GRAM PARSONS TRIBUTE CONCERT

Union Chapel (Islington) London: Saturday, November 15-2003

Last 19 September fell the 30th anniversary of Gram Parsons' death. This country rock singer left the American music world at 26 with a great dream he didn't realized at all: to create the Great American Cosmic Music.
The Sin City All Stars ( Dusty Wakeman, Bryson Jones, Jonny Kaplan, Dave Raven + B.J. Cole and Martin Delmont) who are actually in London for the Barbican's Way Beyond Nashville musical season, decided to celebrate this occasion with an intimate gig at the Union Chapel in Islington. This spreading show has been realized in collaboration with the BBC Radio 6 and all its proceeds ( $2.700) will be donated to charity, to the Musician Benevolent Fund - a UK based charity that offers financial, legal and practical assistance to musicians who are no longer able to make a living through recording or performance owing to illness or disability.
No other place could have been better than the Union Chapel to celebrate the aim of such an event; this stately 1877 church, with its coldness and warm simplicity made of marble and stone, became the stage in which the rebellious and religious soul of Gram Parsons came back to life for the time of a night.
The altar became a stage, lighted just by candles, and the Nashville stars together with the special guests ( Jason Walker, Adam Masterson, Hank Wangford, Reg Meuross, Susan Marshall, Sid Griffin, Grand Drive, Evan Dando, Mojave 3, Ed Harcourt and Jim Lauderdale) performed with grit and emotion the songs of a musician who left his mark in their artistic course.
The show began with Six days on the road, (a song that Gram played with The Flying Burrito Brothers in 1970) and with the welcome of all the stars on the stage.
I would give a special mention to all of them, for the originality, the sensation of their performances and especially for the enthusiasm with which they were able to involve an audience of 1000 people.
I will mention some moments of the show, maybe the most meaningful for me, and I'll try to describe in few lines the feeling of a music which has emotionally involved me.
First appearance on stage, Jason Walker, a musician from Australia ( his last album with the Last Drink: Ashes and Wine) who has been described by someone like The alternative country renaissance man. He is also the author of a G.P's biography God's own singer (London- Helter-Skelter- 2002). He played with kindness and simplicity We'll sweep out the ashes in the morning and Love Hurts, a song which was originally released by the Everly Brothers and has been after interpreted by Gram and Emmylou Herris. With their complicity and the magic meeting of their voices, they changed this lyric in a deep and soft love song.
Hank Wangford (Dr. Sum Hutt) is, without doubt, one of the musicians to whom Gram has left his country heritage; he played an important role for Gram in 1971, while he was in London with Rolling Stones( this period is testified in the H.W. book H.W. 111 the middle years). Hank works as a doctor but it's clear that music is his second profession. He testified his passion for country to the Union Chapel audience, singing You're still on my mind and Sleepless Nights: I think his tribute to Gram is enclosed in the thematic meaning of these two songs!
The entry of Coal Porters and their leader Sid Griffin was greeted with a burst of applause. They were wearing the same black dress and the only thing that seemed to distinguish them was the sound of instruments and of their own voices. They played with their characteristic harmony the acoustic version of On the border, Cody Cody, My uncle and Wheels, giving the audience a moment of plain music.
Sid Griffin, who has studied not only the work but even the life of Gram Parsons, writing his first biography in 1985 (G.P. A Music Biography. Sierra Books, 1985), announced to the U.C. audience another important work, a documentary on G.P. life that he realized in collaboration with BBC. It will be issued in DVD in England from next January. We're waiting for it!
One of the strongest emotions, for who like me, was attending to a G.P tribute for the first time, was seeing his only child Polly.
This 35 years old woman played ( together with Bryson Jones) with the grit and freshness of a teenager, In my hour of darkness, a deep meaning song which recalls the last moments of his father's life. Among the dim lines of this song, Polly seemed to underline a great truth: He was just a country boy his simple song confessed, and the music he had in him so very few possessed.
She addressed his special thanks to the people who continue to love and play his father's music, who still keep alive his memory giving a deep meaning to his story.
Evan Dando, ex singer of LemonHeads, loved Gram so strongly to change himself upon his image and he mocked even the excesses of his lifestyle. With his clear and unmistakable voice and his style of dandy rock star, he played $1000 Wedding, How much I've lied and Close up the Honky Thonks.
In conclusion, the warm, impressing and multiform voice of Susan Marshall (with ed Harcourt) made the audience shudder with She. The spirituality of this lyric made her tribute special, and she recalled with the Hallelujah of the refrain, all the sacredness of the atmosphere.
The Sin City All Stars and Special Guests, together on stage for the last time, said goodbye to the Union Chapel audience singing ( as Gram did at his time) Wild Horses by Rolling Stones.
They addressed people who (just like them) want to keep alive and develop a music which is able to join different emotions. But the true feeling that shone in their eyes was just: Thank you, Country Boy!
Thank you, Gram!

Francesca Fracci
Rome, 25 November 2003