When a friend of mine, who was a big fan of Emmylou Harris, first heard the album Wrecking Ball in 1995, she complained that it wasn’t at all what she was expecting. She threatened to give it away, and I expressed my interest in taking it, but ultimately she held onto it.
I had quite a few Emmylou Harris LPs, and Wrecking Ball wasn’t what I expected either, but I meant that in a GOOD way. Read about the 2014 re-release.
The CMT page describes her well:
“Though other performers sold more records and earned greater fame, few had as profound an impact on contemporary music as Emmylou Harris. Blessed with a crystalline voice, a remarkable gift for phrasing, and a restless creative spirit, she traveled a singular artistic path, proudly carrying the torch of ‘cosmic American music’ passed down by her mentor, Gram Parsons. With the exception of only Neil Young — not surprisingly an occasional collaborator — no other mainstream star established a similarly large body of work as consistently iconoclastic, eclectic, or daring; even more than four decades into her career, Harris’ latter-day music remained as heartfelt, visionary, and vital as her earliest recordings.”
For her sheer range of work – from background singer, to solo artist, to duets with a range of artists including Mark Knopfler, to her best selling collaboration with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt – her distinctive sound always enhances her many projects.
I expect Eddie at Renaissance Geek will feature Emmylou Harris today.
The links below are in roughly chronological order, from the most recent.
The Traveling Kind (with Rodney Crowell)
Amazing Grace/Nearer My God To Thee (with Ladysmith Black Mambazo)
Beachcombing (with Mark Knopfler)
Flesh and Blood (with Mary Chapin Carpenter and Sheryl Crow)
Didn’t Leave Nobody But The Baby (with Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch)
After the Goldrush (with Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton)
1917 (with Linda Ronstadt)
Songs from the Trio album (with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt)
