Gram Parsons/The Flying Burrito Bros., Sleepless Nights (1976)

For twelve songs squeezed out of a corpse, this isn’t half bad. Nine outtakes from the original Burrito Bros lineup in 1970 with Chris Hillman and the reliably dull Michael Clarke, and three Grievous Angels leftovers done with Emmylou Harris. It’s hard to ever dislike the Gram-and-Emmy Show—songs come and songs go, some better than others, but the two of them singing together sounds great regardless. There’s not an original composition in the bunch, but it’s freeing to hear GP stop striving for iconic status—always my least favorite aspect of his work—and just honky-tonk unto oblivion. Plus, the songs are well-chosen; why stop with one Merle Haggard tune when we can have two, the second of which is the perfectly plaintive death-row lament “Sing Me Back Home,” the album’s highlight? Otherwise, nothing here achieves classic status, but most of it falls just short. In a pinch, I’d probably take it over Grievous Angel.