Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel

Director/Writer: Gandulf Hennig and Sid Griffin
Cinematography: Boris Becker
Starring: Peter Buck, Emmylou Harris, Keith Richards
Studio info: Rhino Entertainment, 90 mins.

Former Byrd, Flying Burrito Brother finally gets filmic workup

Fallen Angel, the first documentary film to dissect country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons’ gothic legend, is hardly short on tragedy: Parsons’ father committed suicide in 1958 while Gram’s mother—the daughter of citrus magnate John Snivley—surrendered to alcoholism in 1965. Throughout his career, Parsons paired Nudie-suit country twang with drug-infused psych-folk, and Fallen Angel features laudatory chatter from famous fans, commentary from family members, and the half-bitter diatribes of his former bandmates. Refreshingly, Fallen Angel isn’t all hearts and flowers: the film flatly acknowledges how Parsons piddled away a semester at Harvard, a considerable trust fund and remarkable talent in favor of yipping at the heels of The Rolling Stones and chugging booze.

Parsons overdosed at a roadside motel in September 1973. Desperate to fulfill what they contend were Parsons’ final wishes, two of his buddies (road manager Phil Kaufman and friend Michael Martin), drunk and righteous, snatched the body from LAX, drove it deep into the California desert, dumped a gallon of gasoline in the coffin, and left Parsons, half-cremated, by the side of the road. Parsons’ family eventually recovered what was left of his remains, but the story is still a fittingly twisted cap to a life riddled with heartbreak.

Anne McCue To Release New Album

Singer-songwriter Anne McCue’s sophomore effort, Koala Motel, will be released Sept. 19 on Messenger Records. Co-produced by Dusty Wakeman and McCue, the new album includes guest performances by Lucinda Williams, John Doe, Jim Lauderdale and Nancy Wilson of Heart.

Koala Motel also includes inspiration from McCue’s other passion—film. The Australia-born singer, who has a degree in film production and film studies, is fond of the works of Ang Lee, Quentin Tarantino and Sergio Leone, and Koala Motel is a reflection of this. The first track on the album is done in a film noir style, while the final track carries a Spaghetti Western-style theme.
For more information, click here.

Top 20 Tracks From Last Week

Here they are based on listener purchases, wishlists & track ratings. Thanks for the feedback.


1. Steve Earle - Hard Core Troubadour - I Feel Alright
2. Pete Townshend & Raphael Rudd - Sleeping Dog - The Oceanic Concerts
3. Sun Kil Moon - Floating - Ghosts of the Great Highway
4. Steve Earle & The Supersuckers - Before They Make Me Run
5. Bobby Bare - Everybody s Talkin
6. Pete Townshend - Drowned - Rarities
7. Saltflat - COMING HOME - Cold Morning Light
8. Ron Wood - Stay With Me - Slide On Live - Plugged In And Standing
9. Matthew Sweet - Divine Intervention - Girlfriend
10. Steve Earle - Copperhead Road - Just an American Boy
11. Pete Townshend - North Country Girl - Live: A benefit for Maryville Academy
12. John Denver - Leaving on a Jet Plane - The Essential John Denver
13. Phantom Planet - Wishing Well - The Guest
14. The Beatles - I Should Have Known Better
15. Roger McGuinn - Chestnut Mare - Live From Mars
16. Rachael Yamagata - Jesus Was a Crossmaker
17. John Hiatt - When My Love Crosses Over - Master of Disaster
18. Old Crow Medicine Show - Wagon Wheel - O.C.M.S.
19. Warren Zevon - Knockin' On Heaven's Door - The Wind
20. Velvet Crush - Rollin' In My Sleep - Soft Sounds

Better Check Your Tom Waits Tickets!

Tom Waits tickets that have been purchased via resale sites such as eBay and StubHub.com will not be accepted at any of Waits’ upcoming shows.

Because all eight dates of his tour immediately sold out, many tickets have been available for sale online and through ticket brokers. Tickets sold from these entities are assumed to be fraudulent, and many tickets may also be counterfeit.

All tickets for Waits’ shows must be obtained at the venue on the evening of the show. Only the original buyer will be allowed to pick up the ticket and must show a valid photo ID as well as the credit card information used to buy the ticket.

There will be no exceptions, as the severe anti-scalping procedures were detailed before the official ticket sale dates. The venues, management, label, promoter and Waits are striving to catch scalpers and get the face value tickets to the fans. However, they will not be responsible for fixing problems with counterfeit tickets or fraudulent sale of tickets.

Will Kimbrough Continues World Domination.........

..........or at least his domination of Cosmic American Radio.

I received my signed copy of the new record Americanitis compliments of Birmingham Steve today. I eagerly plowed through it while enjoying a corporate coffee beverage and will be adding several to the playlist tomorrow. My favorites are Life, Grown Up Now, Less Polite, Warring Ways, Another Train, Act Like Nothing's Wrong, Everyone's In Love, Wind Blowing Change, Rag & Brand New Song.

