Hats off to the Americana Music Association for a sublime moment at the end of this year’s awards show. Instead of the usual all-acts-on-stage sing-along, they paid tribute to the song and songwriter who must certainly be considered among the founders of this nebulous genre.
Gram Parsons’ “Return of the Grievous Angel” was released 50 years ago, four months after his untimely death at the age of 26. It was a jangly homage to old time country music at a time when the rest of the world was listening to anything but, and it featured a young singer Parsons had discovered in New York a few years earlier, Emmylou Harris.