GRAM PARSONS - EARLY YEARS (PICTURE LP + 2CD + DVD)

Gram Parsons The Early Years Box Set on 180g Picture LP + 2CD + DVD + Booklet + + Posters

The Definitive Deluxe Box Set of Gram Parsons Early Material!

Features: 180g Picture Disc LP, 2CDs, DVD, Color Booklet & Posters!

Housed in a 12" x 12" High Gloss Full Color, Rigid Deluxe Box!

Sierra Records presents their most ambitious project ever, literally in the works for decades, with the Gram Parsons The Early Years Box Set. This exclusive, collectors edition is packaged in a 12" x 12" high gloss full color, rigid deluxe, presentation box, containing 4 distinct discs: CD1: Gram Parsons The Early Years Vol. 1 & 2; CD2: Big Mouth Blues - A Conversation with Gram Parsons; DVD: rare and only performance of Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels; and Gram Parsons The Early Years Volume 1 picture disc vinyl. The set also includes a new 24 page color booklet/pictorial and posters!

CD1 is the first ever release on compact disc of the now classic and ground breaking, Gram Parsons The Early Years Volume 1 (1963-65) folk recordings of Gram Parsons and the Shilos with all original tracks from the 1979 LP. Added to these original ten tracks, will be the never released in any format, Volume 2 of lost early recordings focusing on Gram's solo efforts recorded by Dick Weissman including several never before heard Parsons' compositions! Continuing on this expanded compact disc are recordings by Gram Parsons & The Like, his experimental band from his brief stay in late 1965 at Harvard University. This includes a rare performance with the late actor, turned singer, Brandon deWilde. Closing out this disc is the "holy grail" of lost Gram Parsons recordings; Brandon deWilde singing lead, with Gram on "Do Right Woman" and "Hickory Wind."

CD2 features Big Mouth Blues: A Conversation with Gram Parsons, a full color digipak packaged release of a 76 minute interview with Gram Parsons conducted in 1972. He speaks about his musical influences, his formation of the eclectic, International Submarine Band, his part in creating and encouraging the Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo album, his hopes for and disappointments with, the iconoclast Flying Burrito Brothers, his plans for a solo career and his enduring musical vision. Hearing his story in his own words and voice will give you a better glimpse of Gram Parsons, the man.

The accompanying DVD features the official release of the original video tape of the rare and only performance of Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels. Though the video quality was not very good to begin with, the aging video tape has been enhanced utilizing today's newest digital video technology. Additional never seen before, non-performance footage from the show has been added which includes longer introductions by Gram on stage. As an added bonus, a very rare video performance closes the DVD with Gram performing a lip sync version of "Hot Burrito #1."

The long lost, recently discovered 1979 picture disc vinyl LP features Gram Parsons The Early Years, Volume 1 with a color picture of Gram on Side 1 and on Side 2 the original full color Sierra-Briar Records orange crate' logo. Originally conceived in April of 1979, only one test pressing of the disc existed until now! The disc is playable on any phonograph turntable, recorded and pressed in "magnificent Mono." But there is more! This collector's vinyl disc is even more unique as the disc was pressed on 180g pure virgin vinyl, highly sought after today by audiophiles everywhere! It is packaged in it's own clear plastic sleeve.

Booklet: Reprint of the original 1979 booklet notes by Mark Leviton plus a new 24 page pictorial with additional accompanying notes and featuring photographs by noted Life Magazine photographer Ted Polumbaum. Entitled "Gram Parsons at Harvard - Fall 1965" with commentary by Harvard grad (Class of 1968) and fellow Gram classmate, David Johnson, these never before seen, let alone published, photographs capture Gram's brief stay as an incoming freshman at Harvard University in the Fall of 1965. See Gram at his desk studying, going to class, hanging out with teachers and students, playing his guitar, composing new songs plus photos of "Gram Parsons and the Like" (John Nuese, Ian Dunlap, Mickey Gauvin, Tom Scott). Commissioned by Life/Look Magazine for a proposed pictorial on the incoming college freshmen of 1965, these photos are incredible and Gram never looked better. These were photographs were shot just days before he would leave Harvard to head for New York moving in with new found music contemporary, Brandon deWilde, famed actor and now budding country singer!

Posters: Folded posters of "Gram Parsons at the Chateau Marmont 1969" (24" x 36" poster) and Pete Frame's Gram Parsons Rock Family Tree "The Grievous Angel" (18"x 24")

Gram Parsons The Early Years Box Set Contents:

CD1: Gram Parsons The Early Years Volume 1 & 2
1.  I May Be Right
2.  Big Country
3.  Zah's Blues
4.  Mary Don't You Weep
5.  Bells of Rhymney 
6.  Goin' Away, Don't You Want To Go
7.  They Still Go Down
8.  On My Journey Home
9.  Surfinanny
10. Oh, Didn't They Crucify My Lord
11. The Great Silkie
12. Race With The Wind
13. The Rains Come Down
14. Hand Within The Glove
15. Rolling Stone
16. Darkest Years
17. That Kind of Livin'
18. A River Is Made Out of Raindrops
19. I Can't Take It Any More (Gram Parsons & the Like)
20. Remember
21. Together Again (Brandon deWilde with Gram Parsons & the Like)

CD2: Big Mouth Blues - A Conversation with Gram Parsons

DVD: Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels
1.  Big Mouth Blues
2.  New Soft Shoe
3.  Streets Of Baltimore
4.  Six Dasy On The Road
5.  Hot Burrito #1 (bonus)

Picture Disc Vinyl LP
1.  I May Be Right
2.  Big Country
3.  Zah's Blues
4.  Mary Don't You Weep
5.  Bells of Rhymney 
6.  Goin' Away, Don't You Want To Go
7.  They Still Go Down
8.  On My Journey Home
9.  Surfinanny
10. Oh, Didn't They Crucify My Lord