What we get from Parsons here is fundamentally country – steel slide guitars, the occasional bit of fiddle, but he adds his own spin to it. Parsons himself referred to it as “Cosmic American Music”, most often blending in bits of traditional rock and roll – the track Ooh Las Vegas has a very Fifties rockabilly feel to it, for example.
What really makes this album stand out is the collaboration with Emmylou Harris; she and Parsons duet on all but one of the tracks, with delightful harmonies that really lift his vocals. I’m not a massive fan of country, but the opening title track Grievous Angel is a lilting and haunting ballad, and by the end of the album, after a charming cover of Love Hurts, comes In My Hour Of Darkness, and I was won over.
Which is a shame, because Parsons is yet another casualty of fame, having died of an excess of morphine and tequila not long before the album was released. Like Nick Drake, he was only 26. And compare the songs on this to Gilded Palace Of Sin, or Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, and he was doing so much more with his music within his chosen genre. Who knows what else he could have done.
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