Cosmic American Music
What Is Cosmic American
Country Music?
Cosmic American Music is hard to define, and often easier to define by what it’s not. Michael Grimshaw in his essay “Gram Parsons, Theology and Country Music” writes: “Parsons’ mission was the creation of a new way forward, a way to musically heal the separation and increasing divisiveness of late modern life. His term for what he attempted was Cosmic American Music.“
“The narrative focus of country became superimposed on the more urban concerns of rock so instead of statements of desire or anger followed by exclamatory choruses (as one could characterize much of rock), this new form takes the listener on often both a psychological and physical journey – short stories in three-minute forms. The aim was to bring together the past with the present and provide a musical and cultural point of epiphany.
To do so, Parsons reused the language and rhythms of country, played them through the language and rhythms of rock, and in himself attempted the incarnated embodiment of a musical and cultural reconciliation. To speak theologically he was both prophet and messiah: both pointing the way to a new beginning and attempting to live out the struggles of just what that new beginning involved.”
Here are some of my key points in the definition of the genre:
Its evolution is roots-based but it’s not really roots, therefore not most Americana, especially if not heavily country-based*.
Cool Cosmic Music Artist...
John Sturgill Simpson (born June 8, 1978) is an American country music and roots rock singer-songwriter.
Simpson was born in Jackson, Breathitt County, Kentucky, the only child of a secretary and a state policeman who formerly worked undercover narcotics. Due to his father's work, Simpson's family moved to Versailles, outside Lexington, where Simpson graduated from Woodford County High School. Simpson's mother's family were coal miners. Simpson is the first male on his mother's side of the family not to work in a strip mine or deep mine. After three years in the United States Navy, Simpson spent time in Japan, lived in Everett, Washington, and then moved back to Lexington, Kentucky.
As of August 2017, he has released three albums as a solo artist. He released two albums independently, High Top Mountain in 2013 and Metamodern Sounds in Country Music in 2014. His second album is notable for being nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Americana Album, being listed 18th on Rolling Stone's "50 Best Albums of 2014," and being named among "NPR's 50 Favorite Albums of 2014." His third studio album, A Sailor's Guide to Earth, was released on Atlantic Records and was Simpson's first major-label release, later earning him Best Country Album at the 59th Grammy Awards while also being nominated for Album of the Year.
It’s not usually singer/songwriter, though it requires solid songwriting, and is usually band-oriented (inc. in-studio if not officially a “band”).
It’s not pure country in the sense of it being solely traditional or “trad.” It’s usually more closely aligned with Bakersfield than Appalachian, though incorporates diverse background elements, including rock, soul, and jazz.
It’s not pseudo “country-rock,” which is typically a market-driven synthetic synthesis, which may hint at why most in this list did not sell well at the time. (True “country rock” was epitomized by Jerry Lee Lewis.)
It’s often southern in origin but usually not “southern rock,” which is an identifiable and distinctive niche of rock music.
It is not usually “Outlaw” as epitomized by those who have recently co-opted that label; having said that, in some ways, it followed Hank and Cash as the original outlaws of country music.
There is a large West Coast/Californian aspect to it, both migratory and per the Bakersfield sound, as well as in regard to the evolution of the genre itself.
It’s not soul music per se, though Gram once described it as “white soul,” and it is usually soulful in some way.
Above all Cosmic American Music is inventive in songwriting and delivery, cosmic in the sense of being cutting edge, but built upon the tried and true (e.g., Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Louvin Brothers, Elvis).
(*Americana is a relatively new genre and by its own definition it literally includes everything. You can’t say “Americana” does not include some Cosmic American Music.)
Simpson is often compared to Waylon Jennings and the Outlaw Country genre of country music. Shooter Jennings says, "Sturgill isn't imitating at all, and he sounds like my favorite era of my dad, the Seventies when he would sing quieter and more conversational. That's what struck me about Sturgill from Day One. And still does." Simpson himself counts Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, Keith Whitley, and Marty Robbins as much bigger influences on his sound than Waylon Jennings. Simpson has also stated he tries to base his career around that of Dwight Yoakam. Indeed, Country Music Television noted that Simpson had "a voice that recalls Merle Haggard guitar licks that bring Buck Owens to mind." Indiewire described his overall sound as "a mesmerizing and sometimes bewildering mix of traditional country sounds, contemporary philosophy, and psychedelic recording-studio wizardry.
Title
The Official
Cosmic American
Music Book
Cosmic American Music I
"The Story of Country Rock and It's Resurgence"
Six years in the making. Two hundred twenty-four pages with 80 music artists and bands ranging from Buck Owen's, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Steve Earl, Nick Lowe, and Son Volt. The book has 700 + pictures, graphics, and really cool-looking logos (quite the variety, I must say).
(224 Pages)
Soft Cover ($25.27)
The Official
Cosmic American
Music Book II
Cosmic American Music II
"Call to Mind; More of the Old and More of the New"
The sequel to Cosmic American Music. Cosmic American Music Volume 2 completes the Cosmic American Music journey. It has 228 more music artist and band history pages with over 375 sharp-looking pictures and logos.
(228 Pages)
Soft Cover ($25.27)
Clark's Story
The Flying Burrito Brothers, and Nancy Parsons. The antics that went on with all of us in the green room before, during, and after the Flying Burrito Bros. reunion concert at the Maintenance Shop, 1979. Utimatly affecting where I am today.
