Jim James at Gram Parsons Tribute

[thebigbang]

Jim is quoted about Gram near the end of this article. He'll be playing the show this weekend.

http://u.dailybulletin.com/Stories/0,1413,212~23497~2258349,00.html

By Fred Shuster
Music Writer


Were he alive, Gram Parsons would be looking forward to this weekend's party in his honor. He already would have been fitted at Nudie's for a new white sequined suit decorated with red crosses, pills and green marijuana leaves, and his black Jaguar would be polished for the ride up to the Universal Amphitheatre.
But Nudie's, the North Hollywood celebrity tailors, has been closed for a decade, the Jag long rusted and Parsons himself a mere memory for those who knew him. Yet, the music he made, the image he created and the legend the alt-country pioneer left behind will be felt for as long as people care about music.

What's made Parsons' story so fascinating for more than 30 years is that his life was as complicated as his music was deeply felt and easily understood.  
 
Alt-country pioneer Gram Parsons will be honored with "Return to Sin City: a tribute to Gram Parsons," featuring performances by Keith Richards, Nora Jones and others.
 


A Harvard dropout and trust-fund kid from a family of wealthy fruit growers and property owners, the Georgia-raised Parsons was a painfully real enigma whose life and musical bearing reach so many disparate places that it's hard to find a reference on any pop music topic that doesn't mention him. Along with two full-length biographies (with three more due this year), a handful of tribute albums, a dozen anthologies of his work as a solo artist and records with the Byrds and Flying Burrito Bros., Parsons is the subject of a low-budget comedy that further mythologizes his death. Meanwhile, his pal, Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards, has taken a movie option on his life story.

It's the story of a supremely talented, personally charming singer and songwriter (born Cecil Ingram Connor III - try putting that on a marquee) who saw a world of potential in country music at a time when young audiences rated the stuff on a par with Liberace. By sheer willpower and charisma, the tall, good-looking Parsons helped launch the country-rock movement, steered the Byrds and Burrito Bros. to artistic heights and brought forth an angel-voiced thrush named Emmylou Harris. Bonding with Richards over pharmaceutical cocaine and Buck Owens, Parsons plainly had an uncredited hand in such Stones classics as "Wild Horses" and "Dead Flowers."

Richards has said that Parsons "probably did more than anyone to put a new face on country music. He brought it into the mainstream of music again. ... I think I learned more from Gram than anybody else. ... Gram changed the face of country music without anyone even knowing it. He was just a very special guy. He was my mate, and I wish he'd remained my mate for a lot longer."

Along with two solo albums now acknowledged as rock classics, Parsons, who died in 1973 at the age of 26 from a drug overdose, left a bizarre after-death tale David Lynch might have considered too weird.

He also left an illegitimate daughter who was just 7 when she learned of her father's death. After finally coming to terms with the legacy, Polly Parsons has brought together a strong lineup of artists to perform the songs of Gram Parsons in concerts Friday at the Santa Barbara Bowl and Saturday at the Universal Amphitheatre. The bill includes Norah Jones and Richards dueting on "Love Hurts," which Parsons memorably sung with Harris; Lucinda Williams doing Parsons' soulful "A Song for You"; and turns from Steve Earle, Jay Farrar (formerly of Son Volt and Uncle Tupelo), Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Dwight Yoakam and others. There will also be a multimedia photo and film montage of Gram's life.

"I knew I had to do this," said Polly Parsons, 36, who lived much of her life in Woodland Hills and worked as a nurse and later a photo stylist. "I wanted to put on a show that meant something to me emotionally. I didn't want anything predictable."

The idea for the Los Angeles shows crystalized after Polly produced a Parsons tribute in London late last year in which Evan Dando, Ed Harcourt and Jim Lauderdale (also appearing this weekend) performed to a packed hall.

"I knew the way to do it was go directly to the artists I wanted and ask them without dealing with managers and labels and publicists," Parsons said. "I got backstage at Staples Center for a Rolling Stones concert and met Keith for the first time - he stood there with tears in his eyes. Then I saw Norah at the Greek and met her. She immediately said yes. Then, everybody else came aboard."

Jones has performed Parsons' "She" and "Sleepless Nights," which Parsons covered with Harris, for years at nearly every show.

While his inspiration flowered financially in the multiplatinum success of the Eagles in the 1970s, Parsons' sound can also be detected in such contemporary alt-country acts as Wilco, the Thrills, Ryan Adams and Williams.

"Gram brought country music to places it hadn't been before," singer-songwriter Farrar said. "He elevated country music while enriching lives and musical paths in the process."

In a dark footnote that has become rock legend, Parsons' body was stolen by road manager Phil Kaufman from the airport where it was to be shipped to Louisiana for burial. Convinced that Parsons' last wish was to be taken back to where he died, Joshua Tree, and cremated, Kaufman took the corpse. Driving a borrowed hearse, he and a friend drove it to the desert, where they attempted to burn the body. That story is the basis for "Grand Theft Parsons," a badly reviewed comedy starring Johnny Knoxville as Kaufman that quickly disappeared after a few screenings last month.

"It was all too much for a child," said Polly Parsons of initially hearing of the circumstances surrounding her father's death in 1973. "I didn't know where to go with that. It was too macabre, too intense, too emotional to handle. It's probably one of the things that closed me off emotionally from my father's legacy for so long. So, I grew up being very strait-laced. My family was eccentric, but the first thing I wanted to do was find a career, take care of myself, move away. I needed to establish myself as Polly because my history was way too much to handle on my own."

In serving as curator for the two "Return to Sin City: A Tribute to Gram Parsons" shows, Polly became enamored of two up-and-comers - Jim James of acclaimed alt-country-rockers My Morning Jacket and the young Australian singer Jedd Hughes, who regularly covers Parsons' "Luxury Liner" in concert. Both will perform Friday and Saturday.

