Originally Posted by Classof75 (Post 711210) A great book about G.P. "Twenty Thousand Roads" - everything there is to know about him is in this book. Well written and a good read too. He was a real piece of work.

Originally Posted by Bulldog (Post 711711) Not heard of that but I should definitely look out for it - it's been many a month since I last read a good rock biography. For those kinds of purposes, the Fallen Angel documentary is solid gold too. I'm off out this evening (GMT) so, depending how quiet the boards are, I'll probably get the first review up in an hour or two.

Originally Posted by Classof75 (Post 711716) This is a great biography. After reading this book (Twenty Thousand Roads), I felt like I knew him well. Most interesting was his early years and how he grew up in the South. His family was quite eccentric and wealthy. I think he was a person who channeled music (like Hendrix, and some others). He came, played, and "went home".

The International Submarine Band
Safe At Home
1967, LHI Records
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zAAqPNFNRh...Bat%2Bhome.jpg
1. Blue Eyes [Parsons]
2. I Must Be Somebody Else You've Known [Haggard]
3. A Satisfied Mind [Hayes/Rhodes]
4. Medley: Folsom Prison Blues/That's All Right, Mama [Cash/Crudup]
5. Miller's Cave [Clement]
6. I Still Miss Someone [Cash/Cash]
7. Luxury Liner [Parsons]
8. Strong Boy [Parsons]
9. Do You Know How It Feels to Be Lonesome [Parsons/Goldberg]

And so it is that the musical story of Gram Parsons begins, with the prospect of Parsons, at the ripe old age of 21, basically (with the help of his bandmates) forged the country rock movement of the late 60s and early 70s. This came about simply by surrounding four Parsons originals with five country classics and running them with a rock 'n' roll motor.

By the time recording first began in the July of '67, the International Submarine Band (ISB for short) were already in decline through a lack of commercial success and as such only consisted of vocalist, rhythm guitarist and principle songwriter Parsons alongside lead guitarist John Nuese. Needless to say, in order to go about recording an album the way the two pictured it being, session musicians such as drummer Jon Corneal, bassist Joe Osborn, pedal steel guitarist Jay Dee Maness and pianist Earl Ball filled in the gaps. In between gigging the album sessions as, one by one, the components of a revolutionary LP piled up.

As the country rock tag that it created may suggest, the results are a marrying of rock-type instrumentation and the unique twist that the sound typical of classic country gives off. It is, however, not so obvious to start with, as the sound and tone of the Parsons original that opens the record, Blue Eyes, is very much rooted in country alone, with the kind of silky-smooth pedal steel that punctuates a mid-tempo song with the kind of yearning and sorrow at its core that would dominate a lot of Parsons' later material. The superb rendition of Merle Haggard's I Must Be Somebody Else You've Known is a much more obvious show of this new twist on country music with the lively rock 'n' roll rhythm and piano going in tandem with the unmistakable sound of the pedal steel.

In fact, principally it's the covers where the country rock genre-hybrid is easier to hear. The old standard of a Satisfied Mind is an exception though, with a much gentler and more contemplative feel to it typical of a lot of classic country (or at least from what I've heard anyway - I won't pretend I'm an expert or anything). The medley of Johnny Cash and Arthur Crudup though, Folsom Prison Blues/That's All Right Mama, is much more in touch with my point about this album though, again showing off Parsons' trademark soaring kind of vocal over a rhythm typical of 1st wave rockabilly with Maness' pedal steel adding to the sonic picture. The rendition of Jack Clement's Miller's Cave though, aside from being one of my favourite country songs, eases along to a slightly more laid-back beat, and stands out being sandwiched between two Johnny Cash covers as it is, the second of these being I Still Miss Someone - another show of how much good a rock 'n' roll band can serve to a country song.

To put the lid on the record are three more Gram Parsons songs, the first of these being the classic Luxury Liner - an often-covered little number a lot more in tune with the energy and high tempos of rockabilly than country. The same can be said of Strong Boy, with the way the bass and piano go hand-in-hand as the sparingly-used pedal steel, pushed quite low in the mix as it is here, goes about giving another great song that extra spice. Do You Know How It Feels To Be Lonesome, a co-write between Parsons and rock 'n' roll producer Barry Goldberg, gives Safe At Home its gentle, painfully sorrowful closer. With its touching harmonies and effective-in-its-simplicity instrumentation (wherein, again, the pedal steel doesn't play so much of a part), its the first in a series of absolutely beautiful Gram Parsons ballads (which made for one of his many strengths as a songwriter and performer).

