Grievous Angel

Parsons sings lead and plays acoustic guitar, with Emmylou Harris on every track except "Brass Buttons", Glen D. Hardin on piano, James Burton on lead guitar, Emory Gordy Jr. on bass, Ron Tutt on drums, Herb Pedersen on rhythm guitar and Al Perkins on pedal steel. Bernie Leadon, Byron Berline and Linda Ronstadt were among the guests, and the core band included members of Elvis Presley's TCB band. Only two songs were newly written, "Return of the Grievous Angel" and "In My Hour of Darkness"; "Brass Buttons" dates from the mid-1960s, "$1000 Wedding" from the Burritos, and "Ooh Las Vegas" had been rejected from GP. The sixth track is a medley, studio-recorded with crowd noise added.

It was originally credited to Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris and intended to be titled Sleepless Nights; Gretchen Parsons moved Harris to the back cover, dropped the planned title and replaced the cover photograph. It reached number 195 on the Billboard 200. AllMusic's Mark Deming wrote that it is hard to name an artist who made so strong an album so close to the end; Melody Maker's Allan Jones said it needed no analysis, only to be heard. Rolling Stone ranked it 425th in 2012.