Gram Parsons Grievous Angel

Gram Parsons (and The Flying Burrito Brothers) Album Reviews

Gram Parsons, or as 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die describes him, “Keith Richards’ citrus-heir drug-buddy”, is remembered as a country-rock pioneer. While this description is certainly apt, I was taken aback by his music initially. It’s not the commercially oriented country offered by the Eagles and the Counting Crows; it’s more anchored in traditional country.

Parsons started his career in the International Submarine Band, then joined The Byrds as a pianist, whom he quickly influenced into a country direction. He and Chris Hillman then left The Byrds after Sweetheart of the Rodeo and formed The Flying Burrito Brothers – it’s doing Hillman a disservice to list the Flying Burrito Brothers on this page because the Burritos were very much a Parsons and Hillman collaboration.

After the Burritos petered out, Parsons recruited Elvis Presley’s backing band, found Emmylou Harris in a folk club and recorded a couple of solo albums, before overdosing at Joshua Tree Memorial. His career was short and often erratic – he sounds disinterested during Burrito Deluxe. But he wrote some great songs and launched the career of Emmylou Harris, who continued his legacy of an authentic country and rock crossover.

Gram Parsons Album Reviews

Favourite Album: Grievous Angel

The Gilded Palace of Sin – The Flying Burrito Brothers

Flying Burrito Brothers Gilded Palace of Sin

1969, 8.5/10
The Flying Burrito Brothers were formed by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman after they left the Byrds, to pursue Parsons’ vision of “Cosmic American Music”. It took me a long time to appreciate The Gilded Palace of Sin – although it’s classified as country-rock, it’s often more traditional than artists like the Eagles who followed in Parsons’ wake. There are elements of rock, ‘Hot Burrito #2’ is cooking and “Sneaky” Pete Kleinow’s fuzz-toned Pedal Steel gives the album some edge. There’s also soul in the covers of Aretha Franklin’s ‘Do Right Woman’ and James Carr’s ‘Dark End of the Street’. But the dominant impression is Hillman and Parsons harmonising over acoustic guitars.

Thematically The Gilded Palace of Sin is often traditional – ‘Sin City’ is all Biblical fire and brimstone – or firmly based in the 1960s, with the draft avoidance of ‘My Uncle’ and the Chicago riots documented on ‘Hippie Boy’. But if you can get past all of this, there are a ton of great songs on Gilded Palace and it’s rightfully considered a classic of its genre. Bassist Chris Ethridge penned ‘Hot Burrito #2’, a phenomenal rock/country hybrid, while there’s beautiful acoustic material like ‘Sin City’ and ‘Juanita’.

It’s not flawless, and it’s arguably more dated to a specific time than any of Parsons’ other projects, but The Gilded Palace of Sin is still a seminal slice of country-rock.


Burrito Deluxe – The Flying Burrito Brothers

Flying Burrito Brothers Burrito Deluxe

1970, 5.5/10
Despite its quality, The Gilded Palace of Sin wasn’t a success, and Chris Etheridge quit the band. He was replaced by future Eagle Bernie Leadon, who pushed Hillman to bass, while former Byrd Michael Clarke was recruited as the drummer. The resulting album is much more conventionally country rock than its predecessor – it’s much less idiosyncratic and diverse.

Burrito Deluxe sounds like a good album while it’s on, but the songs just aren’t there this time; Parsons was disinterested in the band after the first failure, and was much more interested in hanging out with The Rolling Stones. The most memorable track is the cover of The Stones’ ‘Wild Horses’, released before the Stones’ own version – it’s similar, but Parsons is a lesser singer than Jagger, so the Stones’ version is superior.

Elsewhere, Burrito Deluxe is just a nice-sounding country-rock record with no memorable songs.


GP – Gram Parsons

Gram Parsons GP

1973, 7.5/10
After his stints in The International Submarine Band, The Byrds, and The Flying Burrito Brothers, GP was the beginning of Gram Parsons’ solo career. Parsons recruited Elvis Presley’s backing band and grabbed folk singer Emmylou Harris from a folk club to sing harmony with him. Parson’s strength on GP is for tender ballads, emotionally affecting pieces such as ‘A Song for You’ and ‘The New Soft Shoe’ which he delivers with his engagingly creaky tenor, backed exquisitely by Harris’ gorgeous harmonies.