Safe At Home is, then, basically what you'd expect from any singer-songwriter's first album - an effort that doesn't exactly break a sweat to disguise its influences as the artist in question tries to find his feet in long-play format. It's also a lot like country rock itself, that is to say half-and-half between country and rock. Where a selection of songs are delivered in that laid-back, c&w kind of way, the other selection are given the energy boost that comes from rock 'n' roll itself. To wrap this up then, it's not the best album Parsons was ever involved in but, being quite possibly the pioneering album of the genre (it was only released late because of the legal consequences of Parsons' recording with the Byrds just after he'd finished this album), it is definitely a good starting point for anyone looking to get into country. Even if it's not exactly a classic, it's still a very good album and one that shows the earliest signs of Gram Parsons' strengths as a singer and songwriter. Plus, it's only 25 minutes long in total, so it's not exactly demanding a lot of your time eh.

7/10

Originally Posted by Classof75 (Post 712964) Great YouTube links! Just found a minty copy (vinyl) of Sweetheart of the Rodeo. Gonna check it out tonight. Looking foward to your review(s). Thanks for this thread.

The Byrds
Sweetheart Of the Rodeo
1968, Columbia Records
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_zAAqPNFNRh...theart-400.JPG
1. You Ain't Going Nowhere [Dylan]
2. I Am a Pilgrim [trad arr. McGuinn/Hillman]
3. The Christian Life [Louvin/Louvin]
4. You Don't Miss Your Water [Bell]
5. You're Still on My Mind [McDaniel]
6. Pretty Boy Floyd [Guthrie]
7. Hickory Wind [Parsons]
8. One Hundred Years from Now [Parsons]
9. Blue Canadian Rockies [Walker]
10. Life in Prison [Haggard/Sanders]
11. Nothing Was Delivered [Dylan]

By the time David Crosby and Michael Clarke had left the Byrds with remaining members, bassist Chris Hillman and lead guitarist Roger McGuinn, both hell-bent on pushing on, Gram Parsons was still a marginal figure on the LA music scene and a friend of Hillman's. It was basically because of their idea of how the Byrds should follow up the psychedelic powerhouse of a record, the Notorious Byrd Brothers, and McGuinn's plan to create a double-album covering all the contemporary American musical forms, including bluegrass, jazz and more psychedelic rock, that Sweetheart Of the Rodeo was essentially born out of creative friction and disagreement. It was actually with that very idea in mind that McGuinn decided to seek out a jazz-trained pianist who, of course, Parsons was. As the start date for the album's recording sessions got closer, for which drummer Kevin Kelley was hired to complete the core band, it soon became apparent that instead of McGuinn's ambitious, all-encompassing double-album, Hillman wanted to use the new Byrds pianist and guitarist Parsons' know-how to expand on the country influence that the former's more recent compositions for the band had explored. Naturally, McGuinn was suspicious of this new direction. It was only after being pressurised by his bandmates and producer and friend Gary Usher that he agreed to go along with the idea.

While Sweetheart Of the Rodeo wasn't exactly a commercial proposition for the music industry of 1968, this new sound (dubbed by Parsons as 'cosmic American music'), which expanded on Parsons' own experiments with the International Submarine Band of running traditional c&w with a rock 'n' roll motor, would prove to be a true landmark of an album. It's overall sound, while centring on a honky tonk country vibe, incorporated elements of soul, folk and 50s-styled r'n'b and rock 'n' roll would influence not only the Flying Burrito Brothers (who'll occupy the next chapter of Gram Parsons' story), but the LA country-rock and outlaw country movement of the 70s right up to the alternative country of the 90s onwards. Pretty influential then for an album that, with two exceptions, is entirely comprised of covers of old country and folk standards. On top of all the influence it's had on generations of artists, Sweetheart Of the Rodeo is a masterpiece and possibly my favourite country album of all time.

Things get off to a terrific start with a blissful cover of Bob Dylan's You Ain't Going Nowhere (from the then-unreleased Basement Tapes), kicking off the album with a perfectly fitting series of pedal steel notes. The gorgeous vocal harmonies make for one of my favourite ever country songs. It's a level of quality carried over by the traditional ditty I Am a Pilgrim, arranged by Hillman and McGuinn to incorporate session man John Hartford's beautiful work on the fiddle.

