» Listings for 2024

1. 2023/4 Albums Thing 267 - Gram Parsons “Grievous Angel”

   Posted on 9:20am Saturday 3rd Feb 2024

   Gram Parsons 2nd solo album was released in January 1974, exactly a year after his first. Even though Gram now had his own band, the Fallen Angels, who he had toured with in 1973 (we’ll get to that shortly) the only member of the Fallen Angels to appear on “Grievous Angel” is Emmylou Harris.

   Of his two solo albums this is my favourite. The first lyrics of opening song “Return Of The Grievous Angel” paint a vivid scene for me

   “Won't you scratch my itch, sweet Annie Rich, And welcome me back to town?

   Come out on your porch or step into your parlor, And I'll tell you how it all went down”

   Porches, parlours, possible tales of adventure…I’m in, let’s go. The song rolls on and as we approach a natural point for a solo or middle eight Gram laconically calls “Pick it for me James” and James Burton lays down a beauty of solo which is then picked up on by Byron Berline’s Fiddle and then Al Perkins on the Pedal Steel.

   The album is an almost equal split between uptempo thigh-slappers and gorgeous ballads. Both styles are exemplified by the “fake live” pair of “Cash On The Barrelhead/Hickory Wind”. The former a proper rollicking dance tune and tale of being arrested and offered either 40 days in the Jailhouse or “Cash on the barrelhead son”, the second part being a superb duet between Gram and Emmylou on a song that Gram wrote with Bob Buchanan for The Byrds album “Sweetheart Of the Rodeo”. I’m still not sure why it was felt it needed a fake, drunk Honky Tonk audience adding to it, but hey…

   That is followed by an utterly devastating version of Boudeleaux Bryant’s beautiful “Love Hurts”. It’s been covered so many times it almost counts as a standard these days. Roy Orbison, Jim Capaldi, Nazareth, Cher, Don McLean, Jennifer Warnes, Joan Jett, hell even The Who have had a go at it. However many versions there are you’ll find it hard to find a better one than Gram and Emmylou’s.

   The other killer ballad is “$1000 Wedding” the heartbreaking story of a groom left at the altar by his bride to be…or is it, it could easily be about a funeral and therein lies some of the wonder in Gram’s lyrics. The protagonist obviously doesn’t take either option well “I hate to tell you how he acted when the news arrived, He took some friends out drinking and it's lucky they survived” Gram and Emmylou tell us, their voices meshing perfectly, it gives me the shivers every time I hear it.

   We finish on two more Gram and Emmylou masterclasses. “Las Vegas” is a song we’ve talked about before here because Emmylou recorded a version on her album “Elite Hotel”. The story of a gamblers life on the Vegas strip takes on another dimension sung by Gram. Last song “In My Hour Of Darkness” was written by Gram and Emmylou and is a modern day hymn sung in chorus with added Linda Ronstadt.  

   “Grievous Angel” is a collection of fantastic songs performed wonderfully by some very skilled musicians. It was Grams’ last record, released posthumously in January 1974. Gram was declared dead at Yucca Valley Hospital, California at 15 minutes past midnight on 19th September 1973, aged 26. The official cause of death was an overdose of morphine and alcohol. Without Gram Parsons The Byrds don’t make “Sweetheart Of the Rodeo”, there is no Flying Buritto Brothers, the Rolling Stones likely don’t have their dalliances with Country Music or write “Wild Horses”. He shall always be another of those “what could have been” stories for me…sadly we’ll never know.

   Return Of The Grievous Angel - https://youtu.be/h_Iz0iVvhEc?si=k6SbMGq3teCVQFeN

2. 2023/4 Albums Thing 266 - Gram Parsons “GP”

   Posted on 9:35am Friday 2nd Feb 2024

   We’ve talked about Gram Parsons a lot here already while talking about records by The Byrds and Emmylou Harris. As a refresher, he was the grandson of Florida Orange growing magnates who developed a love of Country Music (Gram, not the orange growing magnates, although they too may have been fans) when he heard Merle Haggard while at Harvard! Not yer usual Country stars path, granted. He converted The Byrds to Country on “Sweetheart Of The Rodeo”, hung out with the Rolling Stones and helped them write “Wild Horses”. He then discovered Emmylou Harris, made two of the greatest Country Rock (or as he called it Cosmic American Music) albums to date and died of a drug overdose aged 26 and his Road manager then kidnapped his body and burned it under a Joshua Tree in the desert…Phew!

