August 21, 2007 5:52 PM PDT

'New' Gram Parsons

Posted by Kurt Wolff

As any self-respecting No Depression subscriber can tell you, the guy at the root of everything alt-country is Gram Parsons. That's because Gram, during his brief late '60s/early '70s heyday, was instrumental in bridging the gap between hardcore country music and long-haired rock 'n' roll. He wasn't the first to do it, of course: country-rock's true pioneers were actually guys like Elvis, Jerry Lee, and Bill Haley. Maybe a better way to put it is that he reinterpreted honky tonk in his original songs as well as those by Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, and Porter Wagoner, showing the hippie generation that honky tonk and vintage country were music for all kinds of people, not just the Silent Majority. Gram made it work because he was one of them: a long-haired, L.A.-based singer with a sweet voice who called his country "cosmic" and had marijuana leaves sewn onto his Nudie suits. The Stones took note, as did the Eagles and, of course, Gram's frequent duet partner Emmylou Harris (whom he and his buddy Chris Hillman "discovered").

Gram died in 1973 at age 26, leaving behind only a short stack of albums recorded under his own name as well as the Flying Burrito Brothers and the International Submarine Band (plus one, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, with the Byrds). So any news of a new recording (and a quality recording at that) is big news. This October 30, the newly founded Amoeba Records is releasing Gram Parsons Archives Vol. 1: The Flying Burrito Brothers "Live" at the Avalon 1969, which offers previously unreleased live recordings from Gram's band the Flying Burrito Brothers when they opened for the Grateful Dead at San Francisco's Avalon Ballroom. Like I said, the album isn't out yet, but to tide you over, we've got one free download from the album, a country-fried take on the vintage Lefty Frizzell standard "Long Black Limousine."