CD Odyssey Disc 1005: Emmylou Harris

I’m feeling restless today, but I think I’m just eager for a long weekend.

Disc 1005 is…The Ballad of Sally Rose

Artist: Emmylou Harris

Year of Release: 1985

What’s up with the Cover? The tyrannical run of Giant Head covers has ended at five, replaced with this…tiny head cover. This cover features the head of Emmylou Harris, which is lovely at any size, and a tasteful script and floral border. The whole thing looks rather timeless.

Except, of course for the advertisement of “A DIGITAL RECORDING” at the top. On a CD that came out in 1985, this is not a good sign. More on this later.

How I Came To Know It: I recently went through Emmylou Harris’ back catalogue to see if any I didn’t have struck my fancy. Three did, and the other two were both recently reviewed (“Cowgirl’s Prayer” reviewed back at Disc 979, and “Bluebird” reviewed back at Disc 973). "The Ballad of Sally Rose" is the third.

How It Stacks Up:  I am still missing one Emmylou Harris album I want (1990’s “Brand New Dance”). Even without that album I have fourteen of Emmylou’s albums. Of those fourteen, I’m going to bump “Roses in the Snow” down yet another spot to make room for “the Ballad of Sally Rose” at #9.

Ratings: 3 stars

It’s not every day you get a country music concept album but I guess if you’re Emmylou Harris you’ve done everything else, so why not?

On “The Ballad of Sally Rose” Emmylou makes succeeds in making this strange combination work. The album tells the tale of titular songstress Sally Rose who meets her musical soul mate, falls in love and then drifts away from him as he returns to his rakish ways. Even as she translates the inspiration he provided into a music career of her own, she misses him and intends to reconcile, only to find he has died in a car accident. It’s a fairly obvious story (some say is a loose allegory of Harris’ relationship with Gram Parsons) but Emmylou makes it work.

The story is aided by songs that hold together well, and naturally flow into one another. The eighties were responsible for a lot of country music disasters, but Harris manages to navigate through some of the more artificial aspects of eighties production for the most part unscathed. She even makes it work for her, creating an orchestral feel in contrast to a lot of her more stripped down early work.

One of the reasons the songs are so cohesive is all of them are composed by both Emmylou Harris and then-husband Paul Kennerley (who if this album is about Gram Parsons deserves extra credit for letting art come before ego). Emmylou will often write one or two songs per album and they are always great, leaving me wishing she composed more. With “The Ballad of Sally Rose” I finally get that wish fulfilled.

“Woman Walk the Line” is my favourite track, powerful and perfect, telling the story of a woman being wronged and willing to hit the bars and let herself be tempted by strange men, but still in control of her desires enough to go home alone:

“Tonight I wanna do some drinkin’

I came to listen to the band

Yes I’m as good as what you’re thinkin’

But I don’t wanna hold your hand

And I know I’m lookin’ lonely

But there’s nothin’ here I wanna find

It’s just the way of a woman

When she goes out to walk the line.”

Harris sets it up she makes it clear that she knows how to walk up to the line and not cross it, showing up her partner’s weakness all the more by comparison.  The song is further aided by a majestic two-note guitar flourish that punctuates Sally Rose’s pride. It feels like Neil Diamond dropped by the studio, strummed a few notes to jazz the place up and then left before he drowned the place in too much schmaltz. Of course, that didn't happen. For one thing, Neil Diamond can never have too much schmaltz - his capacity is limitless. For another he wasn't involved on this record.

But I digress...

The album is also aided by Emmylou’s incredible vocals, her signature quaver a little back in the mix at times because of all the business in the production, but forcing itself to the front when called for, such as on the opening track.

Unfortunately hearing Emmylou (and her great songs) is not made easier by the aforementioned DIGITAL RECORDING advertised on the cover. This album was released in 1985 when albums were still made with records and tapes in mind, and CD technology was a distant third. That is very evident here, with song volumes that sounded muddy and distant.

No matter how much I turned it up it still sounded like I was listening to it through the wall. Only unlike most music you hear through a wall (like from a party going on in the suite next door at three in the morning) I wanted to hear more of it, not less. However, I could tell from the production values that if I turned it up any further it would still sound dull and distant, only louder.

This was a major detraction from what is otherwise a solid record, with thoughtful compositions that successfully marries eighties country sensibilities with old school bluegrass and vocal virtuosity. This is a largely forgotten gem in Emmylou’s discography that deserves more love than it gets in the modern era.

Best tracks: The Ballad of Sally Rose, Rhythm Guitar, Woman Walk the Line, Timberline, White Line, Sweet Chariot

CD Odyssey Disc 987: Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris

Spring was in the air today as I walked home. Cherry trees blossomed and the sun felt like it might soon be sufficiently bold to kick winter to the curb for good. Well, for six months or so anyway.

Disc 987 is…Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions

Artist: Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris

Year of Release: 1999

What’s up with the Cover? The ladies look like they are part of a wedding party – a super-hot wedding party!

Later they’ll stand gracefully beside the bride in a garden photo shoot. The bride will have a strained smile on her face as she wonders why she told the bridesmaids to wear white, and how much better Emmylou and Linda look in it than she does. Later she’ll blame the maid of honour for a night on the town the previous evening that left bags under her eyes, then get too drunk at the reception and fall in the hotel fountain.

I have a vivid imagination.

How I Came To Know It: I just bought this album in the last couple of months. I think my coworker Sam alerted me to it and a used copy coincidentally showed up a few weeks later.

How It Stacks Up:  I only have one album with this particular pairing but I have three Emmylou Harris albums where she partners up with another singer. Of the three, “Western Wall” is about even with her Rodney Crowell collaboration, “Old Yellow Moon” but behind “All the Road Running” with Mark Knopfler.

