Country Music Hall of Fame's 'Western Edge' exhibit honors the genre's Los Angeles roots

Via its "Western Edge: The Roots and Reverberations of Los Angeles Country-Rock" exhibition, the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum continues its attempt at chronicling the depth and scope of the genre's expansion into pop-defined realms.

Presented by City National Bank and debuting Sept. 30, the comprehensive, multimedia exhibition will feature historic photographs, stage wear, instruments, original song manuscripts and more in the museum's 5,000-square-foot gallery for the next three years.

“A new hybrid sound grew from humble beginnings in a few small L.A. nightclubs and blew up into one of the most popular musical styles across the world,” Country Music Hall of Fame CEO Kyle Young said. "Their interest and talents in traditional country, folk and bluegrass music, and how these interests connected them."

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For five decades, bluegrass, folk, gospel and rock have intersected in northwestern Los Angeles. As a result, artists including the Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, the Eagles, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Linda Ronstadt and Dwight Yoakam have profoundly impacted Nashville's pop-aimed country tradition.

At the Hall of Fame Wednesday, two of those artists – Harris and the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Jeff Hanna, along with Hanna's wife, Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame member Matraca Berg – appeared at the hall for the exhibition's announcement. The trio's take on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1972 hit "Mr. Bojangles" was warmly received.

Simultaneously, at Los Angeles' legendary Troubadour venue, Yoakam and country-rock luminary Chris Hillman (the Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers, Desert Rose Band and more) performed the 1969 Flying Burrito Brothers single “Sin City” and the Byrds'  1967 “Time Between.”

Within 18 months of each other, in 1964 and 1965, the Beatles debuted on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and birthed the British Invasion, while Bob Dylan plugged in at the Newport Folk Festival. The long-term result of these moments in country music is best seen via folk and bluegrass singers like folk singer turned country-icon Harris merging traditional styles with emerging rock 'n' roll.

Harris noted that the community of artists who united in Los Angeles was most important. But, as well, she said that "it was all about the songs."

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Her work with Parsons before his untimely passing in 1973 is what brought Harris to Los Angeles and led to her 1975 breakthrough album "Pieces of the Sky," including the touching Parsons tribute "Boulder to Birmingham."

Regarding the melodies that defined her late-1980s work with longtime Los Angeles-based friend Ronstadt and Nashville-based Dolly Parton, Harris noted that "three women who love to sing met in Los Angeles and grabbed a guitar," leading to their well-regarded "Trio" album.

Similarly, as rock's hair-metal arena era merged with country's attempt to satiate its desire in the pop realm, an artist like Kentucky-born Los Angeles transplant Yoakam emerged. Early '80s critics considered the fan of bluegrass and rock two decades before his time – too country for rock and too hillbilly for country. Thus, his route involved the city's "cowpunk" scene of honky-tonk devotees.

In a 2019 PBS interview, Yoakam cited Harris as a "great influence" on his relocation to Los Angeles after a failed first attempt as a singer-songwriter in Nashville. Moreover, his fandom of country traditionalists, including Buck Owens (later a collaborator on 1989 No. 1 country hit "Streets of Bakersfield")  and Merle Haggard, impacted his desire to be in Los Angeles.

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Eventually, Yoakam discovered a style that inspired sounds that included his back-to-back major label debut No. 1 singles: 1986's cover of Johnny Horton's 1956 hit "Honky Tonk Man" and his original single "Guitars, Cadillacs."

From Los Angeles' iconic early '80s punk scene, he merged with his honky-tonk and bluegrass style.

"The form wasn't necessarily punk, and the execution musically wasn't, but the accessibility to the immediacy of the emotion — the emotional intent was very immediately accessible to that audience," Yoakam said.

Details on the exhibition, live performances associated with its premiere, and more –  including a book with an essay written by longtime Los Angeles music journalist Randy Lewis, among other contributors – can be found at www.CountryMusicHallofFame.org.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Emmylou Harris on Country Music Hall of Fame and the genre's LA roots