Ingram Cecil Connor III, known professionally as Gram Parsons, was an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and pianist. Parsons recorded as a solo artist and with the International Submarine Band, the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers. He popularized what he called "Cosmic American Music", a hybrid of country, rhythm and blues, soul, folk, and rock.
The Byrds were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn remaining the sole consistent member. Although their time as one of the most popular groups in the world only lasted for a short period in the mid-1960s, the Byrds are today considered by critics to be among the most influential rock acts of their era. Their signature blend of clear harmony singing and McGuinn's jangly twelve-string Rickenbacker guitar was "absorbed into the vocabulary of rock" and has continued to be influential.
Emmylou Harris is an American singer, songwriter, and musician. She has released dozens of albums and singles over the course of her career and has won 14 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, and numerous other honors, including induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2018, she was presented the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Sweetheart of the Rodeo is the sixth album by American rock band the Byrds and was released on August 30, 1968, on Columbia Records. Recorded with the addition of country rock pioneer Gram Parsons, it became the first major album widely recognised as country rock, and represented a stylistic move away from the psychedelic rock of the band's previous LP, The Notorious Byrd Brothers. The Byrds had occasionally experimented with country music on their four previous albums, but Sweetheart of the Rodeo represented their fullest immersion into the genre thus far. The album was also responsible for bringing Parsons, who had joined the Byrds prior to the recording of the album, to the attention of a mainstream rock audience for the first time. Thus, the album can be seen as an important chapter in Parsons' personal and musical crusade to make country music fashionable for a young audience.
Lloyd Cole is an English singer and songwriter, known for his role as lead singer of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions from 1984 to 1989, and for his subsequent solo work.
I Robot is the second studio album by British rock band The Alan Parsons Project, released on 1 June 1977 by Arista Records. The album draws conceptually on author Isaac Asimov's science fiction Robot trilogy, exploring philosophical themes regarding artificial intelligence. It was re-released on vinyl and cassette tape in 1984 and on CD in 2007.
Frederick Neil was an American folk singer-songwriter active in the 1960s and early 1970s. He did not achieve commercial success as a performer and is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material – particularly "Everybody's Talkin'", which became a hit for Harry Nilsson after it was used in the film Midnight Cowboy in 1969. Though highly regarded by contemporary folk singers, he was reluctant to tour and spent much of the last 30 years of his life assisting with the preservation of dolphins.
Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde is the seventh album by the American rock band the Byrds and was released in March 1969 on Columbia Records. The album was produced by Bob Johnston and saw the band juxtaposing country rock material with psychedelic rock, giving the album a stylistic split-personality that was alluded to in its title. It was the first album to feature the new band line-up of Clarence White (guitar), Gene Parsons (drums), John York (bass), and founding member Roger McGuinn (guitar). Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde is unique within the band's discography for being the only album on which McGuinn sings the lead vocal on every track.
Farther Along is the eleventh album by the American rock band the Byrds and was released in November 1971 on Columbia Records. For the most part, the album was recorded and produced by the Byrds themselves in London, England, over the course of five work-intensive days in July 1971. It was quickly released as a reaction to the commercial failure of the Byrds' previous album, Byrdmaniax, and as an attempt to stem the criticism that album was receiving in the music press.
The Byrds is a four-CD box set by the American rock band the Byrds. It features music that had previously been released between the mid-1960s and early 1970s, along with a number of previously unreleased tracks and some new recordings from 1990. The box set was issued on October 19, 1990 by Columbia/Legacy and reached number 151 on the Billboard albums chart.
Live at the Fillmore — February 1969 is a live album released by the American rock band the Byrds in 2000 on Columbia/Legacy. Compiled from two performances at the Fillmore West on February 7 and 8, 1969, the album includes several songs that are not found on any of the group's studio albums.
