Gram Parsons

It's amazing to think that it took until 1991 for a comprehensive anthology of Gram Parsons' work to appear anywhere, and it came from Raven Records in Australia. Warm Evenings, Pale Mornings, Bottled Blues tackles the task of distilling Parsons' decade-long career into 75 minutes and 21 songs and it succeeds admirably -- Parsons' most hauntingly beautiful original song with the Shilohs, "Zah's Blues," opens the collection and from there you jump to the three strongest tracks off of the International Submarine Band's one and only album. Rhino's double-CD Gram Parsons anthology goes deeper into his later history, but the Raven set casts a slightly wider net and is a little more concise, as well as providing a pretty fair bio on the man himself. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide