Grievous Angel

Grievous Angel: The Legend of Gram Parsons

Anders Drerup and Kelly Prescott as Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris
in the theatrical concert Grievous Angel: The Legend of Gram Parsons.

Produced and directed by Michael Bate.

The theatrical concert has been touring around the United States and Canada for the past several months and the group made a stop in Oregon to perform at the Alberta Rose Theatre in Portland on October 23rd. I was looking forward to seeing the concert back when I read about their tour along the west coast over a month ago. I have a small connection to the play in that I designed the suit Anders is wearing as well as embroidered the jacket and applied all those sparkly rhinestones. You can read about the process and see the progression of embroidery here.

To say the least, I was very excited to see the suit in action. Trust me when I say, I took hundreds of photos of the jacket during the production, and after it was made; Laying it out on tables and putting it on the mannequin didn’t do the suit justice, like seeing it on Anders in person did.

I spoke to a couple after the concert and they told me they had been remarking to each other before the performance that the Nudie Suit had better be good. Needless to say, they loved it and thought it was beautiful work. I told them I don’t want to toot my own horn but it does look amazing on him.

I love the way the play was written in that Gram (Anders) explained the relevance of each image on the jacket and explained how the suit really told his story.

Kelly Prescott, playing Emmylou Harris, gave a great performance, complimenting Anders quite well. I had watched videos of the two of them performing together prior to seeing the show, but much like looking at the suit on a mannequin, it’s just not the same until you hear them in person.

The lighting in the theater was very dark overall and the stage lights really made the suit pop against the dark background, making it hard for me to take my eyes off Anders in the suit. Despite the it’s quality of being addictive eye-candy, Al Bragg, Chris Breitner, Pat McLaughlin and Tom Martel no doubt need mentioning for their outstanding execution of Gram’s music. The whole group meshed extraordinarily well.

I hung out for a few minutes after the show because I wanted to see if I could get my picture taken with Anders while he still had the suit on. I was incredibly nervous about introducing myself, but I figured I’m here and I’m probably not going to see the suit again. So, I went up to him and introduced myself as the suit’s designer. He was very enthusiastic to meet me and immediately gave me a hug which threw me for a loop because I tend to be very shy so, having a complete stranger hug me was shocking (in a good way). It was really awesome to meet Anders and Michael, and to see the suit up close one more time. I was impressed by the show and definitely recommend people go see it. The shows in Portland are the last listed on their site’s Tour page, but I really hope they continue with it.

Myself posing with Anders Drerup

Tagged: Alberta Rose Theatre, Anders Drerup, custom suits, David McDonald, embroidered suits, Gram Parsons, Grievous Angel, Kelly Prescott, Manuel Cuevas, Michael Bate, Nudie Cohn, Nudie Suits, suit design, suit designers, The Legend of Gram Parsons

Posted in: Embroidery, Fashion, Fine Art, Sewing