The Flying Burrito Brothers & Nancy Parsons
I initially met the band back in 1979 in the green room of the Maintenance Shop in Ames, Iowa. I just moseyed in and started mingling with the backstage crowd. Everyone was pounding down drinks including Nancy Parsons. We all got fecked up pretty good. The band played two sets with a long break in between. Skip Battin and Nancy Parsons took a liking to me and we hit it off pretty well. Skip was funny and witty. After I met him I always called him Kane. Just like in his song. When it was time for them to split, Nancy slipped and sprained her ankle. The next thing I knew was with Skip, Pete, Gene, and I was carrying Nancy out of the bar, through a crowd, and into a limousine.
The line-up of the band back then was, Gib Guilbeau (violin and vocals), Skip Battin (Bass and vocals), Pete Kleinow (pedal steel), and Gene Parsons (drums.)
Granger & Williams and Nancy Parsons
Then, a few months later, it happened again, but differently.
Dave and I, (Granger & Williams,)were playing at an exotic dance club on Duff Ave. called, I think, “The Fox Lounge”. The Fox didn’t have dancers on Mondays, but instead, opted for acoustic bands.
Well, sometime during the first set, I couldn’t believe who walked in. It was Nancy Parsons and her boyfriend Steve. If you haven’t made the connection by now, Nancy is Gram Parsons widow. Her boyfriend was the owner of A and R studios just northwest of Ames.
Both of them sat up in front of the stage. After a few songs, Nancy asked us if we knew how to play Hot Burrito #1.
Of course we knew it; so we played it. She liked it and she liked how Dave and me sounded.
She had connections to help us record (A and R Studio), a road manager (Excelsior Entertainment), and a friend of hers, Judy Collins.
Promo Picture
Dave & Clark
Later on that year the Burrito Brothers were doing the mid-west leg of their tour that included Kansas City, Ames, Moline Illinois, Minneapolis, and Soux City S.D. Nancy, along with Excelsior hooked us up.
After that, Dave and I got sick of each other so we split up. I ended up floating from one group to another then hooked up with the Old Triangle, helped found a very successful seafood restaurant, co-owned a sushi restaurant, and ended up promoting Irish Music concerts along with freelancing as an assistant Chef for entertainers that headline Wells Fargo Arena, (Miranda Lambert, Jon Pardi, Ashley McBride, Carrie Underwood, Dwight Yoakum, and get this...WWE Raw, that was quite different).
Right Now
I just accepted another entertainment company to do work with, ATN Event Staffing. This company produces top-end rock concerts. My first gig with them will be at the Jack White concert.
Of course, I do have my own production company, King Baby Productions, that does all kinds of cool stuff. Art, writing, Chef(ing), and music and am still a member of the Celtic Music Association that promote only the top, best Celtic music in the state of Iowa.
And to think... All of this was just a chance happening.
One of the C.W. Custom Designed Chuck Taylor Converse Cosmic Clark
More About
Cosmic American Music
With those initial thoughts in mind, here’s a “Top 16” list, (but not absolutely in order), of albums that represent the Cosmic American Music genre.
Gilded Palace of Sin, (The Flying Burrito Brothers)
Safe at Home, (The International Submarine Band)
GP, (Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris)
Grievous Angel, (Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris)
Sleepless Nights, (Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris)
Nevada Fighter, (Michael Nesmith & the First National Band with Red Rhodes)
Muleskinner, (Maybe the only Cosmic Bluegrass album ever)
Wrecking Ball, (Emmylou Harris and Daniel Lanois)
Great Speckled Bird, (Ian Tyson)
Aereo Plain, (John Hartford)
Sweetheart of the Rodeo, (The Byrds with Gram Parsons)
Burrito Deluxe, (The Flying Burrito Brothers, Original Lineup)
Hums of the Lovin’ Spoonful, (The Lovin' Spoonful)
Trace, (Son Volt)
American Beauty, (The Grateful Dead)
Will the Circle Be Unbroken, (The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band with Guests)
Essentially, Country-Rock is rock bands playing country music. It is country music informed by rock's counterculture ideals, as well as its reliance on loud amplification, prominent backbeat, and pop melodies. The first country-rock bands -- the Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons, the Byrds, Neil Young -- played straight country, as inspired by the Bakersfield sound of Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, as well as honky tonkers like Hank Williams. As the genre moved into the '70s, the rougher edges were smoothed out as the Eagles, Poco, Pure Prairie League, and Linda Ronstadt made music that was smoother and more laid-back. This became the predominant sound of country-rock in the '70s. In the late '80s, a small group of alternative rock bands began to revive the spartan sound of the original sound of Parsons and Young.
Here's the link to the Youtube Cosmic American Music channel...
A Song For You
Gram Parsons' daughter, Poly, wrote the words down on these two pieces of paper for me on Christmas Eve, 2020. These are the words to her father's song. "A Song For You". If you'd like to hear the song, scroll back up to the top of this page and click the abstract portrait of Gram. I will always cherish her gift.
[Verse 1]
Oh, my land is like a wild goose
Wanders all around, everywhere
Trembles and it shakes 'til every tree is loose It rolls the meadows, and it rolls the nails
[Chorus]
So take me down to your dance floor
And I won't mind people when they stare
Paint a different color on your front door
And tomorrow, we will still be there
[Verse 2]
Jesus built a ship to sing a song to
It sails the river, and it sails the tide
Some of my friends don't know who they belong to
Some can't get a single thing to work inside
[Chorus]
So take me down to your dance floor
And I won't mind the people when they stare
Paint a different color on your front door
And tomorrow, we will still be there
[Fiddle Solo]
[Verse 3]
I've loved you every day, and now I'm leaving
And I can see the sorrow in your eyes
I hope you know a lot more than you're believing
Just so the sun don't hurt you when you cry
[Chorus]
Oh, take me down to your dance floor
I won´t mind the people when they stare
Paint a different color on your front door
And tomorrow, we may still be there
And tomorrow, we may still be there
Contact Me: Clark@kingbabyproductions.com