"It's his melodies and the brutal honesty of his vocals and lyrics," Hughes said.

Agrees James: "It's his voice, his spirit and the way he sings. My favorite songs are the saddest ones ... they're the ones that are so heartbreaking while his voice is nailing you, destroying you. I like his upbeat stuff, too, but I think he was best just destroying your heart."

Polly Parsons, on the other hand, had to spend a few decades away from her dad's music and legacy before coming to terms with it. Several years ago, just before half of Gram Parsons' song publishing royalties reverted to her (they're shared with the woman Parsons was married to at the time of his death), she became consumed with investigating her father's history, traveling to the South to find any remaining relatives of the singer buried in a New Orleans cemetery under a stone that reads "God's Own Singer."

Up until that point, she said, "Everything I knew, I'd read in books. So, I had to go back and knock on doors, take notes, take pictures, and talk to aunts and uncles - anyone that knew anything about the family. I needed to know everything all at once."

Polly Parsons, who also sings a bit, helps run the Sin City indie record label as well as a monthly night at Fairfax Boulevard's Molly Malone's pub in which a loose assemblage of alt-country musicians come together to perform whatever comes to mind.

"I have a responsibility to my father's legacy," she said. "If you shake the music tree, all the way down to the Shania Twains, you will see the crazy, outlandish, absolutely-willing-to-go-to-any-lengths Gram Parsons and his timeless songs."

[PinsInDolls]

great show. setlist was:

In My Hour of Darkness - Susan Marshall (1 verse a capella)
Six Days on the Road - Sin City All Stars
Return of the Grievous Angel - Eastmountainsouth
100 Years From Now - Kathleen Edwards
Juanita - Kathleen Edwards
Big Mouth Blues - Jim Lauderdale
Blessing For Being - Jim Lauderdale
Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man - Jay Farrar
Devil in Disguise - Jay Farrar
Hot Burrito #1 - Raul Malo
Close Up the Honkytonks - Raul Malo
Dark End of the Street - Jim James (My Morning Jacket)
Still Feeling Blue - Jim James
Hot Burrito #2 - John Doe
We'll Sweep Out the Ashes - John Doe/Kathleen Edwards
Do Right Woman - Susan Marshall

Set 2:

California Cottonfields - Steve Earle
My Uncle - Steve Earle
Sleepless Nights -Lucinda Williams
A Song For You - Lucinda Williams
Wheels - Dwight Yoakam
Sin City - Dwight Yoakam
Streets of Baltimore - Norah Jones
Cry One More Time - Norah Jones
She - Norah Jones
Love Hurts - Keith Richards/Norah Jones
Hickory Wind - Keith Richards/Jim Lauderdale
In My Hour of Darkness - House of Blues Gospel Choir et al.
Wild Horses - Keith Richards et al.
Ooh Las Vegas - et al.

[lyricjunkie]

Oh my God!!! Kieth Richards and Norah Jones?!... THAT had to be something else! :D

The rest of it sounds just amazing...Looks like it was a long show too!  Beauty! ;)

[EC]

I really want to cry.  I wanted to see this show so badly.  I wonder why Emmylou didn't play...

Lucinda Williams sang Sleepless Nights?  Was it amazing?  

Yay, Dwight Yoakam sang two of my favourite songs.

How was Steve Earle?  How was Kathleen Edwards?  I love her.

Was it really terrific?  How was Jim, was he great?

[Magnix]

great show. setlist was:

Thanks for the info. Looks like a great show indeed, I'D love to hear a recording of this. Which night was this? Or was the setlist identical for both nights?

[raindog1972]

Here are some links to photos of the show w/ many of J.J. included:
http://www.wireimage.com/GalleryListing.asp?navtyp=gls====69124&nbc1=1

http://news.search.yahoo.com/search/news/?c=news_photos&p=Gram+Parsons

More artists from farther away

http://editorial.gettyimages.com/source/cfw/FrameSet.aspx?s=EventImagesSearchState|1|30|1|51027746|0|0|0|0||0|0&p=7&pk=4

[EC]

Oh my LORD!!  Is that a freakin' nudie suit I see on Jim James?  That is so wicked that my face hurts.

Just found out that there will be a Gram Parsons tribute this coming weekend in Ottawa.  It'll have Chris Hillman and Kathleen Edwards, but, sadly, no Keith, no Dwight, no Lucinda, and no Jim.  It'll be interesting to see what Chris Hillman does...

Anyone know if this show was taped?

on edit:  I just found out that Nudie's has been closed for ten years.  No wonder I couldn't find it in Nashville.  Anyhow, it's a hell of a suit, whoever made it.

[MMJ_fanatic]

Hey now!  I didn't realize John Doe was playing there too!  That must have been quite a layout!  I still love listening to a good ole X tune whenever the mood  strikes me.

[Sal Paradise]

Wow, gotta love that outfit!  ;D

[ben grimm]

No shit, I think Gram would be as proud as we are!

[bjacobsc]

the sb tribute to gram parsons was incredible!! i was so unbelievably blessed to get to go back stage; and even moreso, to be able to speak with jim... what a personable character - so comfortable in his own skin, you can't help but laugh with the guy.  
And the suit for both shows... he mentioned how it was loaned to him.

[MMJ_fanatic]

able to speak with jim... what a personable character - so comfortable in his own skin, you can't help but laugh with the guy.  

you got that man, Jim is about the most laid back cat I have run across to date (not to mention extremely modest on top of that).

[wordawg]

Can't say how, but I'm currently listening to JJ singing 'Dark End of the Street' from the GP tribute. A very stark voice.  No reverb. Haunting.