Ben Fong-Torres: Hickory Wind: The Life And Times Of Gram Parsons

HE VIRTUALLY INVENTED country rock with The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers and was a major influence on the Stones of Sticky Fingers. He discovered Emmylou Harris who started her solo career in order to champion his posthumous reputation. Elvis Costello speaks of him in the same breath as Hank Williams, but Gram Parsons barely sold a record in his brief and meandering career. His life and death are the stuff of rock legends, his music has endured but Parsons's blueprint lacked one crucial element – he was never famous.