Ratings: 3 stars

What’s better than one of country music’s most defining voices? Two of those voices, of course! On “Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions” CD Odyssey frequent flier Emmylou Harris teams up with fellow chanteuse (and Odyssey newcomer) Linda Ronstadt to take some great songs and make them their own.

Emmylou is famous for the sheer volume of her collaborations. She is so prolific she has five separate Wikipedia pages cataloguing them all. Seriously, check it out. With her emotive quaver and natural airy range, Emmylou can make anyone sound good: Bob Dylan, Guy Clark, you name it – and that’s just from the A-F section of the Wiki pages.

So when she teams up with Linda Ronstadt, with her power, range and thick rich tone, good things are going to happen. Together, the two women sing duets, sometimes taking turns on the verses, sometimes blending into harmony where both the richness and the quaver find a delightful balance. This is candy for the ears.

Access to material was obviously not an issue, either, because “Western Wall” is packed with famous songwriters ‘lending’ their tunes. The album features songs written by Jackson Browne, Roseanne Cash, Sinead O’Connor, Leonard Cohen, the McGarrigle Sisters, Bruce Springsteen and others.

Despite this august company, my favourite track is by lesser known Andy Prieboy. Harris and Ronstadt cover Prieboy’s “Loving the Highway Man,” which is about a woman who is ostracized for falling in with an outlaw. The song has amazing production. It mixes ethereal electric guitar, sweet but stark vocals and some well-placed percussion that emphasizes the frustration of the character’s bad decisions like a fist beating a wall.

As usual, Emmylou quietly slips in a couple songs of her own which are every bit the equal of the covers. “Raise the Dead” is a retrospective of Emmylou’s career (already long, and this was 17 years ago). It has a nice mix of bluegrass, country and rock tinges around the edge. Even Ronstadt wisely takes a back seat here and lets Emmylou tell the tale of the musicians that fell before her, and how she knows she’s trapped by the same calling until it’s her time to follow.

Not so good is Harris’ “Sweet Spot” (co-written with Jill Cunniff) which suffers from some very unfortunate production decisions, including a weird echo of some lines flashing only in the right speaker. It felt like my headphones were shorting out. When I realized it was on purpose it made it worse.

“Sweet Spot” is also one of a number of songs on “Western Wall” that feel a bit too…motherly. On this track and Sinead O’Connor’s “This Is to Mother You” it sounds like the duo are going to bake you some cookies or bring you soup in bed. It is all just a little domestic. Worst of all, this vibe seeps into Leonard Cohen’s “Sisters of Mercy.” It was hard to hear two of my favourite vocalists take one of my favourite Cohen songs and trade its weary respite for a peace that felt just a little too perfect.

“1917” is a nice juxtaposition to this vibe. It tells the story of a French woman having an affair with a soldier on leave from the front. The motherly concern is here as well, but it is intertwined with a steamy romance that is so intimate it is a little uncomfortable to listen to; like you are hearing something that should rightly be between the two lovers alone.

When “Western Wall” sticks the landing, it feels like magic. The musicians are top notch, and the production is sharp, clear and in service to the amazing voices of Ronstadt and Harris. When it misses, the production is overblown, leaving the vocals saccharine and trite. Overall, though, it hits a lot more than it misses, and when you have these two singers it is hard to go far wrong.

Best tracks: Lovin’ the Highway Man, Raise the Dead, For a Dancer, Western Wall, 1917

CD Odyssey Disc 979: Emmylou Harris

Well that was a busy day! I am looking forward to a music review and then slouching on the couch for a while before I fall asleep.

Disc 979 is…Cowgirl’s Prayer

Artist: Emmylou Harris

Year of Release: 1993

What’s up with the Cover? Cowgirl Emmylou, strong and beautiful. It is hard not to like cowgirls in moments like this, but if they aren’t your thing the back side of the booklet provides something completely different: Vampire Emmylou.

Basically there’s no look Emmylou doesn’t master.

How I Came To Know It: When I reviewed “Bluebird” back at Disc 973 I noted that I recently dug through all the Emmylou albums I hadn’t heard yet, purchasing the ones I liked. This was one of them.

How It Stacks Up:  I didn’t like this album nearly as much as “Bluebird” but it has its moments. I’ll put it 12^th out of my 14 Emmylou albums, but since slots 10 through 14 are otherwise unoccupied, I reserve the right to move it up or down a bit depending on how later albums fare.

Ratings: 2 stars but almost 3

When you have a voice like Emmylou Harris you can’t really make a bad record, but I still walked away from “Cowgirl’s Prayer” wishing for a bit more. This record has a few great moments, which is why I bought it in the first place, but they’re too few and far between overall.

Let’s start with a positive. At a time in music when production tended to get a bit too busy and new Nashville was creeping in from all sides, Emmylou manages to maintain a timeless style all her own. She knows how to blend traditional country and bluegrass with blues and contemporary folk that makes even the most boring song sound pleasant. A little new country creeps in on “High Powered Love” but mercifully that song is an outlier.

And as ever there’s her voice, delivering that magical quaver I can never get enough of. It is a voice that can make a bad song sound average and a good song sound great. There were a few times when it was put to the test on “Cowgirl’s Prayer” but it held up well.

Emmylou has a natural talent to cover a great song and make it her own, but “Cowgirl’s Prayer” was a bit of a disappointment on this front, if only in comparison to the amazing run of covers she does on other albums. She does a fine job of the classic Eddie Arnold “You Don’t Know Me”, but it didn’t knock me out of my chair. It could just be that the song has never been a favourite of mine. It’s a bit too mopey, but not in a good way (yes, there is a good mopey. More on that in a minute).

