Gram Parsons was a true musical pioneer with a passion for country music that burned bright. While country music wasn’t exactly “cool” among rock audiences in the late 60s, Parsons became its biggest champion. He wasn’t afraid to break the mold, blending country with rock, soul, and folk to create his own unique sound – what he called “Cosmic American Music.”
Parsons’ influence on outlaw country is undeniable. He wasn’t just singing about heartache and honky-tonks; he infused his music with a rebellious spirit and raw honesty that resonated with artists like Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. He helped pave the way for a new generation of country artists who weren’t afraid to push boundaries and tell their own stories, their own way.
Parsons’ life may have been tragically short, but his legacy lives on in the twangy guitars, soulful melodies, and unapologetic storytelling that define outlaw country music.
Return to Sin City: A Tribute to Gram Parsons celebrates an artist who made his greater mark in the years following his death and has become a contemporary music icon. The late, great Gram Parsons refused to let anyone call his cosmic American music “country rock” because it was much more than that. With the soul of a true cowboy, he just couldn’t be fenced in.
Thirty years after his untimely death in Joshua Tree, CA., musicians and music lovers still name check Gram Parsons with the utmost awe and respect. He saw beyond labels and boundaries in music and in life. In his time he influenced the music of his girlfriend & soul mate, Emmylou Harris, as well as his friends the Rolling Stones and the Byrds. He was the first longhair country boy-just ask any of the outlaws from Willie Nelson to Kris Kristofferson, someone who could bring country music to the closed minds of those who previously dismissed it as “hillbilly” or “hick” while turning on many a good ol’ boy to the sounds of sweet soul music.
Staying true to her father’s vision of diversity in music, his daughter Polly organized Return to Sin City: A Tribute to Gram Parsons. She recruited both close friends and ardent fans of her father and his music as well as contemporary artists inspired by his work and vision. “He changed the face of country music without anybody ever knowing it. After he died, there was this whole different aspect of country music which pervades to this day.” -Keith Richards
Gram Parsons Tribute Live – Recorded November 15, 2004, at Universal Amphitheater, Los Angeles, CA
- 1) Sin City All-Stars – Six Days On The Road
- 2) Jim Lauderdale – Big Mouth Blues
- 3) Jay Farrar – Drug Store Truck Drivin’ Man
- 4) Jay Farrar – Devil In Disguise
- 5) Raul Malo – Hot Burrito No. 1
- 6) Jim James – Still Feeling Blue
- 7) John Doe – Hot Burrito No. 2
- 8) John Doe & Kathleen Edwards – We’ll Sweep Out The Ashes In The Morning
- 9) Susan Marshall – Do Right Woman, Do Right Man
- 10) Steve Earle –Luxury Liner
- 11) Steve Earle – My Uncle
- 12) Lucinda Williams – Sleepless Nights
- 13) Lucinda Williams – A Song For You
- 14) Dwight Yoakam –Wheels
- 15) Dwight Yoakam –Sin City
- 16) Norah Jones – She
- 17) Keith Richards & Norah Jone – Love Hurts
- 18) Keith Richards – Hickory Wind
- 19) Susan Marshall & The House Of Blues Gospel Choir – In My Hour Of Darkness
- 20) Keith Richards, Jim Lauderdale –Wild Horses
- 21) Steve Earle, Jim Lauderdale, John Doe, Jim James – Ooh Las Veg
Return to Sin City – A Tribute to Gram Parsons offers clear evidence that Parsons, who died at age 26 and whose output consisted primarily of just five recordings (one with the Byrds, two with the Flying Burrito Brothers, and two solo albums), commands a degree of respect and influence these days thats far greater than the modest success he enjoyed before his death in 1973.
Recorded in Los Angeles, this 106-minute, 21-song concert features some big names (Keith Richards, Norah Jones) and slightly lesser lights (Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, John Doe) performing tunes Parsons wrote and/or recorded before his career was cut short by drug and alcohol problems (executive produced by Parsons daughter, Polly, the concert will help raise funds to battle substance abuse).
And if the materials country-rock flavor (Parsons disdained that label, preferring to call it “cosmic American music”) sounds a bit hackneyed nowadays, well, its not his fault; after all, Parsons was only around to help invent the genre, not run it into the ground.
On this night, its left to the artists with unique voices and personae to lift the flavor of the proceedings from the merely pleasant to the truly inspiring, and thats precisely what Doe (“Hot Burrito No. 2”), Earle (“Luxury Liner”), Williams (a raw, somewhat ragged, and unabashedly vulnerable “Sleepless Nights”), Yoakam (“Sin City”), and Richards (who croaks his way through “Love Hurts,” a duet with Jones, and “Hickory Wind”) do. After that string of remarkable performances, closing the show by bringing everyone (including the great guitarist James Burton) onstage for “Wild Horses” and “Ooh Las Vegas” may be a tad anti-climactic, but Return to Sin City is still a fine way to remember a music legend.
–Sam Graham