Sam Quinn and his band, the everybodyfields, recently stayed at The Joshua Tree Inn, where legendary singer/songwriter Gram Parsons died from an overdose of drugs and alcohol in 1973 at the age of 26.
Sam , Jill Andrews, Josh Oliver, and Tom Pryor, comprise the everybodyfields, whose music has been described as, "a fresh set of fingerprints in the archives of bluegrass, country, and folk, music." The band was touring the west coast, or "left coast", as Sam likes to say , when Sam and Josh found out they were booked to stay at The Joshua Tree Inn.
The Joshua Tree Inn is a simple but mythical motel in California, about 140 miles east of Los Angeles.It was popular in the fifties for Hollywood rabble rousers and trendy in the seventies for rockers and celebrities. These days, the main attraction is room number eight, where thousands of fans pilgrimage every year to pay homage to Gram Parsons.
"I've been a huge Gram Parsons fan since I was eighteen," says Sam, who turns twenty-eight in April, 2008. "It was really far out to find out we would be staying in the Joshua Tree Inn. I had just waked up in our van about a mile away. I knew we would be in the vicinity, but sharing a wall with Gram, no, not a chance."
"We walk in and the lady at the front desk, gives me a key to room number 7, the room next to the one Gram died in," says Sam. "There was a concrete slab in front of room number eight with beer and liquor bottles, an old busted up guitar, and Mexican candles on it."
"The room was the same as when Gram died in it. It was like a shrine to him with CD's and a log book where could write notes about Gram. There was a painted sign that said, Safe at Home. (Safe at Home was the title of Gram's one- album novelty with The International Submarine Band.)
The Joshua Tree Inn is said to be "the final resting place" of Gram's spirit. Global traveler's leave tales in the eulogy book attesting to "feeling" Gram's spirit in the room or experiencing odd incidences. One guest recorded, "Richard asked Gram to give us a sign, and the radio came blaring at us with country music at 2:39 a.m."
Possibly the most moving entry is that of Gram Parsons daughter, Polly, whom he saw little of during the seven years he was her father, wrote, "I know your beautiful angel wings must reach far across the desert when you soar…for here you will always be truly safe at home."
"I closed my eyes and thought about all the things that led up to his death,' says Sam. "I thought, man, there's been some abuse in this room. It was kind of creepy being in a room where somebody has died."
Sam didn't put any tokens on Gram's shrine but "went back to room number 7 and drank lots of beer. I figured Gram would want me not to waste beer."
Gram Parsons "cosmic American music," a blend of country and rock, inspired musical giants such as The Eagles, Jackson Browne, and Dwight Yoakum. Thirty three years after his death, Grams' genius ripples through time, influencing bands such as the everybodyfields, the Jayhawks, and Wilco.
Gram Parsons was born Ingram Cecil Connor III, in Waycross, Georgia, on November 5, 1946. His family was extremely wealthy and cursed with tragedy.
Gram adored Elvis Presley as a boy, the Journeymen as a teenager, and Merle Haggard and Buck Owens as a young man.
He was a beautiful boy with an inordinate intelligence, dangerous charisma, and a passion for music. The girls loved him.
Gram made a single-record with The Byrds, two albums with the Flying Burrito Brothers, and two solo albums, GP and Grievous Angel. All sold poorly during his life but gained notoriety after his death.
Gram's posthumous fame was due partly to the media attention of his "partial cremation," in the Joshua Tree National Park, where road manager, Phil Kaufman, stole Gram's casket, took it to Joshua Tree National Park, and ignited with kerosene as a pact he and Gram had made.
Sam and Tom were bewitched with the Joshua Tree National Park.
"Spending time out in that desert was some of the most amazing times I've ever spent. It ups the ante for being out there, the terrain and the atmosphere trying to take your moisture out of you."
In the biography of Gram Parsons life, Twenty Thousand Roads, author David N. Meyers describes the desert as "like no other." "Joshua Trees are large, slow-growing yuccas that are remarkably humanoid in shape and evocation. Dotting the Park are enormous piles of softly rounded boulders that, like the Joshua Trees, seem somehow animated. They form phantasmagorical shapes against the Park's infinite blue sky and deep silences. Joshua Tree feels like the end of the world, but a benign one."
Sam says that he and Tom" went out for two days in a row, hiking and sitting on rocks so high that the trees in the desert looked like nipples. Every now and then we'd run into a purple cactus. It was so magical. We were both completely floored. It was beautiful, so much light. Everything wanted to stick, poke, or bite you."
"Being there was like a re-start button on life. People were so laid back. It is an artists' community. We could hear crows out there and you could hear the wind off their wings."
"When we left, we got back in the van and rode for ten hours. I took a lot of notes and got some tunes together. It was the right place and right time for every thing to gel. I could clean out the cobwebs instead of getting marred down in the things that don't matter."
Gram Parsons often visited the desert to fuel his creativity and find solace from the many demons that tormented him. Suicide, depression, and alcoholism ran like threads on the underside of a tapestry through his family, weaving generations of dysfunction.
Like the lyrics to Sam's song, "Aeroplane," from the everybodyfields CD, Nothing is Okay, "what holds me up is going to burn me in the turn around," so did Gram's final hours at the Joshua Tree Inn surrounded by the desert he so loved.
"I have a big spot in my heart for Gram," says Sam. "GP and the Grievous Angel was my favorite CD. The more I listened the more I found to listen to. "We'll Sweep out the Ashes," was a big one."
"I was coming to grips from growing up in Eastern Tennessee. I was trying to shake that off, getting out of "Po-Dunk," town. It hit me around the time I left there that I was ashamed that I thought that for so long. It was a rite of passage."
Gram Parsons made country music cool in a time when some people considered country singers on the same level as white trash red-necks.
"Gram was a piss and vinegar kind of guy, a show boat who had a lot of issues, but when he opened his mouth, he really showed up", Sam says. " He was such a good singer. He wrote some amazing chord changes. The song, "She," was such a vocal showcase for Gram. This performance of this song is insanely good."
"One time somebody came up to me after a show we did. I was standing next to Jill, who's usually the one who people say her song really touched them. This guy comes up to me and said, "Yeah, that song really touched me. You've become everything to be a country music singer. It was one of the best compliments I've ever had."
Sam says, "It's the soul that comes out, not the notes or timbre. That's what Gram had. It resonates with me. Those twangy songs spoke to me on a primordial level. They got under my skin. He is so cool and always will be."
The Joshua Tree Inn is for sale for two million dollars.
Monday, May 26, 2008
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