The Grevious Angel

I'm a late bloomer. I know. Discovering uTube and the music I can listen to and watch through it is like Christmas to me. The music I like to listen to though, I discovered a long time ago when I might have been too young to realize its significance. But what I realize watching utube is that the artists that effect me, that are still alive, I want them to know how much I love them. Emmylou Harris for one has been a huge influence on my work and Gram Parsons, who unfortunately is not around. So much so I wrote a story about them that was published in my first short story collection Pull Gently, Tear Here called Keeping It All In Tune and they were the impetus for me starting a band when I couldn't bear to do anymore poetry readings. The first song we learned was The Grevious Angel, and it was Steve Earle's music that I listened to the whole time I wrote my first and second books, along with Johnny Dowd's tunes, and the Verve.

On uTube tonight I watched endless videos of Emmylou, and Steve Earle, and Gram Parsons and Emmylou and ultimately what really hit me despite her uncanny beauty was the absolute genius Emmylou Harris is. She is by far the unsung hero of the music world. Sure, sure, she is recognized as great but she is unlike any of the other singers out there. Not only in her angelic vocals, her untouchable charm and un-selfconsciousness; she is as special and gifted as the other someone who recognized her talent from the get-go, the Grevious Angel himself.