Tale of a Lost Tape: How a New Gram Parsons Album Came to Life 50 Years After His Death

For the first time since 1983, a new Gram Parsons album is scheduled for release, with a limited edition vinyl timed to Record Store Day Black Friday. Longtime fans of the country-rock trailblazer, who died in September 1973 at the age of 26, are literally counting down the days. 

But getting to this point — resurrecting a live performance recorded months before his death — was a long, twisty road involving a tape found, then lost, then found again. The result: The Last Roundup: Live from Bijou Café in Philadelphia.

Ahead of the album hitting shelves, the Grammy Museum in downtown Los Angeles hosted a commemorative panel on Wednesday (Nov. 15) moderated by Variety Chief Music Critic Chris Willman, Gram Parsons' daughter Polly Parsons, and Amoeba Music Co-Founder David Prinz.

The evening started with heartfelt greetings and reminiscences, as Prinz detailed the  history of the tape. He was passed the original recording by Neil Flanz, the steel player at the Philly show on March 16, 1973 — Flanz held on to the soundboard cassette for the better part of 35 years.

“It had issues that were hard to deal with, but it had a good base,” Prinz said. “We can only thank Neil… for having the most beautiful judgment to save this one show.”

But once it was in Prinz’s hands, it was also in sprawling halls of the 50,000 square-foot Amoeba Music building. “It’s not hard to lose something there,” he joked. After getting “misplaced in a backroom” it was lost to the junk in his office. “It got buried behind a bunch of stuff,” he remembered.

During the company’s move out of their former Sunset Boulevard home, Prinz uncovered the box labeled “GP Archives” before dusting off the tape and dialing Polly’s number. The two decided to put it out to the world, with some mixing and mastering from “magician” Gary Hobish.

“This was a really special experience for me because I got to listen to it not only as a daughter but with his granddaughter, who is a huge music fan,” Polly said of the album. “He's [Gram] just so incredibly present and he's so leading and he’s in his element.”

The panel wrapped up with a performance from the 35-year-old West Virginia-born Sierra Ferrell, who paid homage to Parsons with renditions of “She,” “Return of the Grievous Angel” and “Streets of Baltimore.”

To get a copy of The Last Roundup, stop by Amoeba Music or your local record store on November 24. Check for participating shops here.