For reasons I won’t bore you with, I’ve really gotten into the country rock musical genre recently, specifically the style of cosmic American music promoted by the legendary Gram Parsons in the early 1970s. In doing so I’ve learned about how the perfect pairing of Parsons and the great Emmylou Harris came to be on our own M St.
As recounted in a Washington Post article in 2015, in December 1971 Harris had a standing gig singing at Clyde’s. Word of her skill reached those around Parsons (who was looking for a singing partner). While he was on tour on the east coast he reached out to Harris from Baltimore. She agreed to meet him in Georgetown, and the rest is history:
Amused by her gumption, Parsons took the train to D.C. and met Harris at Clyde’s. It was pouring rain, and only five people showed up for her gig, two of them being Gram and his wife, Gretchen. Gram was so enthused, however, that he joined Harris in the basement amid the beer kegs to sing Hank Williams’s “I Saw the Light.” They sang it onstage during the second set, and Harris’s voice wrapped around Parsons’s as if they had rehearsed it for hours.
The duo became legendary for their harmonies. They recorded two critically acclaimed albums. Sadly the second was posthumous for Parsons, as he died of a drug overdose in Joshua Tree National Park just two years later. Harris went on to a highly successful career in her own right, but many still mourn the loss of such a brilliant and short lived partnership.
It’s amazing to consider how much musical history can be tied to a couple blocks on M St. On top of this story, remember that Afternoon Delight by Starland Vocal Band was inspired by the happy hour menu at Clyde’s a few years later. And two of the members of that group collaborated with John Denver to write Take Me Home Country Roads in 1970. Denver debuted the song at the Cellar Door just down the block from Clyde’s. Moreover, one of Miles Davis’ most acclaimed live albums was recorded at the Cellar Door, which also hosted live albums by Neil Young, the Seldom Scene and Richie Havens. (Now, of course, it’s a Starbucks).
It’s hard to imagine it now, but Georgetown was once a genuine music hot spot. Sad to see that mostly consigned to history, but at least we’ve still got Blues Alley…
The Georgetown Metropolitan 
Are you sure it was Clyde’s where Emmy Lou played regularly when Parsons came along? I was playing with a band in DC in the early 70s and I remember Harris playing at Mr Henry’s. There were three back then, one on Pennsylvania Ave in Capitol Hill, one on Wisconsin Ave in Georgetown, and one on Tenley Circle. She played at both Tenley Circle and Wisconsin Ave. In fact the staff at Mr Henry’s where I played mentioned that Gram Parsons had stopped in one night, unfortunately a night when I wasn’t there.
I remember Clyde’s being a topless club, not a music club At least that’s what it was in 1972. I played music at a club nearby called The Keg and ended up dating one of the dancers at Clyde’s for a short while. They may have had live music, too, but I can’t imagine Emmy Lou doing solo acoustic gigs there.
I remember seeing Emmy Lou many times at the Red Fox Inn in Bethesda and talked with her. She was there every Tuesday night.