Buddy Miller and Jim Lauderdale have been friends so long, making a record seemed almost beside the point. They’ve played in each other’s band, recorded each other’s songs and followed each other from New York to LA to Nashville, and along the way done a fine job carving out the sonic roots and origins of today’s Americana movement.

But time teaches people to honor their core, seek those things that are overtly pleasurable. Thankfully, Buddy…

Out in Hollywood, all the pretty people were swirling down the red carpet. Decked out to be seen, glittering and sparkling, heels that theaten nosebleeds or spinal injuries, clothing folded like origami armor or barely there to catch the eye.

They tromp that camera-line, professing their undying love for Bruce Springsteen, a working class hero who rose from the practically Asbury boardwalk to sing their truth with bravura and an insistence that let them know that someone saw. For him…

Chapter Three: Pilgrimage to Waycross

One of the things that already tops my list of "things I miss most about living in Brooklyn" is the reading time during my daily commute. So until moving to Portland this past August, the NYC subway (MTA) is where I have absorbed most of my reading material since I moved there in 2004. Burying my face in a book on the subway was not only a great way to wake up in the morning on my way to work, but it also served as the ideal method of mellowing out on my way home.

The University Press of Florida recently released Bob Kealing's informative and enjoyable work, Calling Me Home: Gram Parsons and the Roots of Country Rock. It is the latest biography of many exploring the life and music of Gram Parsons. What I believe sets Calling Me Home apart is the book's sharp focus on this remarkable artist's life and work, including his southern roots. The biography traces the trajectory of Gram's role in fusing country and rock music like…

Chapter Two: Legacy versus Legend

On a bluff overlooking a bend in the St. Johns River, boys in short-sleeved shirts and ties mingle with attractive girls in summer outfits, pausing from intellectual pursuits to watch planes landing in the distance at the Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Florida. In this serene setting, spectral strands of Spanish moss dangle in the cooling breezes. For decades, young people on the precipice of adult lives, beginning to shape dreams…

ND friends: In an effort to introduce you to this new and different look at the influence of the South in Gram Parsons' music and legacy, in this blog I'll be excerpting some content from the book. We begin, appropriately, with chapter one...



Cosmic Roots

Around the corner from Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium, the Mother Church of Country Music, a bunch of lucky Americanafest goers found ourselves in the presence of the holy grail of Cosmic American Music, which, on September 14, transformed the Hard Rock Café on Broadway into our own little church. A long-forgotten journal filled with handwritten notes, lyrics, drawings, and set lists had once been held in the hands of Gram Parsons. Turning the pages (while wearing white “archivist”…

FIRST DAY - Friday July 27

One of the many reasons why the Cambridge Folk Festival is the pre-eminent event of its kind in Europe is that for decades the organisers have fearlessly programmed popular veterans alongside up-and-comers and the sort of world-music or blues acts that you'd not normally find in any folk club. In common with many other big festivals, though, the sheer number of performances and an increasing number of stages, notably the addition of the youth-orientated The…

By Bill Conrad (His Prep School Pal)



Summer of 1969, I was in London when I saw a flyer advertising the Byrds at Royal Albert Hall. Melody Maker, the local music news, suggested that a few Beatles and Stones might attend. That was incentive enough for me.


 The Byrds took the stage and launched into "Turn, Turn, Turn."  Other than band leader Roger McGuinn, I had no idea who was in the band. What happened next became one of my life's unforgettable moments. Applause for the…

In these days of Linda Chorneys and Lana Del Rays, it's getting increasingly difficult to deal with the criteria used to nominate someone, and in which category even, whether for halls of fame or for the likes of the Grammy Awards. There are clearly ways to "play the system" if indeed there still exists a system to be played. You have to know your way around the Casino.

And when it comes to "lifetime achievement awards," which would also include induction into halls of fame,…

Mike Alan Ward

“Reading Hemingway: Looking Through the Pain”

Mud Bug Records

When Gram Parsons died at age 26 in 1973, he left behind a notebook he had filled with everything from doodles to shopping lists and the occasional song idea.

That notebook, more than 30 years later, wound up with Montana native Mike Alan Ward, who had been living in Nashville since the 1980s.

The idea was to pass the notebook around to several noted songwriters, like…

From Part 1:

"The first time I saw Gram Parsons was shortly after I first heard of him. I was a major Byrds fan and in a band that covered everything they ever did. There was no internet back then so news traveled slow. But word finally reached us that the Byrds had re-grouped to include founding members McGuinn and Hillman, Hillman's cousin Kevin Kelly on drums, and some guy named Gram Parsons who had played in the Int'l. Submarine Band...."

From Part 2:

...We…

Dear Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, Museum, and voting members:

It's a shame that at a time when we should be celebrating and ecstatic, many folks are unhappy and bewildered with the Hall of Fame Induction Class of 2012. When the nominations were first announced and then again finalized, there was a feeling of blasé by fans, critics, and people in the music business. Where is Todd Rundgren? Warren Zevon? Harry Nilsson? Gram Parsons? There would be a…

Nomination Proposal to the CMA to Induct Gram Parsons Into the Country Music Hall of Fame; Reprinted on His 65th Birthday



(submitted as hard copy with List of Supporters to CMA, 9/19/08, on the 35th anniversary of Gram's death and available updated to them now 24/7 online)



Based on the criteria established and promulgated by the Country Music

Association in regard to an individual's nomination for induction into the

Country Music Hall of Fame…