Peter E. "Sneaky Pete" Kleinow was an American country-rock musician, songwriter, and motion picture special effects artist. He is best known as a member of the band the Flying Burrito Brothers and as a session musician for such artists as Neil Young, Joan Baez, Jackson Browne, The Byrds, Joe Cocker, Rita Coolidge, Eagles, The Everly Brothers, George Harrison, The Steve Miller Band, Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones, Ringo Starr, Stevie Wonder, Spencer Davis, Little Richard, Linda Ronstadt and many others.
Grievous Angel is the second and final solo studio album by Gram Parsons, compiled from summer 1973 sessions and released four months after his death from a morphine and alcohol overdose in September 1973. Prominently featuring a young Emmylou Harris, Grievous Angel received great critical acclaim upon release but failed to find commercial success, a fate shared with Parsons’ previous efforts solo and with The Flying Burrito Brothers. Grievous Angel peaked at number 195 on the Billboard charts. Despite its modest sales, it is viewed as a successful example of the hybrid between country and rock and roll Parsons called "Cosmic American Music".
Burrito Deluxe is the second album by the country rock group the Flying Burrito Brothers, released in May 1970 on A&M Records, catalogue 4258. It is the last to feature Gram Parsons prior to his dismissal from the group. It contains the first issued version of the Mick Jagger/Keith Richards-written song "Wild Horses," released almost a year before The Rolling Stones own take on it appeared on Sticky Fingers.
GP is American singer-songwriter Gram Parsons' debut solo album. It was originally released in a gatefold sleeve in 1973. GP received critical acclaim upon release, but failed to reach the Billboard charts. In the original Rolling Stone review, which individually covered both GP and its follow-up, Grievous Angel, the reviewer praises Parsons' vocals and delivery paraphrasing Gram's lyrics, "boy, but he sure can sing".
The International Submarine Band (ISB) was formed by Gram Parsons in 1965, while a theology student at Harvard University and John Nuese, a guitar player for local rock group, The Trolls. Nuese is credited with having persuaded Parsons to pursue the country-rock sound for which he would later be remembered. Parsons' work with the band predates his better known ventures with The Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and the Fallen Angels with Emmylou Harris.
Live 1973 is a live album by Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels. It was recorded at Ultra Sonic Recording Studios in Hempstead, New York on March 13, 1973 during a live radio broadcast from WLIR-FM, a station located in Garden City, New York. The timing of the recording thus sandwiched it between Parsons' only two solo studio albums, GP, and Grievous Angel, although it was not officially released until 1982, long after Parsons' 1973 death at age 26.
There Is a Season is a four-CD and one DVD box set by the American rock band The Byrds that was released on September 26, 2006 by Columbia/Legacy. It comprises 99 tracks and includes material from every one of the band's twelve studio albums, presented in roughly chronological order. The bonus DVD features ten clips of the Byrds lip-synching their hits on television programs between 1965 and 1967. Upon release, the box set failed to reach the Billboard 200 chart or the UK Albums Chart. There Is a Season supplants the band's earlier box set, The Byrds, which was released in October 1990.
Live at the Apollo, Volume II is a 1968 live double album by James Brown and The Famous Flames, recorded in 1967 at the Apollo Theater in Harlem. It is a follow-up to Brown's 1963 recording, Live at the Apollo. It is best known for the long medley of "Let Yourself Go", "There Was a Time", and "I Feel All Right", followed by "Cold Sweat", which document the emergence of Brown's funk style. It peaked at #32 on the Billboard albums chart. Robert Christgau included the album in his "basic record library" for the 1950s and 1960s.
Alone Again (Naturally) is the thirtieth studio album by American pop singer Andy Williams, released in September 1972 by Columbia Records and mainly consisting of songs originated by other artists. For its release in the UK, the album was titled The First Time Ever , and three of the songs were replaced with the 7-inch single tracks "Who Was It?" and "Marmalade, Molasses & Honey" and a recording that was not released on vinyl in the U.S., "If You're Gonna Break Another Heart".
