After a ramshackle tour in the spring and summer of 1973 , Gram Parsons again convened with his singing partner Emmylou Harris , various members of Elvis Presley 's " Hot Band " , including James Burton and Glen Hardin and the occasional guest ( such as Bernie Leadon and Linda Ronstadt ) to record his second solo album for Reprise Records . Unlike his previous album '' GP '' , '' Grievous Angel '' was a planned affair with several arrangements having been worked out on the road . The sessions for '' Grievous Angel '' took place at Wally Heider Studio 4 in Hollywood with Parsons producing . In a 2013 '' Uncut '' cover story about Parsons 's solo work , acoustic guitarist Herb Peterson recalls to David Cavanagh that when the singer showed up he was a mess : " He came in late . Emmy brought him to the studio . She was kind of '' minding '' him . We 'd already tracked four or five tunes , and he was not in any kind of shape to record with us . He was generally out of it for the most part . " Parsons , who was battling heroin and alcohol addiction , would rally , however , with bassist Emory Gordy recalling in David N. Meyers 2007 Parsons biography '' Twenty Thousand Roads '' , " Gram played us each of the songs that he had ready ... We took it from there . It was loose as far as formal arranging was concerned - we played what we thought was right for the song , and it all seemed to fall together ... He was in good shape , Gram . There was a lot of energy going on in the studio for the whole of that album . Gram was bouncing all over the place and Emmy was bouncing around him . They were great , happy sessions . " In the 2004 documentary '' Fallen Angel '' , however , manager Phil Kaufman claims Parsons was still drinking like he had been during the recording of '' GP '' , " but not as bad . He was hiding what he was doing . In other words , before he was more blatant in his drinking and his drugs . " Lacking much-needed new material , Parsons quickly wrote two songs during the sessions ( " Return of the Grievous Angel " , with lyrics by Boston-based poet and Parsons fan Thomas Brown , and " In My Hour Of Darkness " , arranged by Harris ) and looked to songs rejected from previous albums and to standard country songs to fill out the LP . In regards to the original material , " Brass Buttons " dated from Parsons ' brief stint as a Harvard-based folksinger in the mid-1960s ; " Hickory Wind " had already been recorded with The Byrds ; " $ 1000 Wedding " , about Parsons ' aborted plan to wed the mother of his daughter in ostentatious style , had been recorded in a plodding arrangement with the Flying Burrito Brothers circa 1970 ; " Ooh Las Vegas " had been rejected from '' GP '' . " Medley Live from Northern Quebec " is a fake live recording featuring canned applause and ersatz concert ambiance which combines the Louvin Brothers 's " Cash on the Barrelhead " with his own " Hickory Wind . " Writing in '' Twenty Thousand Roads '' , David Meyers praises Harris 's increased role on the album , noting that the duet " Love Hurts " contains " a lovely high whine , a mourning , keening reach for the suffering in the song . Neither overdoes it - they feel the pain , they show it to us , they make us feel every bit , but never go too far . Their sustain on the final " love hurts " demonstrates how far they 'd come together in emotion and technique . " In spite of the dearth of new material , the album took what its predecessor had presented and expanded the format of " Cosmic American Music " . After mixing the album at the Capitol tower in Hollywood , Parsons set off for Joshua Tree , California , where he would fatally overdose on September 19 , 1973 , officially declared deceased in nearby Yucca Valley
fatally overdose on September 19 , 1973
Death of Gram Parsons
Grievous Angel