Weekly Artist Overview: Gram Parsons

Almost universally considered the father of country rock, Gram Parsons left a relatively slim but immensely influential body of music in the six years he was active, from 1967-1973. In it, you will hear the genesis of the Eagles, much of Neil Young and Linda Ronstadt's classic work, bits of one of the Rolling Stones' greatest albums, the work of the Long Ryders and Uncle Tupelo, and literally a thousand others. Never a star himself in terms of sales (he was never featured on a top-40 album or single as a performer, and only one album he appears on broke the top-100), Parsons was a musicians' musician; everyone he worked with, from Roger McGuinn to Keith Richards, changed their musical approaches considerably from that point forward, incorporating country conventions into rock music with a new confidence. The mainstream was saturated with country rock for nearly a decade in his wake. He's still a reference point for many young musicians now.

The short, strange odyssey of a life that was Gram Parson's began on November 5, 1946 when Cecil Ingram Connor was brought into this world, the grandson of multimillionaire Florida citrus magnate John Snively.

The son of one Coon Dog Conner, who married Snively's daughter, he learned to play piano by the age of nine. He saw Elvis Presley perform at his school that same year and decided to become a musician. The first tragic turn in his life came when was twelve, when his father commited suicide.

His mother remarried and he was adopted by his stepfather, taking his surname and a new first name, and became Gram Parsons. As a teenager, he played in local Winter Haven bands The Pacers and the Legends; the Legends included Kent Lavoie, who would later come to fame as Lobo. In 1963, at the age of 16, Parsons formed his first real touring band, The Shilos, a folk unit. The Shilos cut a few demos, and played gigs throughout Florida, but didn't really go anywhere. When Parsons was 18, his mother died from alcohol poisoning, on the day he graduated high school.

Parentless, the young Parsons enrolled at Harvard as a theology major, but spent most of his time playing music, and forming his new rock group, The International Submarine Band . Once its lineup was set, he dropped out of Harvard and set out for New York City with the band. It was in New York City, of all places, where Parsons developed his first country stylings; after a year in the city the band had developed a following, and released two country-influenced rock 'n' roll singles in 1966. Neither sold, and the band relocated to Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, they encountered Lee Hazelwood, who was then enormously successful as half of a duo with Nancy Sinatra; impressed, he signed the band to his own label, LHI International, which released their lone album Safe At Home in 1967. They also landed a movie cameo in L.A., in Roger Korman's The Trip, a psychedelic Peter Fonda vehicle. The band went through some lineup instability at this time; bassist Ian Dunlop and drummer Mickey Gauvin walked out just prior to the LHI audition. The group that appears on Safe At Home consists of Parsons on guitar and vocals, John Neuse on guitar, Parson's childhood friend John Corneal on drums, and bassist Chris Ethridge, plus Nashville session players on pedal steel and piano. It was produced by Suzi Jane Hokum, the LHI house producer.

Article Author: uao

uao isn't my real name.

Visit uao's author page — uao's Blog