She also tackles Lucinda Williams’ “Crescent City,” once again being drawn to songs about New Orleans and Louisiana. She sings it well, but I like this song with Lucinda’s hurt over Emmylou’s quaver.

The best cover on the record is a reimagining of Leonard Cohen’s “Ballad of the Absent Mare.” With a few subtle line changes Harris turns the mare to a stallion and the song still works beautifully (spoiler alert – the horse represents a person anyway). It is a beautiful song in any incarnation and while Emmylou sings it better, I have a soft spot for the Cohen version. RIP, Leonard.

I bought the album primarily for “Prayer in Open D.” Remember earlier I mentioned that a song can be ‘good mopey’? Well, “Prayer in Open D” is it. It is a confessional of sadness and while the title may be vague, this doesn’t detract at all from the depth of the darkness it descends into. The song begins:

There’s a valley of sorrow in my soul

Where every night I hear the thunder roll

Like the sound of a distant gun

Over all the damage I have done.”

And while the song ends on a flicker of hope, it’s only noticeable because of the thickness of the night Emmylou paints across the song in earlier voices. “Prayer in Open D” is one of only two songs on the record penned by Harris, and another example of how underrated she is as a songwriter.

After multiple listens the song that grew on me the most was “Lovin’ You Again,” a song about the bad loves that attract us, and a recurring booty call that needs to stop but doesn’t. Emmylou serves it all up with equally generous helpings of desire and regret.

The worst song on the record is “Jerusalem Tomorrow” which is a spoken word piece about a travelling charlatan who finds religion. I heard the record three times through, and this track was progressively more painful on every listen. It made me imagine what it would be like to be a kid in Sunday school hearing some story from a nun who wouldn’t let you leave even though the bell had rung. When it came on for the third time on the walk home tonight I winced with the agony of it all.

Fortunately, while few songs inspired me, apart from “Jerusalem Tomorrow” none of the others caused me to physically recoil. Two stars seems a little low given all the threes and fours I sling around this blog, but it doesn’t mean this is a bad record. It just means I wish it were better. Whatever the rating, it is worth keeping just for the three best songs on the record.

Best tracks: Prayer in Open D, Lovin’ You Again, Ballad of a Runaway Horse

CD Odyssey Disc 973: Emmylou Harris

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 7^th.

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

CD Odyssey Disc 863: Emmylou Harris

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 8^th place. Really it is really in a statistical tie with “Roses in the Snow” (reviewed back at Disc 459) for 7^th 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

CD Odyssey Disc 844: Emmylou Harris

It was a stormy and cold walk home in a summer suit, but I’m now ensconced in my warm condo in a boring sweater with a cup of tea in my belly and all is well.

Disc 844 is….Red Dirt Girl

Artist: Emmylou Harris

Year of Release: 2000

What’s up with the Cover? This is one of those albums that came with a cardboard jacket that slid around the plastic jewel case. Those covers are an annoying extra step when you want to listen to the CD, so I’ve taken them all off and stored them somewhere that it isn’t easy to access. The cardboard cover is essentially the same picture but with a wider lens. This version is the close up of Emmylou, looking foxy as hell. You’re welcome.

How I Came To Know It: I have been digging through Emmylou’s back catalogue for many years now. I think I had heard “Wrecking Ball” in the early oughts and liked it, and “Red Dirt Girl” was the next album she’d made so I decided to give it a shot.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 11 of Emmylou Harris’ solo albums. Of those 11, it doesn’t get much better than “Red Dirt Girl.” It does get slightly better though, so I only ranked it second.

Ratings: 4 stars

Unlike most of the albums I’ve been reviewing lately, “Red Dirt Girl” isn’t produced by Daniel Lanois, but it still has his fingerprints all over it. Emmylou even thanks him in the liner notes, writing “My thanks to Daniel Lanois for the push.” We should all be thanking Lanois for that push, which showed that even thirty years into her career, Emmylou Harris was still capable of finding new ways to inspire us through music.

“Red Dirt Girl” sees Emmylou Harris to continue to expand into the new direction she took five years earlier with “Wrecking Ball,” which was produced by Lanois. On “Red Dirt Girl” she embraces his production style, with its big atmospheric sound. Thick and rounded bass features high in the mix of every song, making a fitting foil for the high quaver of Harris’ voice. Emmylou’s voice always gives me chills and the stark way she lets it stand out on this album makes it even more effective.

Admittedly the production isn’t quite at Lanois’ level, and while I was out walking on busy streets I found it a bit too bass heavy in places, and lacking strength in the mid-range. It sounded a lot better at home though, so this could just be the limitations of my MP3 player and rush hour traffic.

Emmylou continues explore contemporary folk songs that feature prominently on “Wrecking Ball.” Folk has always infused Harris’ work, and it is only a dogged devotion to always choosing the most upbeat, commercial song on an album for the single that seems to have held her to the narrow demands of Nashville over the years.

The big change here is that Harris takes a hand in writing the majority of these songs. Most of her albums are written by others, with maybe one song that she writes or co-writes. This is a shame, because despite Emmylou’s exceptional ability to make any song her own writing is just as good as any other songwriter she deigns to record. Many of these songs are co-written, which just seems more fitting for the artist who is the most collaborative of any in my collection.

The topics of these songs range all over, with triumph and tragedy, faith and loss all getting equal opportunity.

“Michelangelo” is a song saturated with great images. I’m not an art historian and my cursory online look for the topics mentioned in the song proved fruitless, but lines like:

“Last night I dreamed about you

I dreamed that you lay dying

In a field of thorn and roses

With a hawk above you crying

For the warrior slain in battle

From an arrow driven deep inside you

Long ago

Michelangelo”

Form a picture out of music and words as beautiful as a Renaissance painting.

