Folk giants create big-time Harmony
By Daniel Gerwetz
Sunday, August 22, 2004
Like an all-champion Olympic event, Emmylou Harris' Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue came to town with the highest of expectations, and lived up to every one of them. It was the strongest roots-music show of 2004. For two-and-a-half hours, cogent songwriting, guitar prowess and, yes, those sweet harmonies merged gloriously.
The show started with a bang: all the stars onstage for emotionally persuasive versions of ``Hello, Stranger,'' done as a conversation like the Carter Family original, and Phil Spector's 1958 Teddy Bears hit, ``To Know Him Is to Love Him.''
Though the show's genesis was obviously the ``O Brother Where Art Thou'' concerts - and there was even a pristine, trio version of that soundtrack's ``Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby'' - this revue's structure was more concertlike, presenting its acts in longer segments, about a half-hour apiece.
There was a huge amount of star accompaniment, though, and when Harris and Gillian Welch drifted onto a darkened stage to join Patty Griffin on the stirring elegy to her Boston grandmother, ``Mary,'' the two women, hair backlit to resemble halos, seemed liked mysterious angels. At first, their voices, too, seemed gossamer, but then became flesh and blood.
To many, the night's surprise was Buddy Miller, longtime Harris guitarist. A visceral folk-country act in his own right, Miller delighted with a masterful, exciting set of swampy, gut-bucket blues (``Shelter Me''), roiling rock (``Can't Judge a Book'') and emotion-charged country (``Does My Ring Burn Your Finger,'' a hit he wrote). ``Dark End of the Street'' had such sensational harmonies with Griffin that one hoped for larger ears. It was also blessed with a perfect electric guitar solo.
With guitarists Miller and David Rawlings aboard, the night shone with scintillating solos, none better than when Rawlings joined his partner, Gillian Welch, on an extended ``Time (The Revelator).'' Welch and Rawlings' stark duo set hit hard. (The baseball metaphors are appropriate: The duo performed with a Red Sox logo prominently displayed.)
Harris performed the shortest set, but it easily reached a harrowing peak. Though some highs are gone, her once-smooth voice is now like a dramatic monument: weathered, craggy, important.
Griffin performed with her regular band, played little guitar, and was in shining voice. ``Love Throws a Line,'' ``Making Pies'' and ``Long Ride Home,'' with Harris, were the ``wow'' moments.
The show ended with well-chosen American songs, done en masse: ``Turn Turn Turn,'' a momentous ``The Weight,'' the spiritual ``In My Time of Darkness'' and best of all, Dave Dudley's ``6 Days on the Road,'' rollicked-up and rolling. Praise Americana!