Progressive country

[1] It developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, as a reaction against the slick, pop-oriented Nashville sound of country music.

My idea of cosmic country is the music that the Byrds made in an experimental fashion or the Flying Burrito Brothers.

[6][9] Gram Parsons and the original incarnation of the Flying Burrito Brothers laid the groundwork for progressive country in the late 1960s.

[18] According to AllMusic, the genre's key performers included Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Billy Joe Shaver, Tom T. Hall, Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock.

[4] Progressive country was associated with Texas county artists like Nelson, as well as Nashville pioneers like Waylon Jennings and Tompall Glaser.

[1] In a 1973 piece on Willie Nelson's Fourth of July Picnic, The New York Times wrote, "The term 'progressive country' can now be re‐defined as 'Willie Nelson's friends'," placing as performers of progressive country, Jennings, Charlie Rich, Kristofferson, Hall, Shaver, Sammi Smith, Greezy Wheels and John Prine.