On “Red Dirt Girl” (the song) Harris paints a different kind of picture; one of the tragedy of the broken dreams of Lillian, a woman who dreamed big, but dies broken down on whisky and pills a few miles from where she was born. The song ends with her buried in the red dirt ground that she hates and despises. The song always puts a tear in my eye for not only Lillian, but anyone who never got the chance to fulfill their potential.

As a book-end to “Red Dirt Girl” Harris offers “Bang the Drum Slowly” a song about the Harris’ father, whose life is heroic and powerful but still too short when he is gone. When he dies all the things Emmylou never got to say to him are gone at the same time. Guy Clark co-wrote “Bang the Drum Slowly” and together they channel some heavy stuff into those un-held conversations:

“I meant to ask you how to fix that car

I always meant to ask you about the war

And what you saw across a bridge too far

Did it leave a scar?”

This album leaves a scar every time I listen to it. When I looked it up to see how it had done I was pleased to see it won a Grammy, but disappointed that the only single released off of it was a cover of the Patty Griffin song “One Big Love” I love Patty Griffin, but “One Big Love” is too cute and pop-infused to properly showcase all the hidden beauty of this record. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised that even when Emmylou Harris writes an album full of modern classics, she still makes sure to shine a spotlight on someone else.

Best tracks:  The Pearl, Michelangelo, Tragedy, Red Dirt Girl, Bang the Drum Slowly, My Antonia

CD Odyssey Disc 776: Emmylou Harris

I liked this next album so much I bought it on vinyl as well. In case you’re wondering, yes, it does sound better on vinyl. That’s because it is recorded on analog, and analog is just warmer and more beautiful for me.

Remember though, record snobs, if you buy a bunch of digitally recorded music that’s been pressed on vinyl, that doesn’t magically make it sound better. Garbage in = garbage out. On to the review.

Disc 776 is….Elite Hotel

Artist: Emmylou Harris

Year of Release: 1975

What’s up with the Cover? Emmylou Harris always looks good, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen her make sexy look so easy as on the cover of “Elite Hotel.” She looks eight feet tall as well, but she’s sitting down so she can look eye-to-eye at us mortals.

How I Came To Know It: I had recently listened to a couple of Emmylou’s later albums and I was eager to try out something from the beginning of her career. I bought “Elite Hotel” first and since then I’ve gone on to purchase the six albums she recorded after this one.

How It Stacks Up: I now have eleven of Emmylou Harris’ solo albums, with plans to get four more before I’m through. Of the eleven I’ve got, I’m putting “Elite Hotel” first overall.

Ratings: 4 stars but close to 5

“Elite Hotel” is as good as Emmylou Harris gets, and that’s damned good.

This record is her first major release, and she packs it with amazing vocal performances, and Brian Ahern’s relaxed production decisions showcase those performances perfectly.

Harris covers everything on this record reinventing old standards by Patsy Cline (“Sweet Dreams”) and Hank Williams (“Jambalaya”) with the same grace that she sweetens the mournful and modern (for the time) songs of Gram Parsons (“Sin City,” “Ooh Las Vegas” and “Wheels”).

Parsons had just died two years earlier, and his influence on Harris’ record is clear. Where Parsons was interested in infusing rock and roll into country standards, Harris takes his song and flips them; stripping them down to their base elements so the hurt at their centre can float to the top on her voice.

“Sin City” was originally a Flying Burrito Brothers song and was grim already, but in Emmylou’s hands it just drips regret. When you hear Emmylou sing:

“On the thirty-first floor

A gold-plated door

Won’t keep out

The Lord’s burning rain.”

You are immediately assured down to your bones that the apocalypse is on the way. When Harris sings it she’s more than sad – you can tell that she feels sorry for all the sinners that are about to die in a burning rain. She’s kind-hearted that way.

Later she delivers a sweet and regretful version of “Wheels.” Where “Sin City” is a song about retreating into materialism, “Wheels” is about retreating to the road. Both songs are about getting away, and Harris sings them both with the pain of a woman who had just lost one of her closest friends two years earlier, and has been left nothing but his songs.

Emmylou writes sparingly, and her only credit on this album is for “Amarillo” which isn’t my favourite song. Despite the song having good bones and a beat you can jump around to, the idea of losing your sweetheart to a pinball machine just seems a bit silly. She’s written far better over her illustrious career.

Fortunately, she has also always had a knack for picking just the right songs, and “Elite Hotel” is the best example in her discography. In addition to the unmatched talent of channeling the soul of Gram Parsons, “Elite Hotel” also features songs from long-time (and current) collaborator, Rodney Crowell. Yes Crowell is the co-writer of “Amarillo” but his other offering is “Till I Gain Control Again.”

“Till I Gain Control Again” is one of the greatest “let us cling together” songs ever. For years I thought it was a Blue Rodeo song, but when I heard Emmylou sing it my mind was blown all over again. The quavering beauty and tone of her voice carries strong and certain through the darkness. When she pleads for her lover to stand by her it feels like her voice is cutting right down to your marrow.

Musically, this album assembles some great players as well, and they form an intrinsic part of the experience. The wayfaring semi-devotional “One of These Days” is a classic example of great singing combined with great musicianship. This is a song about hope and while the hope isn’t fully realized in the lyrics, the song ends with a note of finality that tells you she’s going to get there.

And just to show she can do it all, Harris delivers one of my favourite songs of hers, “Feelin’ Single, Seein’ Double” a fun-lovin’ romp about going out all night and then coming home to your spouse to face the music. Best of many good lines:

“Well I really had a ball last night

I held all the pretty boys tight

I was feelin’ single, seein’ double

Wound up in a whole lotta trouble

But today I’ll face the big fight

But I really had a ball last night.

“When I came home from work this morning

My baby was feelin’ low

And he told me what was on his mind

Then he told me where I could go.

