The Gram Parsons Archive has released a second volume of content for fans of The Flying Burrito Brothers, the International Submarine Band, The Byrds, The Fallen Angels, and just Gram Parsons himself. 50 years after his tragic death, the second volume from The Gram Parsons Archive series has been released, titled The Last Roundup: Live from the Bijou Cafe in Philadelphia, March 1973.
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The record encompasses a show played by the Fallen Angels on March 16, 1973, which took place three days after a performance at the WLIR-FM studios in New York which is immortalized on the album Live 1973, released in 1982. The first archive volume was a performance of the Flying Burrito Brothers released in 2007, but volume two highlights Parsons’ solo endeavors with his own band.
The Last Roundup came during an early 1973 tour Parsons embarked on to support his album GP. He gathered Jock Barkley on guitar, Neil Flanz on pedal steel guitar, N.D. Smart on drums, Kyle Tullis on bass, and the then-unknown Emmylou Harris to sing vocals with him. In a press release for the new volume, Flanz stated that he felt it was their best show of the entire tour. He requested a soundboard recording of the show, and held onto it for 40 years before it was acquired by Amoeba Music in preparation for a new Parsons release. The tape was lost for about 10 years, then found again when Amoeba moved offices.
One thing that can be said is that the Fallen Angels were in fine form that night, and the evidence is on The Last Roundup, which was the second to last show for Gram Parsons and the band. The archive restored the recording from Flanz’s soundboard cassette, and, according to a review by Variety, there is some lack in the sound that comes with soundboard recordings. But, besides that, Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels were riding high at the Bijou Cafe, with Harris becoming the breakout star of the show.
The Last Roundup is available as a Black Friday deal through Record Store Day and will be available on November 25. It will also be available on Rough Trade.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
