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Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers - Sleepless Nights Audio CD

A fair review of the Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers "Sleepless Nights" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers reviews here, or go back to the Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers tabs.

Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers Band: Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers
Title: Sleepless Nights
Rating:
Release Date: 2006-06-20
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Brand New Heartache - Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons 2: Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down 3: Sing Me Back Home 4: Your Angel Steps out of Heaven 5: Crazy Arms 6: Sleepless Nights - Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons 7: Close Up the Honky Tonks 8: Together Again 9: Honky Tonk Women 10: Green, Green Grass of Home 11: Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music) 12: Angels Rejoiced Last Night - Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons

Outstanding
Because GP wasn't around to approve? The time-space between the 9 Burritos recordings and 3 GP/E. Don't understand why this collection has been overlooked to such an extent through the years. Harris recordings was only a couple of years. The result is that the tracks fuse with no difficulty. One aspect of this album is the perfect sequencing. Somebody put thought into that--for which we should be grateful. Otherwise, as others have said, the three GP-EH are breathtaking. (Opening, closing, and smack in the middle of the album) The Burritos tracks are solid, with better bass parts than the two previous Burritos albums. Serious country. Perhaps one reason that folks don't get more excited by this collection is the absence of a GP original song. No matter. . . it is what it is. . . top-shelf country with Gram's genius for singing.


Sleepless Nights is Great
I came in through the back door as it were becoming an Emmylou Harris fan first, particularly the great Elite Hotel album, and a friend had gotten Sleepless Nights. I wouldn't say Sleepless Nights was my complete introduction to Gram Parsons, but it was the first I bought. Oh yeah, the guy from the Burrito Brothers, a group that I never quite got into!

Then I heard Brand New Heartache, and I was hooked. I have been a huge Gram Parsons fan ever since. While I have gone back and gotten all the rest, this one still holds a special place for me.

This collection of course takes Brand New Heartache and two others with Emmylou and puts them together with nine that Gram did with the Burritos. Some have complained about the quality of the Burrito songs, but I instead prefer to think the real reason they were not originally included in their two albums with Gram was that the Gilded Palace of Sin already had a few covers on it, and the balance of that album might have been put too much over to the covers side with more. Burrito Deluxe from all accounts was quite simply a poorly conceived project they were not sure what they wanted to do with.

The nine covers here from the Burrito Bros. may not have been written by Gram, but they certainly show his approach, his phrasing, his feel, to fine effect.

The three songs with Emmylou are great.

What you will find here are three tunes that should have been included with Gram's efforts with Emmylou with the nine covers from the Burrito days. I find the whole album quite effective and not really disjointed at all in melding these two periods. To the contrary the nine tunes fit quite well with the type of material Gram did in the Emmylou period. Keep an open mind and you will find this to be a five star outing.


The Rosettastone of Country Cool
Gram Parsons bridges the great divide of hard core country ballads for "hip" folks who are in the closet - liking the music & tapping their toes - but unable to admit it in public. Listen to it thrice then you'll be hooked; listen to it 5 times and it may be #1 on your playing list. Gram's foresight recordings of these legendary artists lends credence to the fact that a large percentage of country artists are cool and their necks aren't necessarily red; their themes can reverberate with all walks of life. These tunes were recorded when Willie, Waylon, Johnny, and Merle were all shorthairs, Gram dared to unlock the Nashville handcuffs and helped to release many artists from that mold; too bad he isn't still around. Check out the slide guitar on the Green Green Grass of Home - one of the best riffs ever recorded.


Collectable Gram
You need to have these. This comprises stand-out tracks of country standards Gram Parsons made with the Burritos shortly before he left the band, and three fantastic previously unreleased duets with Emmylou Harris which were inexplicably left off his wonderful second solo album, Grievous Angel, including the definitive version of Sleepless Nights.


A Pleasant Collection!
9 tracks are Flying Burrito Brothers recordings from early 1970 and 3 tracks were recorded during the "Grievous Angel" sessions. This post-humous collection of Gram Parsons recordings was originally released in 1976 - 3 years after his death. The 3 later tracks are duets with Emmylou Harris.

There are no Parsons originals included. The Burritos were planning to record a whole album of "pure and honest" country music. Most tracks are pleasant, but nothing extraordinary.

Parsons had a good voice for country music, but this collection does not give the answer to how he could become a legend in country-rock. There are some fine vocal harmonies with Chris Hilmann and with Emmylou Harris things rarely go completely wrong.

Of the Burrito songs "Sing Me Back Home", "Your Angel Steps Out of Heaven" and "Dim Lights" are really good, and "The Angels Rejoiced Last Night" with Harris is the highlight of the album.


You can see a complete list of all Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers discography, or go back to the Gram Parsons & The Flying Burrito Brothers tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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