Album: Various Artists - Return Of The Grievous Angel: A Tribute To Gram Parsons (1999)
Track: Whiskeytown - “A Song For You”
Buy: Amazon

My formal introduction to Gram Parsons was indirect. I knew the songs on this tribute album through-and-through before delving into Parsons’ own short, but oh-so-sweet back catalog.

For several years, this tribute album was a staple in my family. My Dad played it while he cooked in the kitchen or while we ate dinner and we always brought it with us on vacation to play in the car. This was thanks to my older brother, who gave it as a gift one Christmas, maybe a year after it was released.

Now, I’m quite familiar with Gram’s music, his album as a member of The Byrds (Sweetheart Of The Rodeo), The Flying Burrito Brothers, and the two solo albums he made before his untimely - probably not un-expected - drug overdose in 1973. He’s credited as a forefather of country-rock and what we now know as alt-country (see: Uncle Tupelo, Whiskeytown/Ryan Adams, The Jayhawks, and earlier Wilco).

As far as tribute albums go, this one is almost un-matched. Let’s be real: tribute albums generally… well… suck. They usually contain half-baked covers mostly watered down versions of the originals. This time, though, that’s not the case. I’m assuming it has a lot to do with the great Emmylou Harris, who featured prominently on Parsons’ second album Grievous Angel and shows up on a few of these tribute tracks.

Opener “She” is a delight when Emmylou takes the lead. The Cowboy Junkies remake “Ooh Las Vegas” into a more modern affair compared to Parsons’ original country-romp, and they still capture that same Las Vegas seediness and debauchery. The Mavericks’ “Hot Burrito #1” is one of the more slick productions on the album, but as a ballad, it just works. Emmylou’s duet with Sheryl Crow is divine.

Chris Hillman, who co-wrote many of these songs with Parsons as member of The Byrd and The Flying Burrito Brothers, shows up with another of the genre’s legends, Steve Earle in a sweet, twangy version of “High Fashion Queen.”

One listen to Wilco’s “One Hundred Years From Now” should tell you where Jeff Tweedy and co. got their sound (Tweedy’s vocals, in particular). In the same vein, Ryan Adams and his Whiskeytown band pay homage to their hero with an excellent version of “A Song For You” (bonus: check out Adams and Emmylou doing “Return of the Grevious Angel”).

This is a rare kind of tribute album that does more than pay homage to the great Gram Parsons.

Tracklist:

01. Pretenders & Emmylou Harris - She
02. Cowboy Junkies - Ooh Las Vegas
03. Beck & Emmylou Harris - Sin City
04. Evan Dando & Julianna Hatfield - $1,000 Wedding
05. The Mavericks - Hot Burrito #1 
06. Chris Hillman & Steve Earle - High Fashion Queen
07. Sheryl Crow & Emmylou Harris - Juanita
08. Elvis Costello - Sleepless Nights
09. Lucinda Williams & David Crosby - Return Of The Grievous Angel
10. Wilco - One Hundred Years From Now
11. Whiskeytown - A Song For You
12. Gillian Welch - Hickory Wind
13. The Rolling Creekdippers - In My Hour Of Darkness