The Christian Life on the other hand, depending on my mood, comes across to me as a bit of a weak point. Blatantly religiously-inclined lyrics have never exactly been a favourite thing of mine but, on the plus side, this song doesn't try to preach and can be seen as an anthemic little number about standing up for your beliefs in the face of humiliation and adversity. Absolutely nothing wrong with the music either. Whatever you think of it though, you just know from the opening piano lines from Parsons that this rendition of You Don't Miss Your Water is going to make up for it. With his freewheeling performance, this is the first place on the album where Parsons' talent is immediately obvious. You're Still On My Mind is, musically, about as honky tonk as you can get and the first move in that direction that the album takes, with Parsons' again showing his influence on this album on the back of another great performance. Woody Guthrie's Pretty Boy Floyd, another song to focus heavily on Hartford's fantastic work on the fiddle, is kicked into life by McGuinn's lively work on the banjo making for another absolutely superb cover.

To open side B are the only original songs on the album, both of them written by Parsons (which says everything for his influence on the whole album really). The first of these is the gorgeous slow-burner Hickory Wind, fueled by some heart-melting contributions to the sonic picture from the fiddle and pedal steel as well as Parsons' own trademark soaring vocal, this being one of the only three songs to feature his lead vocal. Another is his second composition to be found here, One Hundred Years From Now, with its much livelier vibe, given a much more bouncy and fun kind of feel by use of sessionist Lloyd Green's pedal steel and McGuinn's fantastic work on the guitar that punctuate the track, making for another country classic.

Speaking of country classics, the Hillman-led rendition of Blue Canadian Rockies is another one of those, again using those kind of beat group-styled harmonies in an unusual genre and really doing a whole world of good to an old standard. Plus the melody in Hillman's unaccompanied vocal just gets me every time. It gets the closing trio of covers off to a brilliant start, and a brilliant start which is taken further by Merle Haggard's Life In Prison as sung by Parsons. Superb melody, superb piano to carry the rest of a superb track - another one of my absolute favourites then. Another Bob Dylan song (again salvaged from the yet-to-be-released Basement Tapes), Nothing Was Delivered, serves as a slower, more contemplative sort of end to the album, slowly rolling it along to its conclusion.

So, as you might have guessed from my bleating above, not only is this album highly, highly influential, it's also highly, highly fantastic. Basically, I don't care how much you don't know about country or think you don't like it, Sweetheart Of the Rodeo is a true essential and an album I'd recommend to anyone. It certainly showed me that there's been at least some merit to an area of music that gets overlooked and disregarded by so many people. For this reason, I'm gonna give it the following rating;

10/10

Originally Posted by Bulldog (Post 713348) Gilded Palace Of Sin is a fantastic album as well. Not quite my pick of the albums Gram Parsons has had his name on - those would be Sweetheart Of the Rodeo and Grievous Angel. It is very nearly there though. Definitely has one of the best B-sides of any album I've ever heard. By the way, I'm just gonna knock Safe At Home down to a 7. Good album, wouldn't call it brilliant after all though.

Originally Posted by Schizotypic (Post 714968) I've been meaning to get into The Parson for a while, thanks for this- maybe it'll be all written up and sparkly by the time I finally get my hands on them. Great reviews by the way.

Originally Posted by savannah (Post 721567) you should buy us al joshua trees,...that might spur more interaction

The Flying Burrito Brothers
The Gilded Palace Of Sin
1969, A&M Records
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3548/...b0b4d15b_o.jpg
1. Christine's Tune [Hillman/Parsons]
2. Sin City [Hillman/Parsons]
3. Do Right Woman [Moman/Penn]
4. Dark End Of The Street [Moman/Penn]
5. My Uncle [Hillman/Parsons]
6. Wheels [Hillman/Parsons]
7. Juanita [Hillman/Parsons]
8. Hot Burrito #1 [Ethridge/Parsons]
9. Hot Burrito #2 [Ethridge/Parsons]
10. Do You Know How It Feels [Parsons/Goldberg]
11. Hippie Boy [Hillman/Parsons]

Upon Sweetheart Of the Rodeo's completion, the events which saw the birth of one of the early and more influential country rock groups took place. To cut a long story short, a Byrds album which had been born out of the creative friction between Roger McGuinn's desire to keep strolling down Notorious Byrd Brothers Avenue and bassist Chris Hillman and new boy Gram Parsons' idea to record a country rock record, did indeed cause the classic lineup of the Byrds to split up for good. Parsons left the band on the eve of their South African tour and, soon after, he was joined by Hillman, who'd agree to play guitar and sing the occasional vocal track in a new, forward-thinking country band - the Flying Burrito Brothers. While McGuinn and the Byrds went into a sharp and rapid decline, Hillman and Parsons formed quite the songwriting partnership, swelling the ranks with pedal steel guitarist 'Sneaky' Pete Kleinow and the multi-talented Chris Ethridge filling out bass and piano duties. With the nucleus of the band now in place, the Flying Burrito Brothers took to the studio armed with a deal with A&M, several session drummers and some very promising material.

