While performing in a Washington D.C. coffeehouse, she was discovered by former Byrds member Chris Hillman, who recommended her to Gram Parsons for his first solo album, 'GP'. Harris toured as a member of Parsons' band, The Flying Burrito Brothers, in 1973, and recorded on their album 'Grievous Angel'. After Parsons died of overdose, Harris was devastated and wrote her most well-known song 'Boulder to Birmingham'. Three more of their duets were included on another posthumous Parsons album, 'Sleepless Nights', in 1976.

Animals have a much better attitude to life and death than we do. They know when their time has come. We are the ones that suffer when they pass, but it's a healing kind of grief that enables us to deal with other griefs that are not so easy to grab hold of.