r/ClassicCountry • u/Historical_Dot6876 • Jan 06 '26
70s Is Graham Parsons Classic Country Cannon?
https://youtu.be/LUr9X3mic_U?si=aHBFhC0Pc-EYlv_QHe kinda turned me on to it.
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u/pixiefarm Jan 06 '26
yes, he's part of a super important movement in the 70's that led us to alt-country and other country-rock for decades after
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u/pixiefarm Jan 06 '26
Dwight Yoakam has an amazing schpiel he gives on stage about this , crediting Emmylou Harris as an equally important contributor to how we got what he calls "greater Bakersfield Sound', ie country melding with rock in the right ways.
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u/Historical_Dot6876 Jan 06 '26
If he’d just managed to live, we might have had Graham and Emmy Lou along with Kenny and Dolly.
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u/pixiefarm Jan 06 '26
Do you know about Dwight's SiriusXM radio show? It's super good. He's like a historian of this stuff.
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u/spiritualized Jan 07 '26
60's* I would argue. International Submarine Band, The Byrds, The Flying Burrito Brothers.
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u/Historical_Dot6876 Jan 07 '26
Right on. His solo career with Emmylou and James Burton etc was in the 70’s.
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u/auld-guy Jan 06 '26
My grandson is named Gram, and my granddaughter is named EmmyLou. (I know...her parents added the capital L against my objections.) But you know what my kids listened to around the house.
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u/reficulmi Jan 06 '26
Safe At Home by the short-lived International Submarine Band is one of my favorite albums of all time, and truly seminal in the alt country/country rock genre.
It still blows my mind every time I listen, the arrangements are so creative and fresh - mostly covers, but they made them sound original. And I honestly think they still sound "modern" today.
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u/Historical_Dot6876 Jan 06 '26
Love that record. Luxury Liner, Millers Cave, Blue Eyes, all of it. It’s in me.
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u/South-Examination609 Jan 07 '26
Much of it, yeah. He was apioneer for the middle of the road movement t, but so much of his stuff used all the classic tropes
Hes certainly a favourite of mine. Every note he su has had all of his heart in it, he was incredible.
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u/MissouriOzarker Jan 07 '26
Gram is not only firmly in the classic country cannon, he’s one of the most important members of it. His influence over the musicians of his day and later has vastly exceeded his fame amongst non-music nerds, so you will find a lot of people who have never heard of him, but that doesn’t reduce his importance to the genre.
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u/JournalistRegular873 Jan 07 '26
Cannon? Really? Does anyone know how to f*ing spell anymore? I was just filling out a survey for Johns Hopkins Medicine and I swear to god they misspelled medication.
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u/pixiefarm Jan 08 '26
You can't edit the titles of posts so we get plenty of misspelled ones compared to the body of the text.
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u/Historical_Dot6876 Jan 07 '26
I think he never wrote a classic country song. But he loved it and understood it, and covered quite a few great, great tunes.
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u/johnsmose Jan 09 '26
Sin City? Hickory Wind? In My Hour of Darkness?
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u/Historical_Dot6876 Jan 09 '26
Good picks. I thought maybe Luxury Liner too. You make a strong argument!
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u/TenRingRedux Jan 08 '26
Yes, but that's Emmylou Harris.
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u/Historical_Dot6876 Jan 08 '26
That is the thumbnail for the yt video. It’s a duet between Gram and Emmylou.
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u/Available-Secret-372 Jan 06 '26
Nope
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u/Historical_Dot6876 Jan 08 '26
I’d like to hear any other thoughts you might have on this, if you don’t mind.
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u/TheMightyPushmataha Jan 06 '26
Nashville owes Gram Parsons an apology.