Emmylou Harris Pays Tribute to Gram Parsons on New Album

, Harris addresses their relationship, singing, "I took what you left and put it to some use." On the album, Harris also sings about post-Katrina New Orleans, becoming a grandmother ("Goodnight Old World") and the death of her friend Kate McGarrigle ("Darlin' Kate"). On a warm spring afternoon, Harris settled in to a midtown Manhattan restaurant, ordered a salad and reflected her new album, what it’s like listening to her Seventies classics and singing with Bob Dylan on 1976’s Desire Well, we’ve got about 30 years between it all. And "Boulder to Birmingham" was written in the throes of deep grief and shock, after losing someone that quickly and unexpectedly. So that was just a way of dealing with it, whereas now, you’re looking back from a great distance with a great deal of affection. It’s terrible that Gram died so young, but I’m grateful that our paths crossed. Really, it’s a thank you to him and kind of a tip of the hat to the universe to say 'I’m still here and I was given all these wonderful things because of that meeting with this person.’ It’s just a reflection.

You found a way to sing with him so naturally. He doesn’t seem like someone who ever practiced to be an amazing singer, but he seemed perfectly natural with you. He was a very natural singer, Gram. He really understood country music, but he was a child of the Sixties, so he had one foot in the rock world and one foot in the southern country world. But I think as a songwriter he brought his own poetry to the lyrics. He could take a song like "Sin City," which has a very traditional country form, and put apocalyptic lyrics to it. He sort of disguised it. He sort of takes you aback when you actually start listening to his lyrics.

You put out a rarities collection in 2007. What’s it like for you when you hear the classic material you recorded in the Seventies, where you mixed your own songs with songs by artists like Hank Williams and the Louvin Brothers? I’m very happy with it. Sometimes you feel like it’s a different person because my voice sounds so different, but it is me. And I pretty much loved every song that I did. And I loved those collections because I was able to take what I call my little orphans – songs that maybe had been on something nobody had heard of. For example, you know that record The Legend of Jesse James I did with Levon Helm and Johnny Cash. I remember I was listening to the songs that I sang on that, "Wish We Were Back in Missouri" and "Heaven Ain’t Ready For You Yet," I actually started crying 'cause I hadn’t heard it in a long time.

Gram Parsons Death - News


Emmylou Harris Pays Tribute to Gram Parsons on New Album
Emmylou Harris Pays Tribute to Gram Parsons on New Album

It's terrible that Gram died so young, but I'm grateful that our paths crossed. Really, it's a thank you to him and kind of a tip of the hat to the universe to say 'I'm still here and I was given all these wonderful things because of that meeting with



Emmylou Harris pays tribute to Gram Parsons on new LP 'Hard Bargain'

Emmylou Harris has paid tribute to folk legend Gram Parsons on her latest album 'Hard Bargain'. Parsons discovered Harris in a Washington DC folk club in 1971 and invited her to sing on his 1973 album 'GP', but he tragically died in the same year of a



GET LOCAL: Cosmic American Music
GET LOCAL: Cosmic American Music

by cory.pennington A few years ago, I read a column by Andy Whitman in Paste Magazine about this guy named Gram Parsons. I'd heard Gram's name in passing but was clueless about his legacy, influence and tragic life story. The column mentioned an album



Hello Emmylou, goodbye heart

This is largely due to her lifelong knack of associating with musical greatness; whether her early relationship with Gram Parsons (his death from a drug overdose in 1973 at the age of 27 colours her performances to this day), her collaborations with



GET LOCAL: Cosmic American music

A few years ago, I read a column by Andy Whitman in Paste Magazine about this guy named Gram Parsons. I'd heard Gram's name in passing but was clueless about his legacy, influence and tragic life story.




A Buyers Guide to Gram Parsons | Glorious Noise

Box set. We’ve been writing about Parsons since the very first days of Glorious Noise. Like most music lovers, I go through different phases of music appreciation, and it had been a while since I’d gone on a kick of that real Gram goodness.