With these songs in the playlist to go with the earlier added Daddy and Sam Baylor tracks (see earlier post)July turns out to be open season on Kimbrough. I don't know what the limit is and I refuse to check.

Thanks Will and Birmingham Steve and you guys should check out their web pages and my space.........spaces!

Top 20 Tracks From Last Week

Here they are based on listener purchases, wishlists & track ratings. Email somebody about Cosmic American Radio.


1. Truckstop Souvenir - My Heart Ain't Yours - Leave Nothing Behind
2. Pete Townshend - Drowned - Rarities
3. June Carter Cash - Keep on the Sunny Side - Wildwood Flower
4. Jesse Malin - Bonus Track : Brooklyn (band) - The Fine Art Of Self-Destruction
5. John Cowan Band - With A Memory Like Mine - New Tattoo
6. Will Kimbrough / Daddy - Cousin Darryl - At The Women's Club
7. Adams, Ryan & the Cardinals - My Heart Is Broken - Jacksonville City Nights
8. Richard Thompson - Honky-Tonk Blues - Small Town Romance
9. Mac McAnally - People Call Me Jesus - Mac McAnally
10. Paul Westerberg - Dirty Diesel - Come Feel Me Tremble
11. Elliott Smith - A Question Mark - XO
12. Scott Miller & Commonwealth - Dear Sarah - Thus Always To Tyrants
13. Ryan Adams - Call Me On Your Way Back Home
14. Brad Colerick - Merciful Man - Cottonwood
15. Paul McCartney - That Would Be Something - McCartney [DCC GOLD CD]
16. Shawn Mullins - Faith - 9th Ward Pickin' Parlor
17. Matt The Electrician - The Road - Home
18. Pillbugs - Liberty Town Of Love - The 3-Dimensional In-Popcycle Dream
19. Robinella - Break It Down Baby
20. Steve Earle - Billy Austin - Just an American Boy

Bumbershoot Announces Lineup

Already a mecca for music and art lovers, come September Seattle will have another reason to attract visitors. Seattle's Bumbershoot Music & Arts Festival has put together one of the most comprehensive lineups of music, art, comedy, dance, film and literature – no easy task, but this year's festival, which will take place Sept. 2-4, 2006, already looks like a who's who and what's what of the culturally-conscious.

Bumbershoot boasts one of the best music line-ups in the festival circuit, spanning genres and generations. Among the dozens who will grace the stage at Bumbershoot are artists like Kanye West, Blondie, Steve Miller Band, Spoon, The New Pornographers, Feist, Shooter Jennings, Of Montreal, Mates of State, Matt Costa, Jose Gonzalez, Alejandro Escovedo, Sonya Kitchell, Jamie Lidell, Copeland, Laura Viers, and CocoRosie.

Though the music scene at Bumbershoot will be the main attraction, there are a host of other offerings at the festival. Some of the best literary, dance, comedy and art exhibitions (not to mention a roller derby competition) will be taking place—Upright Citizen's Brigade, a live version of VH1's Best Week Ever!, Zack Galifianakis and many others will be making audiences laugh from two stages. And, in what promises to be one of the more outrageous comedic offerings at Bumbershoot, Trapped In The Closet will feature comedians and a guest panel to discuss portions of R. Kelly's unintentionally hilarious hip-hopera Trapped In The Closet.
With the overarching theme of "High Tech vs. Home Ec," Bumbershoot's visual arts exhibits, gallery tours, and activities will tie all mediums of visual art together to explore how technology-based art and the recently popular craft movement relate and overlap. For theater, performance art and dance lovers, there will be no shortage of treats from groups such as Hip Hop Theater, Rubberbandance Group, Degenerate Art Ensemble and a host of homegrown Seattle talent (NAKeD PUPPeTS, Troy Miszklevitz, Macha Monkey Productions, subatomic productions, and Pacific Northwest Ballet).

Booklovers will delight in the dozens of authors slated to make up Bumbershoot's Literary Arts lineup, featuring such writers as Chuck Palahniuk, Tami Sagher, Charles D'Ambrosio, Ashok Mathur, Shoshana Berger, and Kurt B. Reilgley. And, for the first time, Bumbershoot's 1 Reel Film Festival will be curated by the Seattle International Film Festival, and is set to include more than 100 live-action, animated, experimental, and documentary films.

For a complete listing of artists, performers, and authors who will be at Bumbershoot, as well as a schedule and ticketing information, visit bumbershoot.org.

Keith Rocks For The Lutherans

From rock to revival, Keith Richards shines

By Frank E. Lockwood
HERALD-LEADER STAFF WRITER

He may have Sympathy for the Devil, but Keith Richards also jams for Jehovah.

The 62-year-old Rolling Stone is a guest guitarist on My Soul is a Witness -- a collection of African-American spirituals released without fanfare last month.


