Country music went through a seismic change beginning in the mid-to late-1960s, that culminated in the explosion of what was called the “outlaw” movement in the mid-1970s. The movement was primarily spearheaded by folks like Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and others, even though many of them, Nelson and Jennings included, had been around for a long time.
This change in country music was also affected by the emergence of folk and rock artists who used country as part of their sound or in some cases whose music was directly impacted by the counterculture. Kris Kristofferson could also had been categorized as a key component of this group, but two artists who were also part of the scene, while taking divergent seminal paths, came together for a brief time in the earlier part of the ’70s to make a music all their own. They were Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris. Parsons died not long after his second solo album in 1973, and that album was helped greatly by Harris, who is still going strong today.
The story really begins with Parsons who must be considered the father of country rock for his work leading the International Submarine Band, who released their one and only album, Safe at Home, in 1968. He was also a key player in the first mainstream country rock album Sweetheart of the Rodeo with The Byrds, which was also released in 1968. That would be his one and only album with The Byrds, before he and fellow-Byrd Chris Hillman departed to form the Flying Burrito Brothers with Sneaky Pete Kleinow and Chris Ethridge in 1969 with their debut album The Gilded Palace of Sin.
Parsons would only record one more album with the group, Burrito Deluxe, in 1970, which also included new members Bernie Leadon and Michael Clark, the former drummer with The Byrds. Chris Etheridge had left the group and did not appear on that album.
It was Chris Hillman who discovered Emmylou Harris playing in a club in Washington, DC in 1971 and subsequently, Hillman introduced Harris to Parsons. Parsons recorded two solo albums—GP in 1973 and Grievous Angel in 1974—and Harris was a strong presence on both albums. Her vocals were on all of the tracks of those two albums, except “Brass Buttons” on Grievous Angel. The album is, in fact, credited to Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris. Parsons also produced the album himself.
Harris had recorded the folk album Gliding Bird on the small Jubilee Records in 1969, but would not record again solo until after her time with Parsons, making her Reprise debut Pieces of the Sky in 1975. Her next album, Elite Hotel, released the same year, was a number-one country album, surpassing the cult status Parsons had carved out for himself in his short life. Her next album, Luxury Liner, also went to number one on the country charts and established a musical framework that expanded the sometime narrow confines of the Nashville country machinery, but which was universally beloved by country, rock, and pop fans and remains a classic until this day.
Grievous Angel and Luxury Liner have been released together in yet another two chapters in the acclaimed Rhino High Fidelity series. Grouping these two albums together and releasing them at the same time is just one of the many ways that make this Rhino High Fidelity series such a winner. This kind of stylistic, genre, time-period, and thematic group releases has been done with other albums in the acclaimed series.
Grievous Angel is one of those albums that didn’t sell much when it was released. It was primarily recorded in the summer of 1973 in Los Angeles and was released in January 1974. Parsons died in September of 1973. Listening to the album is both thrilling and heartbreaking. His singular take on cosmic country is unmatched and the album holds up as classic of the style and the era.
Parsons’s vulnerable but evocative vocals are the perfect vessel to ring every last amount of emotion out of his pleading songs of love and loss. Parsons wrote three songs and co-wrote three. “Hickory Wind,” which he co-wrote with Bob Buchanon, is a classic. He wrote “Las Vegas” with Brit Rik Grech. Grech played with Traffic and Ginger Baker’s Air Force, but was most known for being in Family and being one of the four members of Blind Faith.
Grech is a key to Parsons, since at the time he was hanging out and working with British musicians such as the Rolling Stones who were obsessed with Parsons’s authentic country roots and sound. The album’s last track, co-written with Emmylou Harris, is the prophetic “In My Hour of Darkness.” There’s really no way to sum up the importance of this album and how it, unlike some albums that are more famous for their legendary status, actually warrants all the praise it so rightly receives.
While Grievous Angel was a finale, Luxury Liner, also recorded in Los Angeles, was an album that solidified a place in music for Harris that has never ebbed. Less cosmic and more classic country than Grievous Angel and coming three years after that album, it firmly established Harris as a major talent, seemingly far removed from the shadow of Parsons and his tragic legacy. Nonetheless, her including a cover of his song that originally appeared on the International Submarine Band album as the title track along with a co-write between herself and Parsons on “She,” which originally appeared on GP did pay homage to Parsons.
Like on her previous albums, Harris showed a sensibility here that made her music more than just traditional country, with covers of songs by the likes of Townes Van Zandt, on the oft-covered “Pancho and Lefty” a cowrite with Rodney Crowell (“Tulsa Queen”) and a cover of a Crowell song (“You’re Supposed to Be Feeling Good”).
She could also put her own unique spin on country chestnuts like “When I Stop Dreaming,” written by the Louvin Brothers, and “Hello Stranger,” written by A.P. Carter. After this album Harris would move more into traditional country sounds and then transcend the genre to work in many different styles and with many different collaborators, always remaining relevant and fresh, while many of her contemporaries and many country artists would either become too polished or reactionary.
Like all Rhino High Fidelity releases, the albums are 180-gram vinyl pressings, cut from the original analog master tapes by Kevin Gray and pressed at Optimal. All of the releases have heavyweight glossy gatefold jackets, OBI-strips, poly-lined sleeves, include four-page inserts, and are limited to 5,000 numbered editions.
The Harris album has a beautiful, smooth sound, but not in a slick, over-produced way. For the Parsons album, the sound has a deeper, sometime rock edge with superb bass, exhibiting how for all of his country stylings, Parsons had more in common with the rock crowd of the late-’60s and early-’70s. The sound quality and packaging make these releases even more indispensable.
Parsons was one of those artists we lost too young. Who knows what he might have done if he had lived longer. With Harris, she kept the legacy of Parsons alive in her own way and is one of the giants of music who has never just rested on her laurels and whose talents and versatility are endless.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
Gram Parsons, Grievous Angel
A
Emmylou Harris, Luxury Liner
A