Well I didn’t go where he told me to

‘Cause the water was cold in the lake

Now there’s something fish ‘bout this whole deal

I don’t see where I made my mistake.”

Sure, go ahead and get surly with Emmylou – she’ll talk to you about it in the morning after going out all night and blowing off some steam with God-knows-who. This song is even better for putting a woman in the “out at the bar role.” Back in 1975 that notion kicked a lot of men in the pants right when (and where) they needed it.

My CD copy of “Elite Hotel” is a re-issue with two bonus tracks, “You’re Running Wild” and “Cajun Born” and both great additions that hold up well against the original content.

They fit in great with a record where the tone of Emmylou’s voice is as at its most pure and perfect. It is so emotionally affecting, it is the first non-rock album I have ever bought on vinyl

Best tracks:  Together Again, Feelin’ Single Seein’ Double, Sin City, One of These Days, Till I Gain Control Again, Satan’s Jewel Crown, Wheels, Cajun Born

CD Odyssey Disc 697: Emmylou Harris

Yeehaw! The weekend is here and I’m soaking in it, just like Marge’s friend soaks in Palmolive. And if you know that reference, congratulations – you’re as old as me.

Disc 697 is…. Luxury Liner

Artist: Emmylou Harris

Year of Release: 1977

What’s up with the Cover? Just another one of those seventies “big head” covers. As big heads go, Emmylou’s is pretty easy on the eyes.

How I Came To Know It: I’ve known Emmylou Harris since I was a kid. “Luxury Liner” was just me drilling through her collection.

How It Stacks Up:  I have 11 of Emmylou Harris’ solo albums, with plans to get four more before I’m through. Of the 11, “Luxury Liner” is up there with the best of them. There are a lot of awesome Emmylou albums however, so I’ve got to put it at fifth.

Rating: 4 stars

In the mid to late seventies, Emmylou Harris had one hell of a run of great records. “Luxury Liner” is one of them.

This album has a good range, mixing up tempo country jangle on the title track and the swagger-filled sass of “Hello Stranger” with the slow and sweet angst of “Making Believe” and the Gram Parson’s classic, “She.”

Emmylou’s voice consistently makes my neck hair stand up, and “Luxury Liner” has some of the most amazing displays of her talent you’ll hear. In particular “Making Believe” hits some high notes early on that almost knock me off my feet every time I hear them. Good thing I’m writing this review sitting down.

This range is also on great display on her cover of Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty.” I don’t know what key she sings it in, but I know she plays it with a capo on her guitar six or seven frets up. I’m teaching myself “Pancho and Lefty” on guitar right now and you can be sure I’ll be singing it in base position, thank you very much.

Emmylou’s approach to the song is inspiring, keeping the melody ninety per cent untouched, but adding her own flourishes to the end of some lines in just the right way. Too often artists feel they have to mess with the melody of a great song in order to make it their own, wrecking it in the process. Emmylou knows how to make something her own while honouring the original work. Her approach to singing a song lets you see the song’s original beauty in a new light.

In this case, “Pancho and Lefty” is a hard-boiled song about bandits and betrayal, and Emmylou’s voice brings out the tragedy of the story in a way that the rougher Van Zandt can’t do. That said lines like:

“The dust that Pancho bit down south

Ended up in Lefty’s mouth.”

Don’t sound quite right in her mouth. This is a minor quibble though, on what is a great version of a great song.

Similarly, she takes Gram Parson’s “She” to a whole higher level. When Emmylou sings about how the title character ‘sure could sing’ it is hard to imagine she’s talking about anyone other than herself.

The worst song on this record is the remake of Chuck Berry’s “(You Never Can Tell) C’est La Vie.” This was actually one of the album’s hits, but I think it sounds campy and insincere. It is the one blemish on an otherwise wonderful album.

My version of “Luxury Liner” is a remastered re-issue, with a couple of bonus tracks. All of these Emmylou remasters are great, both in terms of the production values and also what tracks they choose to add. The new tracks are rarely available on some other album, and they’re not just live versions of a song you already have. There are usually only two of them, and they generally are as good as the album’s original material.

“Luxury Liner” is no exception, and the two bonus tracks (1981’s “Me and Willie” and 1986’s “Night Flyer”) are both excellent. In fact they are two of my favourites off the record. In particular, “Me and Willie,” a character study of a brilliant guitar player who ‘played to ease his soul/and drank to ease his mind.” The song’s lyrics are beautiful and tragic. I’m tempted to share more of them, but I know that without Emmylou’s voice they just won’t hit as hard as they should. I’ll just encourage you to go listen to it on Youtube and then go buy this album; it’s a good one.

Best tracks: Pancho & Lefty, Making Believe, Hello Stranger, She, Me and Willie (bonus track), Night Flyer (bonus track)

CD Odyssey Disc 663: Emmylou Harris

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

Artist: Emmylou Harris

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

CD Odyssey Disc 646: Various Artists

I’ve bought a lot of music lately (more than usual) and along the way discovered a few new (to me) bands I highly recommend. This week’s love affair is with Imelda May, an Irish rockabilly artist who is as talented as she is beautiful. I’ve been listening to her 2010 “Mayhem” album every day this week – often twice a day.

That’s this week’s recommendation, although not this week’s review. The review, as ever, was determined randomly because damn it that’s just more fun.

Disc 646 is….Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons

Artist: Various

Year of Release: 1999

What’s up with the Cover? It’s Gram Parson’s suit or at least an artistic rendition of it. Gram used to wear a white rockabilly suit that looked like this.

Here is Gram in happier times wearing the jacket the cover is based on. Way to rock the ladies on your lapels, Gram. Where the hell is that detail on the cover?

