I found this at emmylou.net Thank you to Dave for posting it.
Hollywood Reporter
January 26, 2006
Fans young and old get a new look at Parsons
By Chris Morris
"Take me down to your dance floor ..."
No one was dancing as Gram Parsons' voice wafted over the sound system at Hollywood's Harmony Gallery on Friday evening, but the place was rocking anyway.
Some 300 people descended on the tiny gallery for the opening of a show featuring vintage photographs of the late country-rock icon Parsons. Many of the shots are featured in "Grievous Angel," a biography co-authored by L.A. writer Jessica Hundley and Parsons' daughter Polly.
The event was an all-ages affair: Grizzled vets of the '60s Sunset Strip scene -- some sporting biker-style "Sin City" patches on their denims, in honor of one of Parsons' best-known songs -- rubbed elbows with teenage fans.
"I loved the age range," Polly Parsons says. "Gram Parsons is right now the barometer for cool in the generation below us. He's the underground hero. I had two girls who were 18 come up to me at the gallery. One said, 'My mother always used to play (Gram's album) 'Grievous Angel' when I was little. It's the music of my youth.' "
Gram Parsons' tremulous voice has been still for more than three decades: He succumbed to a morphine overdose in September 1973 at the Joshua Tree Inn. Son of a wealthy, dissolute Florida family, he blew off Harvard to pursue a musical career. In L.A., he formulated a rock-R&B-country fusion he called "cosmic American music" in the International Submarine Band, the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. His two solo albums introduced singer Emmylou Harris. His freewheeling, hard-living lifestyle led to an early grave at 26.
But Parsons' music remains reverberant, especially in L.A. When local country artist Mike Stinson sings "Streets of Baltimore," best known today in Parsons' '73 cover, or the Snakehandlers rip through "Sin City," you're hearing the man they call "GP."
"His raw honesty touches people at their innermost core," his daughter says. "He was fearless in his message, and people resonate with that. He wasn't afraid to be real. And I think we all need a hero."
Polly Parsons is in large measure responsible for the ongoing interest in her father's work. She assumed control of Gram's estate and song catalog nearly four years ago. Since then, she helped mount tribute concerts in London and Universal City; "Return to Sin City," a DVD of the latter 2004 show featuring Keith Richards, Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle, was issued last year. Gandulf Hennig's documentary "Fallen Angel" aired on the BBC in 2004.
More of Parsons' music is forthcoming: Retailer Amoeba Music will kick off its label in the spring with a package of unreleased studio and live material, and Rhino Records, which released a two-disc compilation in 2001, is reportedly working on a larger Parsons project.
To date, Parsons has been represented in theatrical film only by the much-reviled 2003 feature "Grand Theft Parsons," about the sensational theft and immolation of the musician's body by road manager Phil Kaufman. Polly Parsons envisions a more dignified, high-profile project.
"There needs to be a film, and it needs to be done correctly," she says. "I really want Cameron Crowe to do it."
On Friday, some at the Harmony Gallery gazed at Kim Gottlieb-Walker's 1973 photos of Crowe, then a teenage rock journalist in training, interviewing Gram. "A Song for You" played on: "... And tomorrow, we may still be here."
Hollywood Reporter
January 26, 2006
Fans young and old get a new look at Parsons
By Chris Morris
"Take me down to your dance floor ..."
No one was dancing as Gram Parsons' voice wafted over the sound system at Hollywood's Harmony Gallery on Friday evening, but the place was rocking anyway.
Some 300 people descended on the tiny gallery for the opening of a show featuring vintage photographs of the late country-rock icon Parsons. Many of the shots are featured in "Grievous Angel," a biography co-authored by L.A. writer Jessica Hundley and Parsons' daughter Polly.
The event was an all-ages affair: Grizzled vets of the '60s Sunset Strip scene -- some sporting biker-style "Sin City" patches on their denims, in honor of one of Parsons' best-known songs -- rubbed elbows with teenage fans.
"I loved the age range," Polly Parsons says. "Gram Parsons is right now the barometer for cool in the generation below us. He's the underground hero. I had two girls who were 18 come up to me at the gallery. One said, 'My mother always used to play (Gram's album) 'Grievous Angel' when I was little. It's the music of my youth.' "
Gram Parsons' tremulous voice has been still for more than three decades: He succumbed to a morphine overdose in September 1973 at the Joshua Tree Inn. Son of a wealthy, dissolute Florida family, he blew off Harvard to pursue a musical career. In L.A., he formulated a rock-R&B-country fusion he called "cosmic American music" in the International Submarine Band, the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. His two solo albums introduced singer Emmylou Harris. His freewheeling, hard-living lifestyle led to an early grave at 26.
But Parsons' music remains reverberant, especially in L.A. When local country artist Mike Stinson sings "Streets of Baltimore," best known today in Parsons' '73 cover, or the Snakehandlers rip through "Sin City," you're hearing the man they call "GP."
"His raw honesty touches people at their innermost core," his daughter says. "He was fearless in his message, and people resonate with that. He wasn't afraid to be real. And I think we all need a hero."
Polly Parsons is in large measure responsible for the ongoing interest in her father's work. She assumed control of Gram's estate and song catalog nearly four years ago. Since then, she helped mount tribute concerts in London and Universal City; "Return to Sin City," a DVD of the latter 2004 show featuring Keith Richards, Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle, was issued last year. Gandulf Hennig's documentary "Fallen Angel" aired on the BBC in 2004.
More of Parsons' music is forthcoming: Retailer Amoeba Music will kick off its label in the spring with a package of unreleased studio and live material, and Rhino Records, which released a two-disc compilation in 2001, is reportedly working on a larger Parsons project.
To date, Parsons has been represented in theatrical film only by the much-reviled 2003 feature "Grand Theft Parsons," about the sensational theft and immolation of the musician's body by road manager Phil Kaufman. Polly Parsons envisions a more dignified, high-profile project.
"There needs to be a film, and it needs to be done correctly," she says. "I really want Cameron Crowe to do it."
On Friday, some at the Harmony Gallery gazed at Kim Gottlieb-Walker's 1973 photos of Crowe, then a teenage rock journalist in training, interviewing Gram. "A Song for You" played on: "... And tomorrow, we may still be here."
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Re: Review of Gram Photo Exhibit
Sat, January 28, 2006 - 12:19 PMA Cameron Crowe film about Gram would be awesome. My favorite living director and my favorite singer. It has to be good.
