Live 1973
Because he was gone by age 27, any opportunity to hear Gram Parsons in action is worthwhile. This record was recorded in front of a studio audience and broadcast live on WLIR in New York in March of 1973, a mere six months before Parsons's untimely death. Most of the material comes from his two solo albums (now collected onone CD) and his groundbreaking work with theByrdsandBurritos. Still, there are a few noteworthy additions to the canon, namely an urgent reading ofMerle Haggard's "California Cottonfields," a roughshod '50s-rock medley, and the relatively obscure sacred tune "Country Baptizing," which was written by North Carolina fiddler Jim Shumate, a onetime member of bothBill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys and thenFlatt & Scruggs's Foggy Mountain Boys. Parsons's touring band, the Fallen Angels, play with fire and looseness, especially Neil Flanz on pedal steel, and, of course, the wonderfulEmmylou Harrisharmonizes ever so passionately with the lead Fallen Angel.--Marc Greilsamer