Reviews of selected Bumbershoot musical acts
Monday, September 6, 1999
Emmylou Harris/Linda Ronstadt
"We've been talking about doing this since 1973," Linda Ronstadt said a couple songs into her Bumbershoot show yesterday with Emmylou Harris, referring to their new duet album. Judging from the warm reception they received from the Memorial Stadium crowd, it's indeed a long-overdue collaboration.
"Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions," released a couple weeks ago, was an outgrowth of the recent "Trio II" album that teamed Ronstadt, Harris and Dolly Parton. Those three didn't tour to support that record, but Ronstadt and Harris decided to hit the road together for their new disc. Yesterday's Bumbershoot gig was the third show of a six-week U.S. tour.
About half of their 16-song set was devoted to material from "Western Wall." After opening with the disc's first track, "Loving the Highwayman," they performed Jackson Browne's "For a Dancer," which has been getting the most radio play so far. It's one of Browne's best tunes and deserves to be revived, but the duo's easygoing pop treatment avoids the emotional pathos that's at the heart of the song.
More effective was the shimmering "High Sierra" from the "Trio II" record; Harris' and Ronstadt's vocals burned brightly enough that Parton's part wasn't really missed. Also a standout in the early part of the set was the traditional tune "Hello Stranger," long a staple of Harris' repertoire and a number ideally suited to a duet vocal arrangement.
For a brief time, the evening turned into the Emmylou & Linda & Kate & Anna McGarrigle Show. The McGarrigle sisters, who performed later last night at the Opera House, have collaborated often with both Harris and Ronstadt, including on the "Western Wall" album and their own recent disc, "The McGarrigle Hour." Thus, it was no surprise to see them join the party and contribute backing vocal on three songs in the latter part of the set.
The best of these was Kate McGarrigle's "Talk to Me of Mendocino," a tender acoustic ballad that Ronstadt recorded on her 1982 album "Get Closer." Ronstadt dug even further back into her past when she played "It Doesn't Matter Anymore" from 1974's "Heart Like a Wheel" -- claiming, in fact, that she hadn't sung the song onstage in 15 years.
In addition to Harris, Ronstadt had another longtime cohort onstage to help rekindle those old memories. Playing guitar, bass and banjo was Bernie Leadon, best-known for his days with the Eagles and the Flying Burrito Brothers. The rest of the band was equally stellar, with Greg Leisz on guitar, mandolin and pedal steel; Buddy Miller on guitar and bass; Ethan Johns on drums; and Wix (just Wix), a veteran of Paul McCartney's band, on keyboards and accordion.
-- Peter Blackstock
No Depression party's mood enhanced by Emmylou Harris visit
Friday, September 10, 1999
By GENE STOUT
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
POP MUSIC CRITIC
Emmylou Harris made a surprise appearance at the Tractor Tavern Sunday night following her Bumbershoot concert with Linda Ronstadt at Memorial Stadium.
The capacity crowd cheered when the singer-songwriter joined her guitarist, Buddy Miller, shortly after midnight at the first of three anniversary parties for No Depression, a nationally distributed alternative-country magazine. It was also Miller's birthday, which made the night unusually festive.
Harris and Miller performed "Love Hurts," "Don't Tell Me" and "Cruel Moon," the title song of Miller's album due next month on HighTone Records.
No Depression was founded in 1995 by free-lance writer and Post-Intelligencer club-scene columnist Peter Blackstock and former Rocket managing editor Grant Alden.