this morning, for no real reason, i woke up with an overwhelming urge to read up on the bio of gram parsons. electroliner plays a cover of "that's all it took" in our set... a duet for two of our singers doing gram's and emmylou's parts... so maybe that was bouncing around in my brain's pop-cultural lobe.
anyway... upon reading his wiki entry, i've discovered the following facts. gram was born in winter haven, florida (basically my home town) in november, 1946, about a month before my dad was born, 8 miles away. gram grew up in winter haven (and later winter park), attended winter haven high school (i used to rehearse there) and played in cover bands around winter haven as a teen.
his mother's family (the snively's) owned a lot of citris property in polk county, including the land that cypress gardens was built upon. the snively's and the adam's were two of the major grower families decades ago. i grew up in these orange groves.
gram got his start in music after seeing elvis presley in 1957 in georgia... and by the mid 60's recorded several albums worth of demo material, produced by local musician jim carleton, while playing in several local bands. as a kid in the early 90's, i bought a lot of my early music gear from carleton's music store in winter haven, including my first snare drum, drum machine, acoustic guitar, etc.
apparently jim made a distribution deal with sundaze records and released these mid 60's gram parsons demos as "another side of this life" - a compilation of covers and 5 parsons songs.
gram parsons, who took his stepfather's last name, benefited from his stepfather owning several nightclubs in winter haven and around polk county. among these night clubs was the rustic lounge, which my stepfather owned from 1990 to 1995. my mom and dad went on their first date together to the rustic in 1972.
i remember my stepfather telling me about the former owners and the owners before them. i remember there being mention of a citris grower family owning it at some point. anyway... whether or not that's true, i still found it fascinating that gram and i developed our interest in music in the same area, and both knew the carleton family.
anyway... upon reading his wiki entry, i've discovered the following facts. gram was born in winter haven, florida (basically my home town) in november, 1946, about a month before my dad was born, 8 miles away. gram grew up in winter haven (and later winter park), attended winter haven high school (i used to rehearse there) and played in cover bands around winter haven as a teen.
his mother's family (the snively's) owned a lot of citris property in polk county, including the land that cypress gardens was built upon. the snively's and the adam's were two of the major grower families decades ago. i grew up in these orange groves.
gram got his start in music after seeing elvis presley in 1957 in georgia... and by the mid 60's recorded several albums worth of demo material, produced by local musician jim carleton, while playing in several local bands. as a kid in the early 90's, i bought a lot of my early music gear from carleton's music store in winter haven, including my first snare drum, drum machine, acoustic guitar, etc.
apparently jim made a distribution deal with sundaze records and released these mid 60's gram parsons demos as "another side of this life" - a compilation of covers and 5 parsons songs.
gram parsons, who took his stepfather's last name, benefited from his stepfather owning several nightclubs in winter haven and around polk county. among these night clubs was the rustic lounge, which my stepfather owned from 1990 to 1995. my mom and dad went on their first date together to the rustic in 1972.
i remember my stepfather telling me about the former owners and the owners before them. i remember there being mention of a citris grower family owning it at some point. anyway... whether or not that's true, i still found it fascinating that gram and i developed our interest in music in the same area, and both knew the carleton family.