An Interview Companion to Gram Parsons & The Return of the G

Wow, never knew there was a character limit on subject lines, Mr. Moderator. Anyway, I’m quoting the top of the disc itself which I nabbed for $3.99 today, but readers can well imagine that the somewhat different packaging label made the marketing decision for me: “An Interview with Emmylou Harris and Other Artists on Gram Parsons and the Return of the Grievous Angel Tribute Album: Featuring Interviews From Emmylou Harris, Raul Malo, Gillian Welch, and Lucinda Williams.”

This is a 1999 Almo Sounds EP of one track, 26:41 in duration. It was produced by WXPN & The World Cafe (David Dye and Bruce Warren). Unfortunately, Mr. Dye makes the word “Angel” plural every time he sounds it out in touting the actual tribute album.

The EP has snippets of the majority of songs on the record, with “In My Hour of Darkness” getting almost full play. Emmylou does most all the talking, with token words from Welch, Malo, and our Lady. In fact, here is a transcript of the entire 41-word spiel from Lu. Emmy prefaces it by noting that Lu came over to her house and sat on her couch, rehearsing “Return. . .”

“That was a big treat for me, ’cause here I am doing a Gram Parsons song, and there’s David Crosby singing harmony, who I listened to when I was [pause here as Lu seeks to avoid billing DC as older than her], you know, coming up singing and playing years and years ago.”