Promise that is, indeed, delivered with the kind of gusto which made Sweetheart Of the Rodeo the timeless classic that it is which results in, basically, another timeless country classic. The difference between the Gilded Palace Of Sin and the aforementioned Byrds album though is, most obviously, that nine of these eleven songs are original compositions, like the superb, upbeat opener Christine's Tune - one which not only revels in the beat group-type harmonies that make Sweetheart Of the Rodeo as forward-thinking as it was, but also with a psychedelic twist. Throughout this album, pedal steel guitarist Pete Kleinow either uses a fuzzbox with his weapon of choice or plays it through a rotating Hammond Leslie amp, giving this song a kind of psychedelic country feel about it. It takes the experiment that was Sweetheart Of the Rodeo a step further. The following Sin City lacks such an affect but still serves as a very good slow-burner to take the album onwards.

From there, as per Parsons' idea of 'cosmic American music', we get two covers of old R'n'B standards, with both Do Right Woman and Dark End Of the Street being two top-notch examples of that idea not only coming to fruition but actually sounding damn good as well. The latter in particular, with Parsons' lead vocal and Hillman's harmony, really presents a fascinating show of R'n'B being wired up to a country motor and doing a world of good for itself.

Next up is another trio of Hillman/Parsons co-writes, starting with the bouncy, bluegrass-flavoured My Uncle as it rounds off side A, before moving on to the unrelentingly top-drawer level of quality which is side B. Wheels gives Kleinow's concept of a psychedelic pedal steel guitar another chance to shine here, piercing through a truly beautiful, harmony-heavy and achingly emotional slow-burner, which sees Parsons' strength for the despairing country ballad as a vocalist really coming into its own. Juanita, propelled as it is by Kleinow's this time unadorned pedal steel, Hillman's acoustic strumming and some more absolutely gorgeous vocal harmonies between him and his co-writer, is another wonderful ballad that it's so easy to just lose yourself in.

It's hard to imagine the album getting any better but, oddly enough, it does. Hot Burrito #1 and Hot Burrito #2 were both hastily-written by Parsons and Ethridge, which is quite something given that they're two of my favourite songs of all time, let alone country songs. A couple of Parsons' finest vocal performances without a doubt - you can almost hear him crying as he sings 'I'm your toy, I'm your old boy, but I don't want no-one but you to love me', augmented by Kleinow's psychedelic-leaning contributions make for a couple of heart-wrenchingly beautiful classics.

Do You Know How It Feels, another Parsons/Goldberg composition, leans much more towards the traditional and as such isn't too far removed from something the International Submarine Band would've recorded, but doesn't bring the level of quality down one little bit. The curtain call, Hippie Boy, is simply brilliant. With Parsons' wonderful lyric being spoken over a backing track dominated by his own work on the organ, it's a bit of a sore thumb on the tracklisting but nevertheless is a wonderful way to put the lid on the record.

A record which, since getting hold of it myself, has become my joint-favourite that Parsons have ever been involved with alongside Sweetheart Of the Rodeo. In some ways, it's probably stands as more of an example of how much everyone who claims to hate country is missing out on than the Byrds album. For all the colours added by the psychedelic touches of the organ and fuzzy pedal steel, the way it takes the experiment that Parsons and Hillman kicked off while they were in the Byrds, the mutual understanding of a rich musical tradition that they then take full advantage of to become a truly great songwriting partnership and, of course, the Hot Burrito songs, make for an absolute classic and another album I'd recommend to absolutely anyone. So then...

10/10

Originally Posted by Classof75 (Post 726746) Have to pick this one up. Nice review!