The book and CD project is the brainchild of Richards' sister-in-law, concert vocalist Marsha Hansen.

About half the music was recorded at the guitarist's Connecticut home in 2001.
Richards plays on a half-dozen tracks, including I Want Jesus to Walk With Me and Rock in Jerusalem. Also performing on the album is former Beach Boy Blondie Chaplin and Bob Dylan drummer George Receli.

The CD may be hard to find. Augsburg Books, affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, initially printed only 2,500 copies. A second printing is on the way.
Hansen, who is married to a Lutheran minister, says she didn't have to twist her in-law's arm to get his assistance.

"His understanding of music is very deep -- not just rock music," she said. "He's particularly intrigued by African-American music, roots music."
Richards isn't a Lutheran.

"He probably does not claim a particular affiliation," Hansen said, "but he loves the music."
She says her brother-in-law and his musical pals were easy to work with.
"They just kind of picked up and played whatever I was singing, and the songs just grew out of whatever mood we were in," she said. "Sometimes my daughter and I would just harmonize on something, and Keith would decide, 'That sounds really good. Let's try that.' And then we'd go from there."

Richards left his imprint on each of his songs.
"Sometimes it's acoustic. Sometimes it's electric. He probably plays about three different guitars."

The legendary performer appears courtesy of Virgin Records America.
On the recording, Richards sounds like he enjoyed making the music.
"Obviously, you hear Keith chattering in the background. ... You can hear some of our comments and our laughter. That's part of the mood of the CD. We had a wonderful time," Hansen said.
Richards' wife, Patti Hansen, is the sister of Rev. Rodney Hansen, Marsha Hansen's husband and the pastor of Mount Hope Lutheran Church in El Paso, Texas.
It wasn't hard to sell Augsburg on the project.

"We liked the idea that it was an informal recording. ... It was more of a jam session, friends gathered together for casual dinners in someone's home," said publicist Bob Todd. "It was not a planned, contrived thing at all."
Buyers responded.

"It jumped right out of the shelves for us," Todd said.
Christian critics have accused Richards and the rest of the Stones of selling out to the dark side. A few have even played their records backwards, listening for subliminal Satanic messages.
But the guitarist on Their Satanic Majesties Request is a "fantastic person," Hansen says.
"He's the most wonderful, genuine, honorable man that I can think of," she said. "I really do think of him as my family."

Top 20 Tracks From Last Week

Here they are based on listener purchases, wishlists & of course track ratings. Thanks for tuning in to Cosmic American Radio.


1. Grey DeLisle - Sweet Savior's Arms - The Graceful Ghost
2. Truckstop Souvenir - My Heart Ain't Yours - Leave Nothing Behind
3. Neil Young - Sugar Mountain
4. Bobbie Gentry - Apartment 21 - Chickasaw County Child - The Artistry of Bobbie Gentry
5. Jesse Aycock - Eyelid Sky - Life's Ladder
6. Johnny Cash - Life's Railway To Heaven - Personal File II
7. Josh Rouse - Miracle - Under Cold Blue Stars
8. Neil Young - My My, Hey Hey
9. Johnny Cash - I Walk the Line - The Original I Best Of
10. Gene Clark - She Don't Care About Time - Flying High
11. Dixie Chicks - I Hope - Taking The Long Way
12. Jackie Greene - I'm So Gone - American Myth
13. John Prine - I Hate It When That Happens To Me - Fair & Square
14. International Submarine Band - Blue Eyes - Safe at Home
15. Neko Case - Train From Kansas City - The Tigers Have Spoken
16. Warren Zevon - Knockin' On Heaven's Door - The Wind
17. The Rolling Stones - Let's Spend the Night Together
18. The Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter - Gimme Shelter
19. The Byrds - Turn! Turn! Turn!
20. The Byrds - Mr. Tambourine Man [Stereo]

I Return With Daddy & Sam Baylor

Now that would be a weird trip. However I do finally return after my two week sojourn to the Gulf Coast. I was able to continue work on my "complete" catalog of Will Kimbrough material by picking up the Daddy and Sam Baylor discs while at Bay Sound.

Tonight I'm adding 7 from the "Women's Club" Disc and 2 from "Life On Trouble Street". These are two good records and Will has one that is brand new which I plan to have shortly. Enjoy and turn it up!

The Who Rocks For A Cause

Hard Rock International is set to make rock history at the Hyde Park Calling concert on Sunday, July 2.
For the first time, legendary rock band The Who will allow their entire live set to be broadcast as a 99-cent pay-per-view download to benefit various causes supported by Pete Townshend’s Double O charity, including the Teenage Cancer Trust, the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research, and the Andre Agassi Charitable Foundation for underprivileged children.
Hard Rock Café will be broadcasting the concert at its locations in New York, Chicago, Orlando, Hollywood, Rome, Barcelona and Paris. Viewers will be able to download the set from thewholive.tv.