Emmylou Harris S/D

Search: all her duets with Gram

Not as classic has some may have you believe, but when she was on, she was ON.

*cue strings*

I think she may be the greatest country singer ever.

To answer your question, that was 1976, I think. Sometime around then.

Her 70s albums are cool. Some stronger than others, and maybe a little polite in places, but some fantastic covers and lovely originals. The really special one is her neo-bluegrass album from 1980, Roses In The Snow. I LOVE that record. The line up of guests on there shows how well respected she was. You've got Cash doing awesome bass backing vocals on Jordan, Willie Nelson doing a bit of guitar, and Emmylou harmonising with Dolly Parton and Linda Rondstat. Her version of Wayfaring Stranger is stunning, while the Carter Family tunes where she harmonises with Ricky Scaggs are immense. And her version of The Boxer pwns the original.

1) She used to sing much more full-throated — since Wrecking Ball or so, she does a much more wispy thing with her voice. I'm sure age has something to do with it (we all get older, after all), but I tend to prefer the former style.

2) While her music and instrumentation have evolved over the years, when it comes to her singing—even accounting for the wispier singing on recent albums—she kind of brings the same quality to every song, every collaboration — something again that is more true in recent years. It's this wounded country girl yodel schtick which, while very viscerally engaging, can seem pretty one-dimensional when you hear the body of her work. Still, I like her.

Still, looks better than the other guy.

i like her

i saw her once. she was so pretty

Boy do I love "Wrecking Ball" and "Red Dirt Girl". Did she ever do anything else in a similar vein?

"Stumble Into Grace" is another album with that vibe, but I think the only one of those she ever nailed was "Wrecking Ball" (best choice of songs, more feeling overall, deeper production) and the rest are imitations. WB might be in my top twenty albums ever.

"Boulder to Birmingham" is flooringly good. She did two live albums that are both excellent: "Last Date" from the 80s is ace, but "Live at the Ryman" is a next-level hot-band straight-up country record that'll knock your face in.

sorry i neglected to differentiate between albums & "songs" in the above post.

Any thoughts on the "Songbird" box set?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gq8o4aWDNA

Her cover of Going Back to Harlan is one of my favorite things ever.

favourite emmy lou song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YNhEJxfivY

on point cover

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfMcn6dNY34

the ballad of sally rose is an amazing record

Angel Band, another amazing one

never heard of ballad of sally rose before but v excited to, she is a great songwriter such a shame that most of her albums lean so heavily on covers, esp as she is not necessarily the best curator of other ppls material

You think? I think she's a super gifted interpreter.

its some of the choices rather than the interpretations. her taste is really patchy. i cannot explain that donna summer cover on the white shoes for instance. (not a diss on donna summer).

I think Emmylou often has great taste in material.

yes she often does

prompted to pick up The Ballad of Sally Rose by the revive, found a nice and (as is par w/Emmylou) cheap copy on vinyl last night. It really is outstanding, i'm not sure why i slept on it.

the one I really want to investigate further after this is Cowgirl's Prayer.

There’s a nice cover of Lucinda Williams’ “Crescent City” on Cowgirl’s Prayer.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zqoqc4XWp5k

This song breaks my heart for so many reasons. Right now it's the 'I was in the wilderness and the canyon was on fire' line.

The dollar bin really delivered today: nice vinyl copies of 7 of her first 8 Reprise/Warner lps (no Xmas album) plus the Roadie soundtrack with the Orbison duet.

Wow...good shape? Bought three of them as mid-lined CDs a few years ago (Sky/Liner/Hotel).

Pretty much. I won't be able to play test for a bit, but most of them are still glossy black and if not are still scratch free. I should add this wasn't exactly a normal dollar bin. A local dealer is finally closing down his warehouse and blowing out a lot of dormant shelf stock that never even gets out to the record shows (mostly old Country, soundtracks, Old Radio, Classical, Pop Vocals, unhip World music etc.).

This thread is shockingly thin

The only answer I have is that when it comes to Emmylou, I think we can all agree on "yes."

Shall we rank Emmylou's albums?

Roses in the Snow
Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town
Elite Hotel
Luxury Liner
Wrecking Ball
Red Dirt Girl
Pieces of the Sky

I have played a few others here and there but not enough to have an opinion.

you gotta get ballad of sally rose in the rotation

I was going to say the run from the mid'70s to early '80s is great, but really, given her ear for material there's generally something (or a lot) good on every album. She's also one of the few country singers to recognize Springsteen as a great source (and covers him well, too; "Racing in the Streets," "Tougher Than the Rest")

Red Dirt Girl is a lovely album. It even survives a Dave Matthews cameo.

And the title track one of the best Emmy solo writing credits.

She wrote/co-wrote everything on the album except the Patty Griffin cover, which is rather astonishing. Had she written much (at all?) before that?

(n/m; she co-wrote most of The Ballad of Sally Rose, which I haven't heard)

That 2CD Rhino anthology is a really good, concise overview, but it ends when she leaves Reprise (hence the title "The Warner/Reprise Years")

you gotta get ballad of sally rose in the rotation

― ivy., Tuesday, May 5, 2026 10:52 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Noted.