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Wednesday, November 14, 2007
  • Rhino Hi-Five: Gram Parsons [Vol. 2]
    Rhino Hi-Five: Gram Parsons [Vol. 2]

    The Tragic Figure Behind Country-Rock

    Name any number of modern-day alternative-country bands and you can be sure that they trace their influences back to the singer and songwriter Gram Parsons. In working with groups like The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, Parsons fused country and rock and created something entirely fresh. Today, David N. Meyer, the author of the new biography Twenty Thousand Roads, talks about Parsons' music and tumultuous life. Later: the Peruvian style "Chicha" blends indigenous melodies, Columbian cumbia, and surf rock. The band Chicha Libre performs live in our studio.

Rock's "Grievous Angel"

Singer and songwriter Gram Parsons infused country sounds into rock during the 1960s and early ‘70s, both as a solo artist and a member of the Flying Burrito Brothers, the International Submarine Band and The Byrds. (Some credit Parsons with the countrified sounds on the Rolling Stones’ "Exile on Main Street.") We talk with David N. Meyer, author of the a new Parsons biography, Twenty Thousand Roads.

Twenty Thousand Roads: The Ballad of Gram Parsons and His Cosmic American Music on Amazon

Chicha Libre

The band Chicha Libre plays a mixture of Latin rhythms, surf music and psychedelic pop inspired by Peruvian music from the Amazon. This Brooklyn-based group revives forgotten Chicha classics and puts their own cross-cultural spin on them as we hear in a live performance.

Chicha Libre's MySpace page

The Swell Season in The Greene Space

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Joshua Bell in The Greene Space

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