The Flying Burrito Brothers
Burrito Deluxe
1970, A&M Records
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bhGqBQjwzL...ito+Deluxe.jpg
1. Lazy Days [Parsons]
2. Image Of Me [Howard/Kemp]
3. High Fashion Queen [Hillman/Parsons]
4. If You Gotta Go, Go Now [Dylan]
5. Man In the Fog [Leadon/Parsons]
6. Farther Along [Baxter/Stevens]
7. Older Guys [Hillman/Leadon/Parsons]
8. Cody, Cody [Hillman/Leadon/Parsons]
9. God's Own Singer [Leadon]
10. Down In the Churchyard [Hillman/Parsons]
11. Wild Horses [Jagger/Richards]

Although the Flying Burrito Brothers, with the help of their debut, the Gilded Palace Of Sin, had gained a cult following which included people like the Rolling Stones (who were no doubt taking notes for their own albums, Let It Bleed and the soon-to-be-recorded Sticky Fingers) and a certain Bob Dylan, the Brothers, like the International Submarine Band and the Byrds before them, had failed to find commercial success with their radical country rock package. It was that sense of frustration which saw Chris Etheridge hand his bass duties over to Hillman and leave the band. Guitarist, dobro player and occasional vocalist Bernie Leadon filled in Hillman's original place. After Michael Clarke, another ex-Byrd, became the band's full-time drummer, the Brothers were ready to take to the studio again.

The results, this time, were ones which lacked the kind of fire in its belly that the Gilded Palace Of Sin had, and you can hear so in the opener Lazy Days. Whereas Christine's Tune kicked its own album with real style and panache, Lazy Days (an outtake from the Sweetheart Of the Rodeo sessions) doesn't really do much to stand out with an identity of its own. It's all a bit flat and, dare I say it, not really that good.

Image Of Me, with its bluegrass-styled fiddle and slow-rolling tempo, is a vast improvement with its wonderful instrumental bridge and sweet harmonies. The Hillman/Parsons original, High Fashion Queen, is one of the highlights and a prime example of exactly what country rock is, what with how Hillman clearly draws on his experience with the Byrds to write a pulsating, rock 'n' roll bass rhythm as Pete Kleinow adds colourful swathes of his steel guitar to a livelier and stripped-down number. The following rendition of Bob Dylans If You Gotta, Go Now, is a similar kind of song - a juicy, up-tempo slice of archetypal country rock. It's passable, though not brilliant by any stretch of the imagination, a bit like Man In the Fog, with its bubbly bluegrass kind of vibe. Coming up next, Farther Along is, for me, the best moment on the album, as Parsons sings the old standard with a beautiful injection of melody which gives this slower cut that much more edge than most of the songs that preceded it. What follows is another good enough song, although to be honest it's more interesting than good if that makes any sense, Older Guys being an intriguing show of the Flying Burrito Brothers trying to write and play a song like the Rolling Stones (who they'd befriended that year), what with the dirty, confident blues-rock swagger the whole thing has about it. As I said, it's decent enough but, like most of this album, just not brilliant.

Cody Cody (another three-way songwriting credit between Hillman, Leadon and Parsons) slows things down again. Once more, there's nothing wrong with the playing or the songwriting, but it just lacks the fire and panache of the album before it. It's something that can be said of the solo Leadon cut, God's Own Singer - while it's a nice enough little song, it doesn't push the boundaries of country music and therefore not only comes across as a tad uninteresting, but also isn't exactly something I'd give a non-country fan to listen to for themselves. Down In the Churchyard is a more upbeat, lively country rocker and is an improvement, but overall the lack of the kind of edge that Parsons' sorrowful vocal or Kleinow's psychedelic breed of steel guitar (which for some reason isn't used anywhere on this album) does drag the overall quality down.

Recorded before the Rolling Stones' own version (with Mick Jagger's permission of course), Wild Horses does give a so-so album a gorgeous send-off. While it doesn't quite touch the same level of greatness that the Stones' version on Sticky Fingers does (or that bloody beautiful Keith Richards solo), it still stands as easily one of the best moments on Burrito Deluxe.

So, while there's not a lot wrong with Burrito Deluxe here, it is simply nowhere near as good as the two albums Parsons had previously been involved with. It could be down to the departure of Chris Etheridge from the lineup (who, lest we forget, was partly responsible for the Hot Burrito songs), but you could also say that the lack of boundary-pushing, the flat sound of the production and the fact that the album focused on three writers and singers instead of two (which leads to a lot less Parsons to be heard here), all drag this album down a bit. Overall, it's nowhere near bad, but not something I'd go out of my way to recommend to anyone (unlike the Gilded Palace Of Sin and Sweetheart Of the Rodeo before it). To put it simply though, Chris Hillman and Bernie Leadon, two youngish country rockers were catering for their own ambitions, were drowning out Parsons' vision of cosmic American music which had done so much for both those albums. It was time for him to move on.

