A long and fun-filled weekend is
nearing its end on a down note, with the hated Buffalo Bills beating my beloved
Miami Dolphins.
I’ll try to wash the taste of that
experience out of my mouth with this next review, which I delayed by a couple
of days just so I could keep listening to the record.
Disc 663 is…. Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town
Year of Release: 1978
What’s up with the Cover? Instead of a quarter moon and a ten cent town we get
a crescent moon and no town at all. Consider me underwhelmed, especially when a
picture like this one…
…is available inside. Emmylou has
the kind of unearthly beauty that takes your breath away even when hair is
covering most of her face.
How I Came To Know It: I’ve been drilling through old Emmylou Harris
records for a few years now, and this is one of my more recent additions. Once
I like an artist, I tend to stick with them unless they give me cause not to.
How It Stacks Up: I have eleven Emmylou Harris albums, with specific
plans to buy at least four more. “Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town” is one of
her best. As I noted when I reviewed “Roses In the Snow” back at Disc 459, I
think of her career as two parts. I’ve got six of her early albums, and another
five later ones. Of the six early ones “Quarter Moon” is just ahead of “Pieces
of the Sky” (reviewed at Disc 417) at number two of her early work, and third overall.
Rating: 4 stars
Cajun
spice, Kentucky bluegrass and free and easy folk songs all blend beautifully
together on Emmylou Harris’ “Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town,” her fifth studio
release.
From the
very first notes of “Easy From Now On”
Harris’ voice had the hairs on the back of my neck rising. Every word aches its
way into your heart, and while she can still belt them out today, in 1978 the
purity of her tone is at the height of its power. This is a song about a
spurned woman determined to turn her life around; its genius being that it isn’t
going to be easy from now on, but you know Emmylou is going to get there all
the same.
“Two More Bottles of Wine” is a Delbert
McClinton song, and a classic example of how Harris takes a song written for a
man, and completely recasts it to suit a modern woman. Life is hard, with
dead-end jobs and dead-beat lovers, but at the end of the day there’s always
wine.
The
album then takes a sad turn, with the mournful “To Daddy” a Dolly Parton song about a wife and mother who always
puts her own needs second to husband and children until one day she doesn’t. I
love the way this song ends on the five, leaving it feeling unresolved but also
implying that wherever mommy has left for, things are going to be better when
she gets there.
“My Songbird” follows, a song about not
letting someone go even when you know it is the right thing to do and a perfect
emotional bookend after “To Daddy.”
The
entire album is filled with love’s slow collapse, but Emmylou’s delivery
threads a string of hope through each of them. It isn’t hope that maybe the
relationship will recover, but a more subtle hope based on how these characters
endure heartache, and even use it to motivate them to a better place.
By the
time the fifth song comes on, I am always feeling a little maudlin and loving
it. Right when you need it, Harris jumpstarts your spirits with the up-tempo Cajun
classic “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad
Daylight.” The easy swing of this song, the quick and clever lyrics and the
delightful touches of fiddle and accordion make for magic that had me playing
it two or three times in a row before moving on.
Harris
doesn’t write any of these songs, which is a pity because when she does write a
song it is usually a good one. Still, it is hard to argue with what she chooses
to record – her ear for a good song has never failed her. Naturally her muse
Rodney Crowell is front and centre, co-writing “Leaving Louisiana” as well as the similarly sassy “I Ain’t Living Long Like This.” Both
songs give the record its swing as well as provide dynamics that keep the
record overall from being too somber.
My copy
of the album is the 2004 remaster from Rhino, and has a couple of bonus tracks:
a live version of Guy Clark’s “New Cut
Road” and a Cajun song called “LaCassine
Special” sung in French. Both are good, but don’t add a whole lot to the
record.
“Quarter
Moon in a Ten Cent Town” is a classic country record that still sounds as fresh
and relevant today as it did 35 years ago. The songs are a triumph of
inspiration over adversity, sung by an artist who can take any style of country
music and make it her own.
Best tracks: Easy From Now On, Two More
Bottles of Wine, To Daddy, My Songbird, Leaving Louisiana in the Broad
Daylight, One Paper Kid, Green Rolling Hills
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