Byrds Song and Beyond

So, what can we expect to hear from veteran singer-songwriter Roger McGuinn, founder of The Byrds and much more, at the Lobero Theatre on Saturday, September 12? “Songs,” he commented forthrightly in a recent interview, and with stories on the side. “Folks want to hear stories about them,” he reasons.

Among the songs we can expect: his radio-embraced and iconic version of Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” “Turn! Turn! Turn!,” “So You Want to Be a Rock ’N’ Roll Star,” “Mr. Spaceman,” the psychedelic anthem-in-the-making “Eight Miles High,” and maybe “Ballad of Easy Rider.” He also made the then-unique jangle of his 12-string Rickenbacker a signature sound, which will be part of the Lobero program, along with acoustic guitars and a trusty for-extra-folky-measure banjo. 

McGuinn is a Rock & Roll Hall of Famer (with The Byrds) who is among the legion of both famed and “best artists you’ve never heard of” brand performers in the Lobero’s long-running “Sings like Hell” series, appearing in this room back in 1999. He returns this Saturday with more songs to sing and stories to spin.

Among other celebrated artists he has crossed creative paths with, McGuinn was a seminal collaborator with the late, Santa Barbara–bred (and eventually based) David Crosby, who launched his long and winding musical life in The Byrds six decades back. McGuinn looks back on his relationship with Crosby, as well as fortuitous and mutually influential encounters with Bob Dylan and Tom Petty, as being “like brothers.” 

McGuinn’s passion for folk music in the larger sense, dating back to his earliest days in music and through to the present, is manifested in a special project he has maintained since the ’90s, called “Folk Den” (link). With the project, McGuinn recorded and published traditional folk songs online each month from 1995 to 2006. As he explains, “it is a preservation project — the music needs to be saved.”

Through The Byrds and other work, the thumbprint of his influence can be detected in music of subsequent generations. Although he is selective in his listening habits, he admits that “every once in a while, I explore. I’ve seen generations grow up, even played music with them (including) Crowded House, Wilco, REM….” He pauses, and laughs, “They were all once younger, too.”

I asked McGuinn if there were particular memories from over his six decades in music that jump out as special for him. He said, “playing the Kennedy Honors for Pete Seeger and sharing a stage with Pete Seeger at the Bottom Line in N.Y.C. and him telling me he never heard ‘Bells of Rhymney’ sung so well — now that brought tears to our eyes.”

“Also being part of the super band for Dylan’s 30th anniversary at Madison Square Garden, and recording ‘Back from Rio’ with a bunch of good friends. And, of course, the wild ride on Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue.”

Although this interview was before Dolly Parton’s recent passing, he also conjured up the fond memory of “being invited to sing ‘Turn, Turn, Turn,’ with Parton on a back porch in the country with some wonderful musicians (see YouTube clip here) and later in her studio. 

In a related memory, he said, “I met Marty Stewart in that country setting and we took guitars down by the creek and played our favorite songs. He became a close friend. He and his band, the Superlatives, were the band for me and Chris [Hillman, Byrds cofounder] on the Sweetheart of the Rodeo 50th anniversary tour. 

“So many more wonderful moments … playing guitar with Clarence White, meeting the Beatles, Elvis Costello, Mick Jagger, Elton John, Billy Joel, Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and all those icons from the ’60s.”

Pulling back the lens to a broader overview mode, McGuinn adds, “It has been a wonderful ride, and we’re still rolling … Camilla [his wife] and me!”

See Songs and Stories with Roger McGuinn at the Lobero Theatre (33 E Canon Perdido St.), Saturday, September 12, 7:30 p.m. See lobero.org/events/roger-mcguinn.