6/10

Originally Posted by zeppy111 (Post 727300) That is a really great review of Sweeheart Of The Rodeo and forced me into picking it up earlier on today, why did I never have this before? It is a really amazing album all-round and has got me in search of a couple other of the albums in this thread. Great reviews. Cheers.

1970-72 - The Void Years

http://theselvedgeyard.files.wordpre...009/08/002.jpg

As the rather snappy heading may suggest, for a while after leaving the Flying Burrito Brothers, there wasn't an awful lot going for Parsons. It might have seemed that way at first when he was almost immediately snapped up onto a solo contract with A&M and, teaming up with producer Terry Melcher (having worked with the Byrds and the Beach Boys over the years), went about attempting his first solo album. After the unproductively drug-addled sessions, Parsons lost interest and the album was shelved. As you might be able to tell from the above picture, he joined the Rolling Stones on tour in 1971 primarily to hang out and get zonked with his friend Keith Richards, but also in the hope that they might record an album together. It was while he was shacked up with Richards during the Exile On Main Street sessions in France that his dependency on alcohol, cocaine and heroin started to spin out of control. Parsons' behaviour became increasingly unpredictable and he was soon asked to leave.

It was after his return to the US of A that he married, successfully ditched his heroin habit and went about getting his career back on track. After a one-off reunion gig with the Flying Burrito Brothers that year, Chris Hillman and Parsons went to Washington DC to see a then small-time singer-songwriter by the name of Emmylou Harris. After thinking about inviting Harris to join the Burrito Brothers, Hillman recommended her to Parsons as a potential creative partner. The friendship, working relationship and albums that followed would turn out to be very important in country music history...

Gram Parsons
GP
1973, Reprise Records
http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sl...387600_350.jpg
1. Still Feeling Blue [Parsons]
2. We'll Sweep Out the Ashes In the Morning [Allsup]
3. A Song For You [Parsons]
4. Streets Of Baltimore [Glaser/Howard]
5. She [Parsons/Ethridge]
6. That's All It Took [Edwards/Grier/Jones]
7. The New Soft Shoe [Parsons]
8. Kiss the Children [Parsons]
9. Cry One More Time [Wolf/Justman]
10. How Much I've Lied [Parsons/Rifkin]
11. Big Mouth Blues [Parsons]

Given the amount of weight Parsons had put on through years of alcohol abuse and fast food, it must have caused an eyebrow-raising or two when Reprise Records asked him to sign on the dotted line. By this time he'd been creatively revitalised by his acquaintance with Emmylou Harris, had written a few new songs and was seeking to have another crack at kicking off his solo career after his aborted attempt to do so two years earlier. And so it was that in the autumn of 1972 that the prospect of a predominantly-original Gram Parsons solo album became a reality. With the help of an army of session musicians (which included Miss Harris as harmony vocalist) that Parsons' talent as a solo singer-songwriter truly started to blossom into the form of a very good debut album indeed.

It's one that gets off to a hell of a start with a vibrant, upbeat and strangely uplifting tune considering it's called Still Feeling Blue. Despite being a pure country (though slightly bluegrass-tinged) song of lament of a lost lover, it's a superb Byron Berline fiddle track and the well-placed swathes of pedal steel which really help this one to rise above mediocrity and kick off the album ahead with style and panache.

Though it may sound like it judging from the opening track, the proposition of GP was far from the Gilded Palace Of Sin 2. The new dimension which basically provides the agenda for a lot of Parsons' solo work is stuck in a nutshell by the beautiful cover of Joyce Allsup's We'll Sweep Out the Ashes In the Morning, featuring harmonies and a entire verse sung by Emmylou Harris' trademark, honey-like voice. It goes to show not only what a fantastic singing duo Parsons and Harris made, but also shows off the former's knack for the country ballad. Basically, this is one of the album highlights.

The following sequence of songs takes GP in a much slower direction, which is started by the very traditional-sounding and slow-burning A Song For You - another solo composition from Parsons and another to feature Harris' vocal harmonies. Probably a weaker point on the album, but not bad at all. Streets Of Baltimore is the same kind of kettle of fish, but one with the added spices of a very Sticky Fingers-esque steel guitar solo, some more superb work on the fiddle from Berline and more marvellous vocals. Another album highlight then. Following it up, She, a song Parsons co-wrote with his former Burrito Brother Chris Ethridge, is another sublime, delicate little slow-burner with the kind of vocal performance you could probably use to put out fires and a more complex kind of time signature than a lot of the songs Parsons had written.

