Benefit show pays tribute to cosmic-country icon at the Chapel
The 18th edition of the Sleepless Nights benefit concert paying tribute to country-rock pioneer Gram Parsons brings an array of artists to the Chapel in San Francisco Friday night.
First organized back in 1999 by musician Eric Shea -- then fronting his SF cosmic roots-rock outfit Mover -- the evening featured that band alongside LA country-rock favorites Beachwood Sparks and Sacramento's Sex 66 among others interpreting some of the best-known songs written by Parsons during his stint with influential late '60s groups the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Bros. as well his own short-lived solo career.
Mixing tear-in-your-beer honky tonk with flashes of swaggering, soulful rock indebted to the Rolling Stones (Parsons was well known as a running buddy of Keith Richards during the era), the songwriter was a member of the Byrds, helping make the band's seminal Sweetheart of the Rodeo album an early venture into country-tinged folk rock prior to splitting off with fellow Byrd Chris Hillman to found the Flying Burrito Bros.
Though Parsons would only work on the band's first two albums -- their landmark 1969 debut The Gilded Palace of Sin and the following year's Burrito Deluxe -- the band further refined a country-rock sound that became a blueprint for much of the music that would emerge from LA's Laurel Canyon in the new decade, exerting a heavy influence on the Eagles, Linda Rondstadt, Poco and others.
When Parsons left the Bros., he initially spent more time partying with Richards and the Rolling Stones (he hung with the band during a British tour and recording sessions for Exile on Main Street in France) than he did on his solo career. He would eventually return to Los Angeles, where Hillman introduced him to then unknown country songbird Emmylou Harris who became a key member of Parsons's new band, the Fallen Angels.
While his solo debut G.P. in 1972 and follow-up effort Grievous Angel received positive reviews, the albums sold poorly, despite the obvious chemistry the songwriter and his band would exhibit during live performances. Parsons would die of an overdose on morphine and tequila while celebrating the completion of Grievous Angel during a desert vacation near Joshua Tree. His music would live on with the influence heard in the roots-minded sounds of X, the Blasters and the Mekons as well as early R.E.M. and the music of '90s alternative country disciples like Uncle Tupelo (and its subsequent offshoot bands Wilco and Son Volt), Freakwater and Old 97's.
Inspired by the annual gatherings held in Joshua Tree paying tribute to Parsons, Shea would make the Sleepless Nights tribute concerts a yearly benefit show for over a decade, raising funds for a variety of causes. While he would take a break from the benefits to help stage several similar tribute shows playing the music of Byrds founder and songwriter Gene Clark, in 2020 an invitation from Bay Area promoter Britt Govea brought Sleepless Nights back for a Sunday afternoon show benefiting Larkin Street Youth Services at the Chapel.
The COVID-19 pandemic led to a pause, but the celebrated tribute returned to the Chapel two years to revive the day after Thanksgiving tradition. In addition to the organizer's new project Sheaker featuring Michael Bentley from his Athens band The Air Condition on pedal steel the rhythm section from his proto-metal/skate punk quartet Hot Lunch (drummer Rob Alper and bassist Charlie Karr), this latest edition of Sleepless Nights will also feature Bay Area favorite Tom Heyman and his backing band the Moonlighters.
A veteran musician who first came into the public eye as one of the principles in Philadelphia-based band Go To Blazes in the late '80s, Heyman put out five albums and toured extensively on both sides of the Atlantic up until the band split in 1997. He would relocate to San Francisco the following year, quickly settling into the local scene with stints playing guitar and pedal steel with such renowned local acts as alt-country outfit the Court & Spark, songwriter Chuck Prophet and X bassist John Doe's solo band.
Heyman also started recording his own roots-oriented songs as a solo artist, tracking a series of albums including the live covers collection Ballads, Blues and Union Dues and his pub-rock inspired effort Show Business, Baby that came out in 2017 on his own Bohemian Neglect Recording Works imprint. With his long-running Sad Bastard Club night at the Make-Out Room, Heyman regularly features like-minded local songwriters performing their songs in a stripped down setting.
During the pandemic, Heyman shifted focus, transforming his Sad Bastard Night into a creatively shot and edited web series on YouTube that gave artists a much-needed outlet to perform as well as a forum to talk about how they were dealing with the shutdown, serving as a sort of therapy session for participants and viewers alike. Heyman also dug into his back catalog, reissuing the 1995 live in the studio recording Go to Blazes...and Other Crimes featuring a mix of originals and eclectic covers from such songwriters as Hank Williams, Jr., Lee Hazelwood, Lou Reed and Gene Clark.
He also continued composing new tunes that made up his latest effort, 24th Street Blues. A conceptual song cycle that features a more spare, acoustic sound than his last album's more raucous approach, Heyman's new material sketches out vivid hard-luck tales of characters he might encounter on his walks to and from work at the Make-Out Room in the Mission.
Tracked in Portland, OR and San Francisco with musical contributions from multi-instrumentalists Rusty Miller (Cake, Jackpot and many others) and Mike Coykendall (who produced the record and has recorded such luminaries as M. Ward, She and Him, Beth Orton and Bright Eyes), lap-steel guitarist Mike Brenner and harmony vocals from member of the Mother Hips Greg Loiacono, the album features some of Heyman's most affecting and powerfully empathetic songs yet. Aiming to do something special with this latest collection, Heyman partnered with his wife -- artist and teacher Deirdre F. White -- to create a 60-page songbook that features lyrics, music notation and guitar tabs along with paintings and drawings by White that correspond to each tune.
Another highlight of the line-up is the return of Noelle & The Deserters. Fronted by Noelle Fiore -- who played with Shea in an earlier iteration of his SF Americana group Sweet Chariot and is the guitarist in singer Shannon Shaw's solo band -- the group includes gifted musicians from Once and Future Band, Tarnation, the Aislers Set and Sonic Love Affair. The crew released their first album High Desert Daydream via Speakeasy Studios SF last May to solid reviews.
The balance of the Sleepless Night bill includes the Mike Therieau Band -- spotlighting the talents of Shea's former bandmate in Mover and member of revered '90s Oakland mod R&B rockers The Loved Ones who takes the stage with that band's rhythm section -- Half Moon Bay-based outlaw country band Bar Fight, Oakland purveyors of fuzzed-out, swampy twang Whateverglades, local soul juggernaut This Train Don't Stop fronted by the powerhouse vocal trio of Lydia Walker (Lydia and the Projects, Big Blu Soul Revue), Marvin Hollins and Ashley Walters, SoCal country rockers K.C. Breakdowns and songwriters Ethan Kremen and Miranda Lee Richards. This year's Sleepless Nights benefits Nuçi's Space, a nonprofit based in Athens, GA (where Shea has relocated) that works on suicide prevent with an emphasis on the mental health of musicians.
Sleepless Nights XVIII: A Tribute to the Music of Gram Parsons
Friday, Nov. 29, 7:30 p.m. $20-$25
The Chapel