FRESH TRACK: Christian Parker – ‘Ballad of Easy Rider’
On Change Is Now: A Tribute to The Byrds, upstate New York artist Christian Parker taps into the sounds that made him fall in love with music: the 12-string-strummed songs of The Byrds’ Roger McGuinn.
Reimagining The Byrds’ “Ballad of Easy Rider” on the new record, Parker shares, “I first heard the ‘Ballad of Easy Rider’ when I was 16, which changed my life. It was such a great message, and as a teenage kid searching for answers, it came at the right time. I knew this was my anthem, and to this day, it is my favorite song ever written.”
Following Sweethearts, his 2023 take on Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Parker was rejoined in the studio by original Byrds studio player Earl Poole Ball and a cast of incredible players for Change Is Now. Reimagining The Byrds’ catalog, Parker respectfully pays homage to America’s great country-rockers in a way that honors the originals and incorporates his own distinct twists.
SPONSORED BY Christian Parker