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Released 2003

At times it's easy to underestimate the importance of Gram Parsons to American music. He never had anything close to a hit, and while he was pivotal in the creation of country rock, and by rote, alternative country, none of his direct efforts at it (the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo, the Flying Burrito Brothers, his own two solo albums) stirred up any kind of public acceptance. He left no immediate musical protégés, unless you count Emmylou Harris, which you probably can't, since her talent would have surfaced anyway, even if she hadn't met Parsons. But she did meet him, and if Harris went on to define the viable possibilities of another approach to country music better than Parsons ever did, she did so with his roadmap to the genre in her back pocket. It's no surprise, then, that the emotional highlight of The Lost Recordings, a collection of demos and rehearsals recorded while Parsons was putting together his first solo album, is a short, whispered take of Parsons and Harris learning "We'll Sweep Out the Ashes in the Morning." Although he lacked a traditionally strong voice, Parsons had that intangible something in his singing that is impossible to teach, the ability to be there inside a song so deeply that it only seems to exist then and there, and if his wobbling tenor couldn't hold a candle to George Jones or any of today's hat acts, his fragile, emotionally soaring vocals carried a wounded conviction none of them can match. Add in Harris' beautiful lead harmonies and you have magic. This is where that magic began, but ironically, The Lost Recordings should be the disc that completes your Gram Parsons collection, not the one that begins it. Diehard fans are going to love this collection for its intimacy and historical importance, but given its often horrible sound quality (it was recorded on a boom box with only a directional condenser mic), and the mistake-laden stop and start pattern common to musicians learning how to play together, the simply curious should probably start with Rhino's fine double-disc career anthology Sacred Hearts and Fallen Angels, then work their way back to these recordings, because without the perspective of knowing what these demos eventually became, well, they really don't sound very good. ~ Steve Leggett, All Music Guide

TRACKS

1. A Song for You
2. Kentucky Blues
3. Streets of Baltimore
4. Folsom Prison Blues
5. Lovesick Blues
6. The New Soft Shoe
7. How Much I've Lied
8. Still Feeling Blue
9. Still Feeling Blue
10. Ain't No Beatles, Ain't No Rolling Stones
11. Medley: How Can I Forget You/Cry One More Time
12. A Song for You
13. Streets of Baltimore
14. That's All It Took
15. Somebody's Back in Town
16. More and More
17. Teaching Emmy to Sweep Out the Ashes
18. Daddy's Fiddle
19. We'll Sweep out the Ashes in the Morning
20. Cold, Cold Heart
21. That's All It Took
22. A Song for You

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