How I Came To Know It: I was looking for some Gram Parsons one day and the record store dudes cleverly had this stored in his section. When I saw that not only was Parsons stalwart Emmylou Harris featured, but also Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams and a whole bunch of my other favourite artists, I bought it without hesitation.

How It Stacks Up:  While it isn’t exactly a best of, as a collection of covers it can’t really stack up against Gram Parsons doing his own stuff.

Rating:  This is also a bit of a gray area. It isn’t a ‘best of’ per se, so I’ve decided to go ahead and give it a grade. That grade is…3 stars, but almost 4

Every now and then a rare artist comes along who just has a knack for writing great songs. Gram Parsons was one of those, and his untimely death in 1973 denied us of his talent all too early. Fortunately he wrote a bunch of tracks before he was gone, and on “Return of the Grievous Angel” a bunch of fairly well known artists pay tribute to him.

If you are going to do a tribute record of a songwriter of Gram Parson’s stature you better get artists with sufficient presence and ability to do his memory proud. “Return” has a pretty impressive lineup that includes the Cowboy Junkies, Beck, Steve Earle, Sheryl Crow, Elvis Costello, Lucinda Williams, Wilco and of course Parson collaborator and confidante Emmylou Harris.

Their work – and that of the other artists on the album – is strong, and while I don’t really care for the Cowboy Junkies treatment of “Ooh Las Vegas” it was at least the most innovative. I similarly didn’t like Elvis Costello trying to add his jazzy flavour to “Sleepless Nights.” Costello sings it as earnestly as he can and you can tell the love is there, but he’s just not suited for this kind of music, despite how much he wants to be.

For the most part, the artists do Parsons ‘straight up’ with very similar arrangements and treatments as he originally used. They are all very good (it is hard to screw up a Gram Parsons song) but in some places I found myself preferring the original. In the case of Beck and Emmylou’s duet on “Sin City” not only prefer the original Flying Burrito Brothers version, but the Emmylou solo version from 1975’s “Elite Hotel” as well.

There are more than a few standouts. Emmylou gets Gram Parsons like few do, and her gentle treatment of “She” alongside Chrissie Hynde and the Pretenders is a great way to start the record. On “Juanita” her background vocals elevate Sheryl Crow beautifully as well and make a song I often gloss over in Parson’s collection standout even more.

Evan Dando and Julianna Hatfield do a great version of “$1,000 Wedding” which has some pretty guitar work, and although I’ve not always been a Whiskeytown fan, their version of “A Song For You” has the perfect mix of desperation and energy the song calls for.

I would have preferred Steve Earle sing “High Fashion Queen” solo, as Chris Hillman’s voice is just too forgettable taking alternating verses. Fortunately David Crosby wisely takes a back seat on his duet of “Return of the Grievous Angel” with Lucinda Williams. Williams is just as much a tortured genius as Parsons and her angst and sandpapery voice add a whole new level to the song.

I would have liked the album to end with Gillian Welch’s treatment of “Hickory Wind” which has a threadbare arrangement that lets her pure bluegrass vocals cut through like the warm summer wind she sings about. I couldn’t imagine a better end.

That is, until we hear the Rolling Creekdippers sing “In My Hour of Darkness.” This song closes a Gram Parson’s collection as fittingly as Tennyson compilations always end with “Crossing the Bar.” In “Crossing the Bar” the poet imagines a heavenly journey ahead, whereas Parsons’ lyrics see only the darkness and unknown. It is the right way to end a tribute album for someone who left us too soon.

“In My Hour of Darkness” is a song about loss on a record that not only makes you contemplate the great artistic loss of Gram parsons, but also those who are gone from our own lives. It is gracefully delivered and deeply affecting but as I sat listening to the Rolling Creekdippers sing it, there was a small part of me that couldn’t help but want to hear Gram’s voice instead. For that reason, I’ll hold this review to three stars by the narrowest of margins.

Best tracks:   She, $1000 Wedding, Juanita, Return of the Grievous Angel, A Song For You, Hickory Wind, In My Hour of Darkness

CD Odyssey Disc 638: Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris

There’s a heat wave blowing through town this week, and I’ve been enjoying it. My office becomes a bit of a roaster at this time of the year, but I still put on a suit and tie every day.

This is partly because I think you should dress the part if you work at a white collar job, but I also do it for the psychological divide it creates when I finally leave work. I am sitting here writing this review in a pair of loud yellow shorts and a Steve Earle tour shirt and despite a hard day, I am thinking mostly about music. Clothing matters.

Disc 638 is….All The Road Running

Artist: Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris

Year of Release: 2006

What’s up with the Cover? A lonely desert road, marred only by…ridiculous swooshes of neon? This is a time lapsed photo where the vehicle lights create a conceptual design aimed at marrying the Americana folk of Emmylou Harris and the electrified rock of Mark Knopfler into a single image. Or maybe this is what happens when those computer animated movers from the “Money for Nothing” video drive through your town delivering appliances.

How I Came To Know It: I was already a fan of both artists, but to be honest in 2006 when I bought this I probably found it under the Mark Knopfler section. I was a dedicated fan of Knopfler’s solo work and eager for whatever he was going to do next, and this was it.

Hence this album was at least partly responsible for rekindling my love of Emmylou Harris’ music, and I’ve gone on to purchase a lot of her back catalogue since.

How It Stacks Up:  I have ten Emmylou Harris albums, plus two where she shares top billing (this one and “Old Yellow Moon” with Rodney Crowell). I have seven of Mark Knopfler’s solo albums, plus two where he shares top billing (this one again, and “Neck and Neck” with Chet Atkins). I can’t really compare this to the solo albums of each artist, but in the case of their respective collaborations, “All the Road Running” is my favourite on both sides of the ledger

Rating:  4 stars

With the sheer amount of musical collaborations Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris are part of this album feels almost inevitable. I’m just surprised it took this long.

