Grievous Angel

‘Grievous Angel’ features much of the same band that played on his solo debut, and they perform with the same effortless grace and authority (especially guitarist James Burton and fiddler Byron Berline).

Parsons still had plenty of gems on hand from more productive days, such as ‘Brass Buttons’ and ‘Hickory Wind’. He also proved to be a shrewd judge of other people’s material as always; Tom T Hall’s ‘I Can’t Dance’ and the Louvin Brothers’s ‘Cash on the Barrelhead.’ for example. As a vocal duo, Parsons and Emmylou Harris only improved on this set, turning in a version of ‘Love Hurts’ so quietly impassioned and delicately beautiful that it’s enough to make you forget Roy Orbison ever recorded it.