Album : GP – Gram Parsons

CB stumbled onto this album through the back door.  He had an album by Ric Grech ‘The Last Five years’.  There was a song ‘Kiss The Children’ on the album written by Grech and someone named Parsons.  It had a country feel.  CB loved it so he went on the hunt and found this album.  Man what a find.  ‘Still Feeling Blue’ opened it up and the album just kept delivering song after song.  ‘We’ll Sweep Out The Ashes’ has Parsons trading vocals and singing with Emmylou Harris.  Sound real good together.

Babyhead wasn’t hearing this kind of music anywhere except on his turntable.   A different kind of country, younger and with some fantastic playing.  Byron Berline on fiddle was an ear- catcher.  ‘She’ is just a beautiful song, “But she sure could sing”.  Parson just sounds good on this.  ‘That’s All It Took’.  What can I say?  Just a great tune.  ‘The New Soft Shoe’ was another one that grabbed CB, the voice, the feel and Berline’s fiddle,  man did that sound good.  ‘Kiss The Children’  was the song that introduced this music.  Love everything about it.  Lyrics, fiddle and Parson’s voice.   A place in the heart for this one.  Nothing like the first taste.  ‘Cry One More Time’ is a great tune and CB was familiar with the song writers  (Wolf, Justman from The J. Geils Band) so there was another cool connection.  ‘Big Mouth Blues’ is more of a rocker with a Chuck Berry feel.

This opened up Babyhead’s mind to this style of music and to be more openminded with country music.  The Band and Dan Hicks were already pulling  him in that direction. (There had to be more treasures out there).  There was lots of new music for Cincinnati to check out.  The playing on the album is fantastic, steel guitar, fiddle, sax and Harris on vocals and backup vocals adds a touch that fits.  CB tried turning his buddies onto this record .  They just didn’t hear what CB was hearing.  I think he got one convert.  That’s when Babyhead figured out that maybe this listening thing was a personal experience.  Main thing was, he really dug it.

CB played the hell out of this record.  Loved this music, still does.  Moved him emotionally and it sounded good to him.   Great album.

Thanks Ric Grech.  That’s all it took.

“Cry one more time for me…I really got it bad”