Gram Parsons

Grievous Angel

Grievous Angel is Gram Parsons’s final album, recorded in summer 1973 at Wally Heider Studio 4 in Hollywood and mixed at Capitol Studios before his death in Joshua Tree. It features Emmylou Harris and members of Elvis Presley’s TCB Band. Only two new songs appear — 'Return of the Grievous Angel' and 'In My Hour of Darkness'. The rest draws from Parsons’s Harvard folk period, The Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers, and rejected material from GP. The 'live' medley is fabricated with canned applause. Critical attention focuses on Harris’s vocal role, especially on 'Love Hurts', and on the album’s paradox: disciplined energy amid personal collapse. It peaked at number 195 on the Billboard chart.