Vinyl:  Mint!  Sealed!  This is the Extremely Rare Original Record Store Day Hand Drawn Records 1st Pressing!   This has an  RSD Limited run of only 500 copies!!!  This is a song-by-song revisit of The First (& Greatest?) Country Rock Album of All-Time!  Lloyd Green and Jay Dee Maness were on the original Byrds'  "Sweetheart of The Rodeo" album and they return here for an amazing Reprise of this Masterwork!  The last song includes Richie Furay, Herb Pedersen, Jeff Hanna and Jim Lauderdale! 
Cover: Mint!  Sealed!!  (see photos)  Has the official RSD hype sticker.    The cover is a faithful reproduction of a detail from Jo Mora's Original print of the 1933 "Evolution of The Cowboy", which The Byrds also adapted to include on the cover of their "Sweetheart of The Rodeo" LP!  The record appears straight; when I look down with one eye down all 4 edges there's no big, ominous bow to it that would suggest that it's warped.
I will gladly accept the return of Sealed records as long as they have not been opened (i.e. as long as they are still in the condition I sent them in).  Every record has a "fingerprint" of imperfections in the seal and/or the cover and I separately photograph and keep these details to prevent fraudulently returned items...yep, there are a few rotten apples out there!)  I will not accept a previously sealed record that has been opened, even if the complaint is that the record is warped.  This is why I look down the edge of all 4 sides of the record, to assess for potential bowing.  Look for that in the description of the covers of all my Sealed items. Thanks!  By the way, I've never (knock on wood!) had a buyer complain that they received a warped Sealed record.  :)
Goldmine Standards.   See Review Below!

U.S. Shipping:  $4.99 Media Mail.  50 cents additional shipping per additional album, when the shipment is combined.   If you wish to take advantage of my COMBINED SHIPPING deal, simply select your records by clicking on "ADD TO CART" on the main listing page.  Do this for all of your selections and then go to your cart to checkout.  Your combined shipping discount will be computed automatically.  Free domestic shipping if you spend $100 or more!
All records are packaged securely with the vinyl sandwiched between two cardboard stiffeners and shipped in a custom cardboard record mailer box. 
INTERNATIONAL BUYERS!  EBAY'S PLATFORM DOESN'T ACCOMMODATE FOR COMBINED SHIPPING FOR INTERNATIONAL BUYERS---BUT DON'T LET THAT STOP YOU!!!---I CAN COMBINE SHIP FOR YOU AND MINIMIZE SHIPPING COSTS!!!  TELL ME WHICH ITEMS YOU WANT TO BUY, AND I WILL WEIGH THEM AND THE SHIPPING BOX TOGETHER AND THEN I WILL CREATE A "LOT OF 2..." OR "LOT OF 3...", OR "LOT OF 4...", ETC WITH THE ITEMS YOU WANT, AND CREATE A LISTING WITH THE EXACT WEIGHT OF YOUR LOT.   THIS WILL SAVE YOU A LOT OF MONEY!!!  IF YOU'RE INTERESTED IN THIS, SEND ME A MESSAGE TELLING ME WHICH ITEMS YOU WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE AND WE'LL GO FROM THERE.  OR, FEEL FREE TO ASK QUESTIONS.
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Why buy a first or early pressing and not a re-issue or a ‘re-mastered’ vinyl album? 
First and early pressings are pressed from the first generation lacquers and stampers. They usually sound vastly superior to later issues/re-issues (which, in recent times, are often pressed from whatever 'best' tapes or digital sources are currently available) - many so-called 'audiophile' new 180g pressings are cut from hi-res digital sources…essentially an expensive CD pressed on vinyl.  Why  experience the worse elements of both formats?  These are just High Maintenance CDs, with mid-ranges so cloaked with a veil as to sound smeared.  They are nearly always compressed with murky transients and a general lifelessness in the overall sound.  There are exceptions where re-masters/re-presses outshine the original issues, but they are exceptions and not the norm. 

First or early pressings nearly always have more immediacy, presence and dynamics. The sound staging is wider.  Subtle instrument nuances are better placed with more spacious textures. Balances are firmer in the bottom end with a far-tighter bass. Upper-mid ranges shine without harshness, and the overall depth is more immersive.  Inner details are  clearer.  

 On first and early pressings, the music tends to sound more ‘alive’ and vibrant.  The physics of sound energy is hard to clarify and write about from a listening perspective, but the best we can describe it is to say that you can 'hear' what the mixing and mastering engineers wanted you to hear when they first recorded the music.

REVIEW

In 1968, the Byrds—a Southern California rock band that had enjoyed a series of mega-hits since 1965—set out on an ambitious path to more deeply explore country music, a genre they'd merely flirted with on their previous albums. The disc they came up with, the now legendary Sweetheart of The Rodeo has gone down in music history as the first country-rock album to be recorded by an established rock act. 

The shift was brought on in large part by the entrance of country-music aficionado Gram Parsons, who joined the group just prior to Sweetheart. Parsons gave the Byrds a creative shot in the arm and, in turn, his association with the band would introduce his twang and songwriting genius to a much larger audience.  Though not initially a commercial success, Sweetheart was a groundbreaking record; for the first time, a major pop act was seamlessly fusing country with rock and roll. All these decades later, the album is still hailed as a classic, and it continues to open the eyes of new generations of fans to country music.

"I think it’s undeniable. When you listen to contemporary country on the radio, you can almost trace it all back to the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo," country music legend Marty Stuart. The album was recorded in March and April 1968 in Nashville and Los Angeles. The band at that time included founding members Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman, plus newcomer Parsons and drummer Kevin Kelley, who happened to be Hillman's cousin. 

"[Sweetheart] did open up people to country music, and consequently the floodgates swung back, creating the West Coast 'country rock' sound," Hillman said in 2016.  "We had some wonderful people playing with us on the album."

That's an understatement. The sessions were augmented by the mastery of guitarist Clarence White, plus John Hartford on banjo and fiddle, Roy Huskey on double bass and Earl Ball and Barry Goldberg on piano. However, it can be argued that the true stars of the album—at least in terms of its beautifully recorded and mixed "guitar" solos—were pedal steel masters Lloyd Green and Jay Dee Maness. The freshness of their playing lended some serious authenticity to the sessions and introduced a rocking audience to the sweet sounds of the pedal steel guitar. Now, 50 years later, Green and Maness have teamed up to record Journey To The Beginning: A Steel Guitar Tribute to The Birds", an instrumental tribute to Sweetheart of the Rodeo. The album, which was recorded at Cinderella Sound in Nashville, captures the spirit of Sweetheart while adding the refinement and seasoning of 50 years of reflection on the project. 

It also features a rousing vocal version of the album's opening track and first single, Bob Dylan's “You Ain’t Going Nowhere,” featuring Jim Lauderdale, Herb Pedersen, Richie Furay and Jeff Hanna. 

The new record showcases the song-serving chops of Green and Maness as they transform 11 Sweetheart classics into lush, imaginative steel-guitar instrumentals. And with producer/engineer John Macy having the two veteran musicians hard-panned in the mix (Maness in the left channel and Green on the right), it’s easy to pick out each player’s unique and masterful pedal-steel contributions.