Ever since Elvis Presley cut loose in the '50s with his own take on Bill Monroe's "Blue Moon of Kentucky," country and rock have been inextricably linked. The country-rock era arose during the 1960s, when West Coast artists like Gene Clark, Chris Hillman, and Gram Parsons became increasingly enamored with twangy, hard-edged, down-to-earth sounds of honky tonk (which was enjoying a renaissance in nearby Bakersfield). A whole new generation of countercultural hippies and long-haired rock 'n' rollers soon came to discover the likes of Roy Acuff, Merle Haggard, and Buck Owens thanks to these artists, as well as to landmark albums like the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo, the Nitty Gritty Dirty Band's Will the Circle Be Unbroken, and Bob Dylan's Nashville Skyline. This hip and cool musical marriage later helped inspire the alternative-country (or 'No Depression') scene of the 1990s.

Notable Artists: Flying Burrito Brothers, the Grateful Dead, the Band, Doug Sahm