Norah, Lucinda Honor Gram Parsons

[DRL]

Norah, Lucinda Honor Gram Parsons

California concerts remember country iconoclast

Norah Jones, Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle will play Return to Sin City, a two-night, two-city tribute to Gram Parsons, the cosmic country singer-songwriter who died of a drug overdose more than three decades ago.
The shows, which will also feature Dwight Yoakam, the Mavericks, Jim Lauderdale and additional guests to be announced, will be held on July 9th at the County Bowl in Santa Barbara, California, and July 10th at the Universal Amphitheater in Los Angeles.

The concert is being organized by Parsons' daughter and will feature artists from different generations covering Parsons material as a solo artist, as well as songs he did with the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers and the International Submarine Band. Parsons' career was short-lived, but influential. Though he only spent a few months with the Byrds, he's credited with pulling the band towards the country sounds found on its 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. His tenure was also short in the Flying Burrito Brothers, a group he co-founded with fellow ex-Byrd Chris Hillman.

Parsons' two solo recordings, 1973's GP and 1974's Grievous Angel, also introduced the world to the voice of Emmylou Harris, whom he discovered in a Washington, D.C., club. Grievous Angel turned out to be a posthumous album, though, as Parsons overdosed in September 1973, leaving music that has proved highly influential, if not exactly bountiful.

Parsons' cult legend was further cinched by the bizarre aftermath of his death, when his road manager Phil Kaufman hijacked his casket from the airport and took it to the Joshua Tree National Park in California, where attempted to cremate Parsons' body, per an agreement between the two. The incident provided the basis for the new feature film Grand Theft Parsons, which stars Jackass' Johnny Knoxville as Kaufman. "It has a lot of black humor," says Kaufman, who served as an executive producer. "I didn't want it to get too soppy." The film premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and opened in the U.K. this month. A U.S. theatrical date has not yet been set.

ANDREW DANSBY

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Keith Richards to Play Parsons Shows in California





LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Keith Richards will pay tribute to his late pal, country rock pioneer Gram Parsons, by performing at two all-star charity concerts in California next month, organizers said on Sunday. The Rolling Stones guitarist will join the lineup of Return to Sin City: A Tribute to Gram Parsons, on July 9 at the Santa Barbara Bowl and July 10 at the Universal Amphitheater near Hollywood.

Other performers will include Norah Jones, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam, Raul Malo/The Mavericks, John Doe, eastmountainsouth, Kathleen Edwards and Jay Farrar.

The concerts (http://www.gramparsonstribute.com) are being organized by Parsons' daughter, Polly, with net proceeds going to the Musicians' Assistance Program, which provides drug and alcohol rehabilitation to members of the music industry.

Parsons belonged to the Rolling Stones' inner circle during the early 1970s, and is credited with turning Richards onto country rock. His band, the Flying Burrito Brothers, performed at Altamont in 1969 and covered "Wild Horses" on their 1970 album "Burrito Deluxe" a year before it turned up on the Stones' album "Sticky Fingers." Parsons died of a drug overdose in Joshua Tree, Calif. in 1973.

Richards was last in Los Angeles in early May when he performed at Willie Nelson's annual televised concert at the Wiltern Theater.