Friends of long standing will know how desperate eager we have been, since Live Fast, Die Young: Misadventures in Rock & Roll America was published in the UK last year, that it should become available in the US. It’s a book about rock and roll America, after all. Many kind souls have responded to our repeated begging appeals for help in making that happen.

So we’re thrilled to be able to tell you that your hard work has paid off. Our little tribute to GP in book form – a tale of two men on a coast-to-coast search for the soul of American music – will be available in bookstores and interweb sites everywhere on that fine continent from 1 April 2012! It’s a little way off, but we hope you’ll agree it’s worth the wait. (If you can’t wait until next year, or you live in the UK, you can always buy it here.) And you can be quite sure we’ll be reminding you again nearer the time. Quite sure.

As always, thanks for your support and encouragement. If Live Fast, Die Young is new to you, go here for some blurb about it, or watch this video of Chris and Joe reading the prologue:

For now though, we’ll leave you with some words from nice people who have already read it:

“A thoroughly enjoyable ride through the American musical wilderness. Live Fast, Die Young brings out the inner geek in every rock and roll dreamer.” Zane Lowe, BBC Radio 1 

“Heart-warming and hilarious … Bill Bryson meets Nick Hornby.” Country Update Magazine

“Not only a joy sui generis, but also – and better yet – a joy to be shared by reading aloud. Mere satire is cheap; the blood in these pages is more authentic than any Nashville approximation of Americana.”  Stanley Booth, The True Adventures of the Rolling Stones

“A book that shows how your obsessions can shape and change your life. Excellent.”  James Dean Bradfield, Manic Street Preachers

“I howled myself silly. But like me, readers of Live Fast, Die Young will find their aching sides soothed by the heart-warming rhythms of mutual and musical harmony pulsing from two human hearts at their best.” Diann Blakely, Harvard Review, BookPage, Nashville Scene

“The thinking man’s Dumb & Dumber.”  Mike McCormack, Universal Music Publishing

We’re a little off brief with this post, but given our current UK/US continent-spanning presence, we couldn’t resist posting this hilarious face-off between Jon Stewart and John Oliver about whose country is more f*cked at the moment. UK – 1, US – Nil.

Normal service will resume next post.

MPx

Missing Parsons continue their quest to ‘live the music’.

In this episode, Chris finds out what it’s like to think of a calico bonnet all the way from Cheyenne to Tennessee, just as his hero Gram Parsons does in Return of the Grievous Angel.

But will he do it? Can he make it through Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Mississippi thinking of nothing but a calico bonnet? We’ve condensed five states, an awful lot of thinking and a smattering of facial hair into one four-minute video so that you too can enjoy the tedium.

We’ve made it as far as Monument Valley. Hope you enjoy this video, which features more musical contributions from Parson Simon Kilshaw*. Chris misses the Monument Valley sunrise and Joe tells us a thing or two about films and stuff.

*Simon is known to have links to Missing Parsons the band; everything else about them remains a closely guarded secret, though members of team Parsons on Facebook are believed to have access to further information.

On our first day in LA we made a short video with Terra Naomi. If nothing else it’ll give you an idea of what the trip was intended to be. It turned out rather differently, as you’ll discover in the book – Live Fast, Die Young, Misadventures in Rock & Roll America.