Some razor-sharp, piercing licks of pedal steel open side B with the rendition of George Jones' That's All It Took - a slightly livelier cut which again features the Harris/Parsons vocal team, along with some superb fiddle and pedal steel solos. Following from that are a couple more solo originals, starting with the deeply-affecting, beautiful, yarn-spinning, harmony-laden the New Soft Shoe and continuing with the mid-tempo, pure country vibes of Kiss the Children.

Now that I mention 'pure country vibes', seeing as this is a solo debut and all, for the most part GP tends to lack the forward-thinking sense of adventure that dominated Sweetheart Of the Rodeo and the Gilded Palace Of Sin. The big exception is the cover of Cry One More Time that comes next, its repetitive piano motif and Hal Battiste's rolling baritone sax leaving 'cosmic American music's fingerprints all over this neat little cut.

From there, How Much I Lied, a co-write with producer David Rifkin (which, incidentally, Elvis Costello sang a brilliant version of some eight years later), veers into slightly more traditional territory. That said, this superb, fiddle-propelled, slower cut is still one of Parsons' absolute finest and stands as another testament to the guy's strength for miserable-yet-strangely-uplifting ballads. His bluesy solo composition, Big Mouth Blues, is more ambitious for the cross between country and blues that it presents and brings GP to its close.

So, in a nutshell, GP, while it doesn't exactly go out of its way to be as ambitious as Parsons' earlier work, does stand up as a very good solo debut. Only the slightly corny a Song For You falls below par, as an album dominated not only by Parsons' talent as a songwriter but also the vocal team he'd made with Emmylou Harris really does stand up as one of the true classics of country music. Not quite as essential as a couple of albums I've already reviewed here, but highly recommended nonetheless.

8/10

Originally Posted by Urban Hatemonger (Post 741875) I came across this & thought 'Hmm, Bulldog might find this to be of interest'... T.U.B.E.: The Flying Burrito Brothers - 1969-06-08 - Hollywood, CA

Originally Posted by Bulldog (Post 717068) Well, pinpointing the the original of any sub-genre is always gonna be difficult. To me, as I said in the review, the first album to come up with an across-the-board mix of country and rock was Sweetheart Of the Rodeo. Sounds like I should probably hear Music From Big Pink sometime though.

Gram Parsons
Grievous Angel
1974, Reprise Records
http://cdn.7static.com/static/img/sl...387599_350.jpg
1. Return Of the Grievous Angel [Parsons/Brown]
2. Hearts On Fire [Egan/Guidera]
3. I Can't Dance [Hall]
4. Brass Buttons [Parsons]
5. $1000 Wedding [Parsons]
6. Cash On the Barrelhead/Hickory Wind [Louvin/Louvin - Parsons]
7. Love Hurts [Bryant]
8. Ooh Las Vegas [Parsons]
9. In My Hour Of Darkness [Parsons/Harris]

After touring GP throughout most of 1973, Gram Parsons reconvened with his old partner in crime Emmylou Harris, guitarist James Burton and pianist Glen Harding (members of Elvis Presley's former band who'd also toured with him a few months before), and array of session players and guests such as Linda Ronstadt and Parsons' former Burrito Brother Bernie Leadon, to take to the studio for what would turn out to be the last time prior to his death that September 19th. Unlike before though, any truly new material was very thin on the ground. As such only a couple of new songs were composed for the sessions while the rest of the final tracklisting comprised of older, unreleased parts of Parsons' repertoire and the obligatory renditions of country standards.

The result is an album that's far less mediocre than you'd think it would be from that description, and one that actually expands on Parsons' musical vision and his creative partnership with Harris in more of a sense than GP did before it. One of the true classic album openers, Return Of the Grievous Angel, was one of the new songs hastily written just in time for the recording. With its lyric written by Bostonian poet Thomas Brown and the simmering, laid back, piano and fiddle-driven music by Parsons, making for a very fine and easygoing tune indeed that it's so easy to just kick back to.

