LOUVIN BROTHERS
(origin 1957)
MUSIC ::: COUNTRY ::: GRAM
Few artists left a deeper imprint on American music than The Louvin Brothers. Charlie and Ira Louvin transformed the close harmonies of Southern gospel into one of country music's defining voices, blending songs of faith, heartbreak, temptation and redemption with extraordinary emotional power. Their music reflected the contradictions of life itself—sacred and secular, joyful and tragic—while their influence reached far beyond Nashville, inspiring generations of artists from the Everly Brothers to Emmylou Harris. Though folk purists and rock audiences often traveled different roads, nearly all of them eventually found themselves at the doorstep of the Louvin Brothers.
When "Cash on the Barrelhead" was released in 1956, Gram Parsons was still a young boy captivated by Elvis Presley. A few years later he was immersed in the folk revival, singing Kingston Trio-inspired harmonies with The Shilos in Florida, at the 1964 New York World's Fair, and in the coffeehouses of Greenwich Village. Country music had not yet become his passion. That transformation came at Harvard, where Hillbilly at Harvard introduced him to Merle Haggard. Looking backward through country music's family tree, Parsons discovered the Louvin Brothers and realized he had found one of its purest and most profound expressions.
Gram Parsons became one of the Louvin Brothers' greatest ambassadors. Friends remembered that he was always introducing musicians to records they had never considered hearing, and Jonathan Richman later credited Gram with opening his ears to the Louvins, bluegrass and acoustic American music. By recording "Cash on the Barrelhead," carrying the brothers' soaring harmonies into the Byrds, the Flying Burrito Brothers and his solo work, and enthusiastically sharing their music with fellow musicians, Parsons ensured that Charlie and Ira reached an entirely new generation. The Louvin Brothers shaped Gram Parsons, and through Gram Parsons, they helped shape the future of Cosmic American Music.
