Reverence is an appropriate attitude towards Gram Parsons, because he was truly great, and when you pick a whole bunch of artists who've nearly all been strongly influenced by his music or at least, indirectly, by the possibilities that it opened and then get his old musical partner Emmylou Harris singing along on several of them, and it's unsurprising that reverence is what you'll get.
Truth be told, a bit more in the way of divergence from or reinterpretation of the originals wouldn't have gone astray (two of the more memorable, in the Cowboy Junkies' "Ooh Las Vegas" and Lucinda Williams and David Crosby's "Return of the Grievous Angel", go further in that direction than most), but, simply by not mucking around too much with the timeless originals, this crew - which also includes Gillian Welch, Whiskeytown, Wilco, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, the Pretenders, and more - produce a pretty nice tribute indeed.
Truth be told, a bit more in the way of divergence from or reinterpretation of the originals wouldn't have gone astray (two of the more memorable, in the Cowboy Junkies' "Ooh Las Vegas" and Lucinda Williams and David Crosby's "Return of the Grievous Angel", go further in that direction than most), but, simply by not mucking around too much with the timeless originals, this crew - which also includes Gillian Welch, Whiskeytown, Wilco, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, the Pretenders, and more - produce a pretty nice tribute indeed.
