Greetings and welcome back to the
CD Odyssey. Let’s get this show on the road without further ado – I’ve got
places to be!
Disc 863 is….Blue Kentucky Girl
Artist: Emmylou
Harris
Year of Release: 1979
What’s up with the Cover? Emmylou appears to the main
attraction at an old western saloon, but they may throw her out when they
realize she’s three dimensional.
In other
news, this cover is a reminder of just how horrid country music fashion was in
1979. The guys in the background look more stylish.
How I Came To Know It: I was just drilling through
Emmylou’s back catalogue a few years ago and took a rider on this album.
How It Stacks Up: I have 11 of Emmylou Harris’ solo albums. I
put “Blue Kentucky Girl” in 8th place. Really it is really in a
statistical tie with “Roses in the Snow” (reviewed back at Disc 459) for 7th
place. Not the greatest Emmylou album ever, but respectable in a strong field.
Ratings: 3 stars
“Blue Kentucky Girl” is not at the same level as
Emmylou’s first four solo albums, but it is only a small step down from those
lofty heights.
By now, long time readers will know exactly what I
think of Emmylou and her voice, but for the new readers, let me sum up. Emmylou
Harris has the voice of an angel. High, airy and powerful, it has a quaver full
of heartache or sass, depending on what is called for. This album put’s her instrument
on full display. On “Rough and Rocky”
she sounds like she’s at the top of her range, powerful and pure, and then two
thirds of the way into the song she shifts the key up, and shows you she’s got
plenty more power under the hood.
Emmylou’s singing makes the hair stand up on the
back of my neck. Whether she’s singing about heartache, (“Beneath Still Waters”), nostalgia (“Hickory Wind”) or enduring love (“Save the Last Dance for Me”) she draws you in like a siren.
As an entire album, the quality of songs on “Blue
Kentucky Girl” aren’t consistently at the same level as those on “Elite Hotel” or “Quarter Moon In a Ten Cent Town” but side one certainly is, and is
there that all the best tracks reside.
“Sister’s
Coming Home” is an up-tempo song that sounds celebratory, until you realize
that the song is about unwanted pregnancy. Emmylou has always been at the
forefront of blazing trails for female country singers. She sang about topics
that were uncomfortable, giving them depth and nuance through the strength and
conviction of her delivery. In under three minutes of “Sister’s Coming Home” you know that momma doesn’t like the baby’s father,
and that the sister in question is more than a little on the wild side herself.
What does sister do when she’s safely back at home?
“Down at the local beer joint
Dancin’ on the hardwood floor
Her jeans fit a little bit
tighter
Than they did before.”
Maybe it’s a last tour of the honkey tonks before the
responsibility of motherhood, but that isn’t the impression I got.
Emmylou writes a pretty country song when the mood
takes her, but she’s always been just as happy singing other people’s songs.
Fortunately, she has an uncanny talent for picking the perfect songs. On “Blue
Kentucky Girl” she finds great songs from the likes of Doc Pomus, Willie
Nelson, Earl Scruggs and Rodney Crowell (who at this time was still an integral
part of her “Hot Band”).
Emmylou’s muse will always be Gram Parsons, and the
entry on this record is “Hickory Wind,”
which is so perfect that having heard it, I have a hard time remembering the original
version by the Byrds. When I put it on my first thought was, “good, but not as
good as Emmylou.” Sorry, Gram.
Side One ends with “Save the Last Dance for Me,” a Doc Pomus song that sounds like a
mix of country and an old sixties pop track (which makes sense, given it was
first recorded by the Drifters in 1960). This is a song about love strong
enough that it is never jealous. A woman tells her man to have a fun time
drinking and dancing, and all she asks is that he save the last dance for her.
It is a song of trust from someone who knows she has nothing to worry about.
The second half of the album was a strange mix of
very traditional sounding songs, with late seventies production values. While
this isn’t the first time Emmylou has tried to mix styles (she learned from the
best, in Gram Parsons) it didn’t work for me as the album progressed. These are
not bad songs by any stretch, but they just didn’t blow me away like the
opening half of the album.
“Even Cowgirls
Get the Blues” finishes the album, and it is the best song of side two. It
is written by Rodney Crowell, who next to Gram Parsons, has always had an
uncanny insight into who Emmylou is as an artist, and how to find her voice.
“Blue Kentucky Girl” isn’t the first Emmylou album
you should seek out, but it is definitely worth having if you like her style,
and as the last album she released in the seventies, sends the decade off in
style.
Best
tracks: Sister’s Coming Home, Beneath Still Waters,
Rough and Rocky, Hickory Wind, Save the Last Dance for Me
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