Of course, they were making music in different worlds for many years; Emmylou doing the country music thing and Knopfler rocking out in Dire Straits. “All the Road Running” is them coming together in their second careers. Both are significantly more removed from the spotlight than they were before, and both are using the artistic space that can create to make some of the best music of their careers. Knopfler has relaxed his guitar shredding for a more relaxed blues/roots style while Harris has become more alternative, willing to risk forays into rock edged production. Their meeting up for “All the Road Running” is less about them adjusting their styles to fit, and more them naturally growing naturally to common ground.

The result is a seamless blend of two great talents who have parked their egos at the door. The style is mostly the contemporary folk that Knopfler has embraced since he released his first solo album in 1996, with easy flowing melodies and one foot planted firmly and nostalgically in the past.

Knopfler wrote all but one of the 12 songs, and it is pretty clear that he had Emmylou in mind. There is a traditional swing rhythm in almost all of them that brings an old school country sound to his music that is much stronger than on any other record. Each track is some form of duet featuring plenty of opportunity for Harris to shine as both a lead vocalist and as popular music’s greatest harmonizer.

Many of the songs are sung as a ‘couple’ with verses traded back and forth with a warmth that belies the respect and admiration these two artists obviously have for each other. There are up tempo love songs like “This Is Us” where you can see them as a long-time couple flipping through old photo albums, finishing each other’s sentences. It made me think of Emmylou’s more recent collaboration with Rodney Crowell on the tearjerker “Back When We Were Beautiful,” but with laughter instead of tears.

Emmylou gets one writing credit for “Belle Starr” which once again had me wishing she would write more of her songs. She’s a natural, but it just seems to be in her nature to gracefully take a back seat to other talents.

“This is Us” and “Right Now” are also good examples of Knopfler’s adaptability on guitar. Even when he plays rock riffs over these decidedly country constructions, the result feels easy and natural. Emmylou’s trademark quaver is a nice compliment to Knopfler’s big blue notes, neither ever so sharp as to cut across the other.

My favourite song on the album is “Donkey Town,” a song about a love triangle in a trailer park with a group of characters that have had their share of bad luck. Even if you’ve never lived in a trailer park, when Knopfler sings about ‘hangin’ round in Donkey Town, too long, baby, too long” you can feel that deep yearning that comes from people who can imagine a better life, but not see their way clear to get there.

The song has a slow, relaxed feel that belies the tension between a neighbor and his growing relationship with the wife of an ornery army veteran living in a nearby trailer. Just when you think our hero is going to take her away from the old bastard, the song throws you a curveball:

“It was Friday late and she crossed those legs

She told me flat out she would

If I could pull up my trailer pegs

We could get away together for good

I sure wish her the best of luck

She’s going to need it, thinking of Jim

I don’t like to leave her stuck

But she’s near as bad as him.”

I love the use of “she crossed those legs” which summons up a pretty picture in my head. Obviously the narrator was impressed as well, just not enough to help her pack a suitcase.

Emmylou’s voice and Mark Knopfler’s guitar have always individually had the ability to make the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Together they have the good sense to not tread on each other’s power, but instead create a gentle blended experience. The result is a relaxing record with a subtly complicated grace.

Best tracks:   Beachcombing, I Dug Up a Diamond, This Is Us, Rollin’ On, Donkey Town, Belle Starr, Beyond My Wildest Dreams, All the Road Running

CD Odyssey Disc 566: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell

It has been a fun and eventful long weekend.  In addition to getting out for drinks with friends I attended a vintage fashion fair, a vinyl fair (where I bought two records).  Last night Sheila and I played Arkham Horror and successfully saved the world from an ancient horror (screw you, Bokrug!).  Today I took her – Sheila, not Bokrug – out on a photo shoot for a travelling skirt project she and her fellow fashion bloggers are up to.

The highlight the weekend was Saturday night, when we went and saw Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell and Richard Thompson perform at the Alix Goolden Hall.  I feel fortunate to have seen a living legend like Emmylou Harris perform live. In preparation for the show, I invoked Rule #5 (see sidebar), and here is the resulting review, followed by a review of the concert.

Disc 566 is…. Old Yellow Moon

Artist: Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell

Year of Release: 2013

What’s up with the Cover?  Emmylou and Rodney share a moment on some old country road.  These two have known each other for decades and the affection they have for each other comes through in this picture and all the other pictures in the album sleeve as well.

How I Came To Know It:  I am a longtime Emmylou Harris fan, and this was just me buying her latest album when it came out in advance of seeing her in concert.  Concerts are usually more enjoyable when you know the music beforehand.

How It Stacks Up:  It is hard to stack up a collaboration album like this one.  I have ten of Emmylou’s solo albums, and two collaboration albums (this one and another called “All The Road Running” that she did with Mark Knopfler in 2006).  The two compilations are pretty equal, but I’ll put this one second, if only because I’m a bigger fan of Mark Knopfler than I am of Rodney Crowell.

Rating:  3 stars

“Old Yellow Moon” is “an album forty years in the making” as Emmylou herself said a number of times at the concert on Saturday.  Considering all the previous collaboration between her and Rodney Crowell, it is surprising that they didn’t do an album like this years ago.

Given that it took so long to finally do so, it shouldn’t surprise anyone that the album has a very traditional feel.  These songs would be equally at home in the fifties and sixties as they do today (and in the case of the Roger Miller cover “Invitation to the Blues” they actually date from the fifties). The other songs have their origins in almost every decade since, all the way up to some modern compositions by Crowell and steel guitar player Hank DeVito.  Crowell and Harris give them all arrangements that are rooted in bluegrass and old Nashville country.

