The Jet Set they all (except Hillman, who played bluegrass mandolin) had folk music pedigrees.

The title song of their first album, Mr. Tambourine Man, was an electrified version of a Bob Dylan song, and reflected McGuinn's attraction to both Dylan and John Lennon. With that song, the Folk Rock genre was born.

Their 1966 album Fifth Dimension was one of the earliest experiments in Psychedelic Rock. Crosby left the band in 1967. Gram Parsons signed on in 1968, just long enough for the band to pioneer the Country Rock genre, before leaving for the Flying Burrito Brothers, taking Hillman with him.

By 1969, McGuinn was the only original member left. The next five albums were commercially and artistically disappointing, as was a reunion album, featuring all of the original Byrds, recorded in 1972.

The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1991. Gene Clark and Michael Clarke died shortly thereafter.

A September 2006 release, There Is a Season is a four-CD, one-DVD box set that provides a chronological record of the band's work from 1964 through 1973, plus a 1990 reunion. The project was supervised by McGuinn and Hillman.

Talk of another reunion of surviving members Crosby, Hillman and McGuinn surfaces periodically, but McGuinn maintains that he is committed to his career as a solo folk singer.

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