11th Annual Sleepless Nights: A Tribute to Gram Parsons & Cosmic American Music

After hosting San Francisco’s annual Gram Parsons tribute concert for the last ten years, Sleepless Nights founder (and Sweet Chariot frontman) Eric Shea is opening up the 11th tribute to encompass the late Parsons’ vision of "cosmic American music" – a phrase that Parsons preferred to country-rock.

Shea explains, "Gram left behind a substantial amount of recordings. But after an entire decade of mining songs to play at this tribute, Gram’s body of work doesn’t seem so voluminous anymore."

He adds,… Show more "I’m really into his vision of cosmic American music because it kind of pokes fun at the notion of needing to compartmentalize music into genres while challenging musicians to blend gospel, country, soul, rock and blues all together. So for the 11th Sleepless Nights, I want to invite folks to pluck some fruit from Gram’s musical family tree. That includes songs by The Byrds, Ray Charles, Gene Clark, Buffalo Springfield, The Staple Singers, Emmylou Harris, Tony Joe White, The Dillards, Michael Nesmith, Joe South, some Rolling Stones stuff and countless others."

Shea also cites the diversity of events booked by FolkYeah Presents as an inspiration. "FolkYeah has brought so much amazing music to our community and I love how their bills seem put together by what feels right instead of by genre. It’s all about what’s going to make for fun and memorable night of quality music."

This year’s tribute will benefit The Andreas Trolf Medical Fund: http://tinyurl.com/AndreasTrolfMedicalFund

Show less