As ever, the best part of the record is Emmylou Harris’ voice.  Even at age 66 it is still a powerful instrument, with the signature quaver that has made her rightfully famous. Most of the time, she blends her talents with Rodney Crowell’s vocals, who is also no slouch.  Crowell has a very high register and the two of them make pretty harmonies together.  They cleverly leave a little space in between these harmonies, letting each voice’s distinctive quality stand out, while still complementing its counterpart.

This is particularly effective on their remake of the Kris Kristofferson’s “Chase the Feeling,” a song about drug/alcohol abuse.  Kristofferson has been one of my favourite songwriters for years, with brilliant lines like these:

“And you’re dealing with some demons

Who are driving you insane

And I’ve seen them drag you screaming

Down the hallways of your brain.

“You got loaded again

Ain’t you handsome when you’re high

Nothing matters

Chase the feeling ‘til you die.”

I enjoy Kristofferson’s gravelly original well enough, but the up-tempo version that Harris and Crowell perform on “Old Yellow Moon” captures the manic quality of addiction and makes the whole song unexpectedly more poignant.

Following immediately after such a brilliant song about addition, “Black Caffeine” stands out like a sore thumb.  Coffee addition is a real thing, but it isn’t what Kristofferson was writing about, and hearing about how you take your coffee immediately after witnessing demons dragging someone down the hallways of his mind falls flat.  Even if this song wasn’t so poorly placed, it just doesn’t stand up to the quality on the rest of the album. Fortunately, “Black Caffeine” is the only song on the album I didn’t enjoy at some level.

There are lots of good “old timey” up tempo songs on the record that are good (notably Crowell taking the lead on “Bluebird Wine” a song he wrote but that Harris originally made famous).  For all that, my favourites on the album are the slower and more somber songs, maybe because they let Emmylou’s vocals drip with hurt and heartache.  I love her singing the Patti Scialfa’s “Spanish Dancer” which lets her voice shine solo.  Not to be outdone, Crowell delivers a tearjerker of his own composition with “Open Season on My Heart” with an assist on the hurt-meter from Harris’ masterful vocals on the harmony.

Overall, “Old Yellow Moon” is relaxed and understated record by two master musicians who have a strong chemistry with each other that comes out clearly in their performances.  This isn’t an album to knock you out of your chair, but it has a quiet and refined beauty that settles and soothes, like a cup of warm tea on a cold winter’s night.

 

Best tracks:   Spanish Dancer, Open Season on My Heart, Chase the Feeling, Bluebird Wine, Old Yellow Moon

The Concert – November 9, 2013 at the Alix Goolden Hall

It is hard to go wrong seeing a show at the Alix Goolden Hall; an old Presbyterian Church converted to a concert hall.  The place has amazing acoustics and all the sound man has to do is not over-amplify the place.

The show was opened by Richard Thompson, who with well over twenty albums of his own, spanning more than forty years is a legend in his own right.  A big shout out to Sheila’s coworker Greg W. who put us on to Thompson a few weeks ago and helped me appreciate him in advance of seeing him live.

Thompson did not disappoint.  He did a set of about seven or eight songs, and all were excellent.  In terms of performance banter, he isn’t nearly as funny as he thinks he is, but he is personable and relaxed on stage.  More importantly, man can he play guitar. I sat in awe watching his fingers effortlessly move up and down the fretboard with precision and feeling.

Thompson was so good that after he finished the enthusiastic crowd gave him a standing ovation for over five minutes, clapping in unison and urging him to return for an encore.  Of course, it was Emmylou’s night so an encore was not in the cards, although he did come out and perform a couple songs with her and Crowell later.

Richard Thompson was a hard act to follow, but Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell were up to the task.  Eschewing any introductory banter, they launched right into some Gram Parsons classics, with “Return of the Grievous Angel” and “Wheels” both of which were brilliantly played.  Later they would play a tear jerker version of his classic “Love Hurts” as well.

It must be hard to choose a set list from forty years of music, but it was expertly done.  In addition to Gram Parson, they honoured Townes Van Zandt with understated versions of “Pancho and Lefty” and “If I Needed You” (the latter of which I am learning on guitar myself).  “Pancho and Lefty” is always great, although I could’ve used Emmylou’s mike being turned up just a little bit more because – duh.

I like a concert where the new album gets featured, and “Old Yellow Moon” was well represented.  They did six of the record’s twelve songs and although with the exception of “Bluebird Wine” they weren’t the six I would’ve chosen, they were still good.  Experienced artists always come alive a little bit more when they are doing new material – it only makes sense if you think about how often they’ve played their old material.

Kudos to the backup band as well, particularly lead guitar and keyboards, both of whom were amazing.  Long-standing acts like Emmylou Harris consistently find the best of the best when they tour, and it definitely showed.

The lead up to the encore was a bit busy, with an obvious effort being made to get the room amped up to end the show, but I forgave it all when the final song was “Boulder to Birmingham” – one of my all-time favourites.  If she’d played “Before Believing” I would probably have fainted with delight, so good thing she stopped there.

And guilty pleasure – the gentle dig and sly grin they both gave Lee Ann Womack’s version of Crowell’s “Ashes by Now” (“someone else had a hit with it a few years back”) before they lit into a version that – if you’ll pardon the extended metaphor – burned the pants off of the Womack Nu-Country effort.

And a final note of appreciation for the crowd, who were enthusiastic and present in the performance and not in any way a distraction to my experience.  There was a guy in front of me who with his Beatles-style bowl cut and turtleneck sweater reminded me of a sixties Bond villain.  He was a bit tall, but turned out to be as friendly and respectful as everyone else in the crowd, such that I forgave the partially lost sight line without a moment’s hesitation.

Shot of the old organ at the Alix Goolden Hall.