What follows, after a brief, subjective history lesson, is a chronological summary of Gram Parson’s recordings.

, doesn’t add much data to the fact sheet, but it’s got lots of great footage, and it definitely lets us in on some perspectives that haven’t been heard before, especially those of Gram’s family. In case you’re a newbie, here’s the short version: Ingram Cecil Connor the Third was born to a rich, Southern, alcoholic family and was eventually adopted by his stepdad, Bob Parsons. Living off his trust fund, he went to Harvard, played folk music, and formed the International Submarine Band, who recorded one album in 1967 before he quit to join the Byrds. After taking over the Byrds in 1968 and turning them into a country band, he ditched them to hang out with the Rolling Stones. His next band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, released a couple of albums, but their live shows were erratic because Gram preferred drugs over rehearsing. He quit the Burritos to—once again—hang out with the Stones, this time in France while they recorded Exile on Main Street pointed out that I’d never considered was how much the body-theft episode upset his family. In interviews with his wife and nieces, we see how appalling it was for them to find out that Gram’s body was treated so disrespectfully. His dipshit pals didn’t know how to properly cremate a body, so his family ended up having to bury the approximately 40 pounds that remained. So yeah, the final chapter isn’t quite as hilarious and glamorous as we’ve all been led to believe.

The DVD could’ve been improved by adding better bonus features. For example, throughout the doc, they used clips from the promotional videos for “Hot Burrito #1″ and “Sin City” ( YouTube ). Why not add the complete, uncut videos as extras? Same with the live footage from the 1973 tour. I understand chopping up the clips for the sake of pacing in the film, but come on, that’s what DVDs were made for—not lame photo galleries and incomplete discographies.


Gram Parsons Death - Bookshelf

The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars, Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches

The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars, Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches

See also Elbridge Bryant (gOctober 1975) Wednesday 19 Gram Parsons (Cecil ... Parsons's undoubted spirituality was reflected in his death in a motel room at ...

Old roots, new routes, the cultural politics of alt.country music

Old roots, new routes, the cultural politics of alt.country music

—bud scoppa In 1973, the year he died, Gram Parsons toured as a solo act with Emmylou Harris and his backing band, the Fallen Angels. ...

Billboard

Billboard

"The Gram Parsons Notebook" will be released initially via the Internet before ... and International Submarine Bandmate John Nuese after Parsons died in ...

Twenty thousand roads, the ballad of Gram Parsons and his cosmic American music

Twenty thousand roads, the ballad of Gram Parsons and his cosmic American music

According to court documents: “Following Parsons' death intestate meaning that Gram died without a will], probate proceedings were opened on September 20, ...

Hickory Wind, the life & times of Gram Parsons

Hickory Wind, the life & times of Gram Parsons

The emergency room staff made three quick attempts to get his heart started again, but he was dead. The press was told that Gram Parsons died of heart ...

Day-by-day Information Directory


The Strange Death of Gram Parsons: 1973
ByrdWatcher | Band Members | Gram Parsons | Early Years ... Twenty-two years after the death of Gram Parsons, his music is still very much with us. ...

Gram Parsons - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gram Parsons (November 5, 1946 – September 19, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. ... Since his death, Parsons has been recognized as an extremely ...

Gram Parsons | Biography
Gram Parsons (November 5, 1946 ? September 19, 1973) was an American ... Prior to his death, Parsons stated that he wanted his body cremated at Joshua Tree and ...

Gram Parsons: Biography from Answers.com
Gram Parsons , Singer / Songwriter Born: 5 November 1946 Birthplace: Winter Haven, Florida Died: 19 September 1973 (drug overdose) Best Known As: The

Grievous Angel | The Legend of Gram Parsons
Gram Parsons was the creative force behind some of the most important recordings of the ... He was 26. But in death, his tale took another bizarre turn. ...