Parsons is less convincing on the uptempo covers like ‘That’s All It Took’ and ‘Cry One More Time’ (an obscure J Geils Band album track), and the album feels two-paced with Parsons’ excellent country ballads sharing space with dispensable sounding covers. The highlight of GP is the sweet gospel of ‘She’, co-written with Chris Etheridge.

Parsons’ posthumous follow-up, Grievous Angel, is a more satisfying record, but you can find them together on one CD, and there’s still plenty to enjoy on GP.


Grievous Angel – Gram Parsons

Gram Parsons Grievous Angel

1974, 9/10
Gram Parsons’ second album was compiled and released posthumously after his heroin overdose at the Joshua Tree Memorial. It’s similar in feel to GP with Emmylou Harris again prominent, and the same backing band – it’s got the same mix of covers and originals, but this time the originals feel even deeper and more accomplished than before. The quality of the best work on Grievous Angel underlines what a tragedy Parsons’ death was, as ‘$1000 Wedding,’ ‘Return of the Grievous Angel’ and ‘Brass Buttons’ reach a new level of sophistication for Parsons.

‘$1000 Wedding’ is particularly excellent, with nicely understated lyrics; “And where’s the flowers for the girl, she only knew she loved the world/And why ain’t there one lonely horn, just one sad note to play.” This time the covers fit in better with his originals than on GP. The Louvin Brothers’ ‘Cash on the Barrelhead’ is fun, while the best cover is ‘Love Hurts’; Parsons and Emmylou Harris’ gentle duet is beautiful, a revelation if you’ve only heard Nazareth’s version. The whole album and Parsons’ career finishes with the prayer-like elegy ‘In My Time Of Darkness’.

Grievous Angel is Parsons’ best album, correctly regarded as a country classic.

Ten Favourite Gram Parsons Songs

$1000 Wedding
Love Hurts
Hot Burrito #2
Sin City
Return of the Grievous Angel
Hickory Wind
Juanita
She
In My Time of Darkness
Brass Buttons

Back to 1970s Album Reviews….

7 Comments

    • I found a two-fer of GP and Grievous Angel in a second hand CD store. I was pretty taken aback how straight country it was at first – I guess I was expecting something a bit more rock. But I grew to love it, especially Gram’s originals. I do feel like his stock’s declined a little lately – haven’t seen him discussed much lately.

      • Aphoristical I have no idea where he sits in popularity but I have a couple tributes by younger bands that are influenced by him and the Burritos. I don’t know if this is strange to you but I never got into the Eagles and the like. I went to the source after Gram. There were other similar artists i found around the same time and later. I was listening to Uncle Tupelo yesterday.

        • I actually went to the Eagles first – hardly surprising when they’re all over the radio. When I was a teenager I liked a lot of mainstream stuff – this was before the internet, and all I could go on was the radio. I have a pretty complicated love-hate relationship – I like a lot of their supporting pieces – Felder, Walsh, Leadon, Meisner – and I like Henley’s voice. But they often feel a bit too calculated and commercial, and I’m about 50/50 on their hits – some are pretty good (New Kid in Town) and some are awful (Heartache Tonight).

          • I think your bang on with your take. I was just putting time into other music. I was always wondering about the music they didn’t play on the radio. I noticed you didn’t do a take on them. Did you use them as portal to other similar music?

          • I have covered the Eagles a little on my 1970s’ page – I might give them a whole page one day. On one hand I’m pretty familiar with their 1970s’ albums, but on the other I don’t know that they deserve more attention. I don’t think I even used them as a portal – I just didn’t know about stuff like Gram Parsons until I got the internet.

          • I liked what you had to say on ME’s page on the “State of Rock”. You summed it up pretty well on the last paragraph of your second comment.

            Yeah the internet has blown it wide open. Easier to find obscure off the beatin track music but overwhelming at the same time. You have a pretty wide range of tastes. That’s a good thing. I see lots of good stuff to comment on, upcoming on your page.

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