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When Emmylou
Harris began her musical journey, back in the early ‘70s, country music
couldn’t have been further from her mind.
Moving from North Carolina to New York’s Greenwich Village, Harris frequented
the myriad coffee houses armed with only her acoustic guitar and a swag of
songs, looking for nothing more than a foot in the door of the then burgeoning
folk scene.
Not long after
this move however, she met one Gram Parsons, and her life, not to mention the
lives of fine country music fans the world over, changed forever. “The whole point of the song ‘The Road’ (from
Harris’ latest record, 2011’s Hard
Bargain) was inspired by that [meeting],” she explains. “The whole point of the song was to say, ‘On
that road, I’m glad I came to know you’; that sense of wonder at how life turns
out, and how people impact your life and change the trajectory.”
“I certainly don’t
want to underestimate the influence of people like Baez and Dylan and all the
people that were going on when that folk music revival happened, because they
really brought me into music,” she goes on, regarding her ‘switch’ to country
music. “But I had to find a place to put
my voice, for where it could be all it was supposed to be, and that was through
Gram and singing country.”
From there, from
that invaluable relationship, the rest is well documented, and so today sees
Harris clock in at the four decade mark of an extraordinary career, one which
shows no signs of slowing. Following on
from Hard Bargain then, is not a solo
record, but a duet record with longtime friend Rodney Crowell, another leading
light in country music.
“Yeah, I have just
finished a record with my old friend Rodney… my cohort, my comrade,” she
smiles. “We’ve known each other since
1974, and we’ve finally made our duet record – I can now say, ‘Boy, I’m so glad
we got that done’. It’s been 30 years in
the making, at least in the dreaming about.”
Old Yellow Moon is the record title, it comprises a number of covers
reinterpreted by Harris and Crowell, and will be Crowell’s second duet record
this year, following on from Kin, the
album he released with author Mary Karr in July.
“It was me saying,
‘We’re gonna do this record, by golly’,” Harris laughs on the catalyst that
finally got the pair into the studio, “before we get too old or one of us gets
hit by a bus. I mean, at a certain
point, you’ve gotta say, we don’t
have all the time in the world, so lets do it.
So we agreed, set aside some time, and did it.”
Preceding the
release of Old Yellow Moon, which is
slated for release in February next year, Harris will once more grace our fair
shores this month, again with crack band The Red Dirt Boys. “It’s the same folks that were with me last time
(Phil Madeira, accordion, guitar, keys; Rickie Simpkins, mandolin, fiddle;
Chris Donohoe, bass; Bryan Owings, drums), and also a guitar player called Will
Kimbrough, a great electric guitar player.”
“And [I can’t tell
you what to expect],” Harris laughs. “I
don’t know, I write up the set the day of the show, and then I might change it
in the middle, which drives everybody nuts.”
Forty years in, Emmylou Harris has earned the right to change things
whenever she wants.
Samuel J. Fell
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