As I said earlier, a lot of this album consists of old country standards, like the slow-burning Walter Egan/Tom Guidera composition Hearts On Fire, which sounds a lot more like a torch-lighting rock ballad for the most part, serving as it does as a very smooth vehicle for the very potent Parsons/Harris vocal coupling. Coming straight atchya from the back-catalogue of the prolific singer-songwriter Tom T.Hall, I Can't Dance takes the mood and tempo up a few notches, with this rendition turning into practically the most concrete example of what I've been on about whenever I've said the words 'cosmic', 'American' and 'music' in one phrase. It's a country standard for starters and one that, while still sharing a lot in common with country music, sounds basically like pure rock 'n' roll. A raucous little tune and keeps up the relentless level of quality of the album so far.

Brass Buttons slows things right back down again, being a sweet little lovesong dating from Parsons' days in obscurity in the mid 60s, although such a sudden change in the feel of the album doesn't bring things down at all, seeing as this is another show of the man's knack for the good old-fashioned, miserable ballad. $1000 Wedding is very similar in that sense, and is another blast from the past as well (having been recorded and aborted by the Burrito Brothers a few years earlier), but this being a soppy little declaration of love, it lacks the sense of misery that dominates Brass Buttons. Still definitely among Parsons' very best though, especially for the wonderful tempo changes and increases in the song's urgency in places.

Then comes the Cash On the Barrelhead/Hickory Wind medley, a little snippet of what seeing the guy tour must have been like. Very good performance overall and, frankly, you can never have too much Hickory Wind in your life, the element of sticking a live medley in the middle of an album does disrupt the flow somewhat, and could only have been one of the posthumous changes made to the album in the post-production stage.

Speaking of Hickory Wind, you can hear little snippets of its melody in the next song (or at least I can), Love Hurts, another slow-burner re-worked during the sessions from its place in the vaults beforehand. Not a bad song by any stretch of the imagination, but certainly a part of the less spectacular part of the album. Ooh Las Vegas, an outtake from GP, does feature some very fine guitar work from Burton and is a neat little up-tempo drinking song, but not exactly what I'd call a highlight.

In My Hour Of Darkness, though, would probably be not only my personal highlight on Grievous Angel, but also quite possibly my favourite Gram Parsons song ever ever ever. Being the only co-write between Parsons and Harris that's ever been officially released, it goes to show that they were a hell of a songwriting partnership as well as a vocal one. If anyone reading this doubts all the praise I've heaped on this guy throughout this thread, listen to this song (you'll find a video if you scroll down a bit).

It's basically what convinces me that Parsons died far, far too young. With the finished album in the bag, Parsons went to the Joshua Tree in California where he died from a lethal combination of morphine and alcohol. After his death his widow, who didn't exactly care much for his relationship with Harris, oversaw the post-production of the album. The sleeve art, which originally featured her late husband and Harris, was replaced with the rather crappy one it has now and, not only was the album credited to Parsons as opposed to him and Harris as it originally had been, but three numbers big on their vocal partnership - Sleepless Nights (the original title of the album), Brand New Heartache and the Angels Rejoiced Last Night - were removed from the final tracklisting. As a result, the flow that Parsons and Harris would have wanted from the album they made was interrupted.

That's not to say that this album was ruined by any means. In fact, it's definitely my favourite of Parsons' solo albums. It is, after all, the most complete realisation of cosmic American music that the man had overseen since his days of playing and writing with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. For the virtually seamless level of quality, for those kinds of laid back yet lyric-centric vibes that can only be accomplished with a stonker of a country-afflicted album, this is among my favourites for sure.

As I say though, it's such a shame Parsons died so young as especially after hearing a song like In My Hour Of Darkness, one can only speculate where he and Harris would've gone next as artists, or what kind of classic albums there could have been just around the corner that now no-one will ever hear.

Anyway, less talk, more numbers!
9/10

Gram Parsons In a Nutshell
http://www.emmylou.net/EmmyGramjam.jpg
1. Miller's Cave The International Submarine Band - Safe At Home
2. Luxury Liner The International Submarine Band - Safe At Home
3. Hickory Wind The Byrds - Sweetheart Of the Rodeo
4. One Hundred Years From Now The Byrds - Sweetheart Of the Rodeo
5. Hot Burrito 1 The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace Of Sin
6. Hot Burrito 2 The Flying Burrito Brothers - The Gilded Palace Of Sin
7. Farther Along The Flying Burrito Brothers - Burrito Deluxe
8. Wild Horses The Flying Burrito Brothers - Burrito Deluxe
9. She Gram Parsons - GP
10. That's All It Took Gram Parsons - GP
11. I Can't Dance Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel
12. In My Hour Of Darkness Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel