Parsons was a Florida boy who discovered country music at Harvard, of all places, and then took his talents to LA, where he passed through the Byrds and formed the Flying Burrito Brothers. His allegiance to no particular style allowed him to come up with a kind of semi-country that was as much blues and soul as it was anything, and it bonded him to Keith Richards, as a friend, and to Emmylou Harris, his young collaborator and partner. Suffering heavily from alcoholism, Parsons got through making Grievous Angel and died soon after from a morphine and alcohol cocktail. Along with Townes Van Zandt, another gifted alcoholic, Parsons perfected a kind of stone cold tragic country rock. You can hear more than a little bit of Elvis Costello’s “Alison” in “$1000 Wedding.” For all the morbidity in his story and his songs, Parsons is unlike Van Zandt or even George Jones as a singer—there’s more serenity than ache in his voice, which may be what appealed to Richards and the emotionally tighter British crew. Harrison, though, sings directly from the center of her heart, and they make a devastating duo.