   I was already a fan of The Byrds and one day while on tour in the US I asked Martin “Fiddley” Bell “If I like The Byrds will I like Gram Parsons ?”. He told me I would so I went to the record store directly opposite the venue we were at in Boulder, Colorado (Nanu Nanu !) and bought a double CD feauturing “GP” and “Grievous Angel”. For once “Fiddley” Bell was right, I did like Gram Parsons. The band on “GP” are quite the players. There is a big chunk of Elvis Presley’s Las Vegas band, guitarist James Burton, drummer Ronnie Tutt, keyboards by Glen D Hardin. Then there’s the Flying Burrito Brothers fiddle player Byron Berline and banjo player Alan Munde and not one but two legendary pedal steel players in Al Perkins and Buddy Emmons. Oh and Blind Faith/Traffic bass player Ric Grech. Add to that Gram and harmony vocals by Emmylou Harris and you have quite the lineup.

   The album was originally scheduled to be produced by one of Gram’s great heroes, Merle Haggard. But after a meeting with Gram that seemed to go well, Haggard pulled out of the job. He had his own demons to deal with and it has been suggested he saw some of the same things in Gram. Parsons was reportedly crushed by Haggard’s vacating the production chair.

   “GP” starts out quite traditionally with the Bluegrass hoedown that is “Still Feeling Blue”. Fiddles and pedal steels gallop through the song with swooping, interlocking lines whilst Emmylou adds perfect harmonies on the chorus. Emmylou is back on next song "We'll Sweep Out the Ashes in the Morning”. This one isn’t so much her singing harmony as duetting with Gram, which is really how their musical relationship works. She even gets a verse to herself.

   Toward the end of Side one is one of Gram’s finest performances. “Streets Of Baltimore” was written by Tompall Glaser and Harlan Howard in 1966. It’s been recorded by many people over the years (Willie Nelson, The Lemonheads, Uncle Tupelo, John Prine the list goes on) but it was Gram’s version that made the song famous. It tells of a young married couple who sell their farm so the husband can take his wife where she really wanted to be, Baltimore. Eventually he realises that his wife likes the city and its nightlife more than him and he returns to Tennessee while his “baby walks the streets of Baltimore”, make of that last line what you will. The song was also heard in the soundtrack of TV series The Wire, set in Baltimore. That’s followed by “She”, a beautiful ballad written by Gram and Chris Ethridge which I’ve always thought was about Emmylou (“oh but she sure could sing”) who also covered it.

   “GP” set the template for what would come to be called Country Rock. The likes of the Eagles and Poco took the template and ran with it, members of both bands had orbited around the scene that Gram was part of (Byrds, Burrito’s etc.) and his hand in all of that should never be underestimated.

   Streets Of Baltimore - https://youtu.be/Xi0c2clOqp0?si=EOkOOldcquxgOc2w

3. 2023/4 Albums Thing 265 - Beagle “Sound On Sound”

   Posted on 9:30am Thursday 1st Feb 2024

   Another out of order recent find for you (last one for a while)…I don’t recall who first clued me in to Beagle. It was definitely in the mid 90’s when I was working at Birmingham Airport because I remember listening to them (and Things Of Stone And Wood who sadly have never had a release on vinyl) endlessly on my walk in to start the early shift. It would have been one of that international group of CD swappers I’ve talked about before, I suspect most likely it was David Smith in New Jersey but could easily have been Curtis Malasky elsewhere in the US, it was definitely one of the Americans because that’s where my CD copies came from when I had them. Whoever it was, thanx, they’ve been occasional companions ever since and hearing them always puts a smile on my face and a spring in my step.

   Beagle were an alternative pop band formed at university in Lund, Sweden in 1990. They released just 2 LP’s “Sound On Sound” in 1992 and “Within” in 1993 (I still need to track down a copy of that one). The two main players were songwriters Magnus Börjeson and Daniel Sandström, who between them wrote every song on Beagle’s two albums. This 1992 Swedish issue I’ve acquired also contains a song, “Crap” (!), that wasn’t on the CD copy I had so I get to hear new Beagle music after all these years.

   So what do they sound like ? This is pure, joyous pop music made with acoustic guitars, fiddles, mandolins, keybpards and the like. It’s NOT folk music it’s most definitely pop, great songs with singalong choruses and nagging tunes that get lodged in your head and won’t shift. If I had to compare them to anyone you’d know to give you some vague idea of where this is coming from then think of that record “Breakfast At Tiffany’s” by Deep Blue Something, but (and it's a big BUT) Beagle are so, so much better than that. This is uplifting happy pop music, it’s not gonna change the world or tell you anything deep and philosophical but they brighten my day whenever I hear them.

   And So It Goes On - https://youtu.be/NteuM38sDLY?si=DWCVNYkxibs_rkhW