[catdaddy]

Back when Sweetheart of the Rodeo was released I was a dedicated Byrd's fan. I was beyond disappointed when I first heard that record. Going "Country" was simply something I couldn't comprehend. I liked rock music along with its blues, psychedelic and progressive variants; Country Music was just so square! How could the Byrds do something so lame?

Well, more than a decade later a friend introduced me to The Flying Burrito Brothers album The Gilded Palace of Sin. Wow! It was as revelatory to me as The Beatles Sgt Pepper's album had been for me back in 1967. I came to realize that my previous inability to appreciate Country rock was simply a stubbornly closed mindset cultivated by my own immaturity. Revisiting Sweetheart of the Rodeo and discovering all of Gram Parson's other music became an obsession for me. I was permanently hooked!

Soon realizing that Gram had passed on long before I ever came to appreciate his music was disconcerting. I had missed any chance of getting to see him perform. But as I pursued his music, through an incredible bit of luck, I ended up meeting people who had had close connections with him. I became friends with a couple of his Fallen Angels touring band members, even recording a couple of albums with the band's pedal steel player, Neil Flanz. I spent a weekend with Chris Hillman sharing music and listening to Chris describe what it was like to be one of the innovators of the new Country rock genre back in the late 1960's. What I learned from those folks and others was that Gram was not the most talented musician, but he had a visionary musical mind and was tremendously charismatic and energetic, a man that others could be inspired by and would follow. His legacy of influence among some of the best known artists that followed in his footsteps is legendary. He is probably under-appreciated by many casual country and rock music fans, but most of the best artists in those genres (and others) know who he was and the incredible influence he had on the music of that era.

As for Lowell George, well I did get to see him perform twice and even got to meet him, but that's a story for another time. Suffice it to say that he was a great musician and a charismatic performer whose influence continues today.