Gram Parsons - Sacred Hearts & Fallen Angels (The Gram Parsons Anthology) (2001)

Gram Parsons was one of the founders of country-rock and an artist whose influence can be heard in the music of such disparate performers as the Eagles, the Rolling Stones, Emmylou Harris, and Wilco. The two-disc, 46-song Sacred Hearts & Fallen Angels brings together tracks from every stage of his too-brief career, starting with his first group, the International Submarine Band, continuing through his period with the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers in the late 1960s, and ending with two solo albums from the early 1970s. Parsons was a talented songwriter, but an erratic singer, and some of his performances are on the ragged side. But when he pulls it together, as he does on the mournful ballad "$1000 Wedding" or his transcendent duets with Harris on "Love Hurts" and the old Louvin Brothers gospel tune "The Angels Rejoiced Last Night," he justifies his reputation as a great country singer. Sacred Hearts & Fallen Angels is an excellent introduction to the work of the man who introduced country to the rock & roll world. --Michael Simmons