I’ve been sick all week and on
Tuesday I even took the first sick day off work I can remember in years. Today
is the first day I woke up and felt like I’ve almost got this thing beat. Good
thing, too, because the weekend is arriving early for me and I don’t want to
waste a single moment of it.
Let’s get it started with a music
review!
Disc 973 is…Bluebird
Artist: Emmylou
Harris
Year of Release: 1988
What’s up with the Cover? Emmylou, making an ordinary eighties
country dress look elegant.
How I Came To Know It: About a year ago I undertook to
listen to all the Emmylou albums I didn’t have. I then started purchasing all
the ones I liked. “Bluebird” was one of my most recent finds.
How It Stacks Up: My journey through Emmylou’s discography has
been fruitful. When I last reviewed an Emmylou album back in May 2016 I had 11
of her solo albums. I now have 14 and I’m only on the search for one more
(1990’s “Brand New Dance”). Of the 14 I have, “Bluebird” is just out of top
tier, but not by much. I’ll put it 7th.
Ratings: 4 stars
The
eighties weren’t the greatest decade for Emmylou Harris. Of the eight records
I’ve listened to from that era only three hold any interest for me: 1980’s
“Roses in the Snow”, 1985’s “The Ballad of Sally Rose” and “Bluebird.” Coming
out in 1989, “Bluebird” left the decade on a high note.
Emmylou’s
early career is strongly bluegrass, and through the eighties you can feel her
exploring other aspects of country music. Her creativity is fearless, with
mixed results, but on “Bluebird” you can start to see the emergence of a new
sound.
The
bluegrass chord progressions are still notable here and there, but there is a
contemporary folk feel creeping into the music, and a willingness to go a
little more electric and orchestral.
Emmylou’s
incredible ear for a good song is on full display. She only writes two songs
(one is co-written with then-husband Paul Kennerley). Both are solid break up
songs. “Heartbreak Hill” delivers a jaunty
slice of break-up pie and “A River For
Him” is a slow processional which feels like a church hymn, until you
realize it is a parting song of an earthly love, made transcendent through
Harris’ voice.
Most of
the record is occupied with other great songwriters, from which Harris has curated similar songs of loss. All of them are sung in a quiet reverent
tone, and that ever-present and instantly recognizable Emmylou quaver that has
broken a thousand hearts, including mine.
The best
and bluest of the bunch is “Icy Blue Heart,”
a John Hiatt cover about broken people trying to find a spark after years of
disappointment and solitude. When Harris sings it she takes it a whole new
level, making you feel the vast emotional devastation of all the years these
two sad people are trying to overcome just to reach each other:
“She came on to him like a slow
moving cold front
His beer was warmer that the look
in her eye
She sat on the stool, and she
said ‘What do you want
She said ‘Give me a love that
don't freeze up inside’
"He said, 'I have melted some
hearts in my time dear
But to sit next to you, Lord I
shiver and shake
And if I knew love, well I don't
think I'd be here
Askin' myself if I had what it
takes
To melt your icy blue heart'”
It
sounds like a cheesy seventies movie, but when Emmylou sings that final line
her voice climbs up into the top of her range like a bird set free from gravity
and damn it if you don't believe the scene.
Later on
the record Emmylou will similarly remake the McGarrigle Sisters’ “Love Is” and Johnny Cash’s “I Still Miss Someone” in her own image;
frail and proud and powerful.
The arrangements
on the record are a little busy, but they work. Some of the solos sound very
eighties but they are muted and laid back enough that they don’t detract from
the strong bones of these great songs.
The only
thing preventing “Bluebird” from soaring higher is the production, which sounds
tinny and distant throughout. There are sections where the shake of a
tambourine sounds so thin I thought at first it was static or water in my
headphones.
Fortunately
even bad production can’t hold back the emotional honesty with which Emmylou
Harris approaches a song. She doesn’t attack it so much as lets it take her
over and then speaks its truth. With all those hints of a big sound that isn’t quite
big enough, it is no surprise that Daniel Lanois would connect with her three
albums later to make the classic “Wrecking Ball.” That is a slightly better
album with much better production, but the seeds of Emmylou’s modern sound can
be found on “Bluebird”.
Best
tracks: Heaven
Only Knows, You’ve Been On My Mind, Icy Blue Heart, Love Is, No Regrets, I
Still Miss Someone, A River for Him
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