By ROGER CATLIN
The Hartford Courant
July 26, 2001
For all the talk of the intersection of rock, folk and country, nobody's been able to quite so freely traverse the lines as Emmylou Harris.
A folk singer from
Washington, D.C., Harris
was discovered by Flying
Burrito Brother Chris
Hillman in 1971, who
recommended her to
Gram Parsons, a pioneer
in the country-rock field
and former fellow Byrd
who failed at his dream of
Nashville acceptance.
Harris' clear, plaintive soprano played beautifully against Parsons' increasingly gravelly voice. And after his death in 1973, she went on to a successful Nashville career with an adherence to country classics at a time when rhinestones seemed to dominate. She sang songs by the gospel/country duo Louvin Brothers but also by Parsons, to whose music she has remained true.
Overall, she scored 23 Top 10 country singles, including six chart-toppers. She's written her own songs as well as covering those by artists from Lucinda Williams to Bruce Springsteen and amassed 10 Grammys along the way.
So what's she doing headlining the sixth Podunk Bluegrass Music Festival in East Hartford on Saturday?
Harris, 53, also has some pretty good bluegrass credentials, it turns out (certainly more than, say, Melanie, who headlined last year's Podunk fest).
Always one to assemble a good group of musicians, her original Hot Band featured Elvis' band members James Burton and Glenn D. Hardin, as well as Rodney Crowell. When then-unknown Ricky Skaggs was brought in after Crowell left, he helped bring a credible acoustic bluegrass touch to the 1980 album "Roses in the Snow" which featured bluegrass aces such as Jerry Douglas and Tony Rice, as well as such high-powered country stars as Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton.
Her current band, Spyboy,
has another roster of fine
musicians that includes
guitarist Buddy Miller, who
has attracted a cult following
with his own music.
And her current tour - which included a taping of "Austin City Limits" in Texas last week and stops at the Calvin Theatre in Northampton, Mass., Sunday and the Newport Folk Festival Aug. 4 - has been so grueling she had to cancel one show and all interviews to save her voice.
Her show here comes at a time when there has been an unusual amount of activity in her career. In May, a two-CD, 45-song anthology, "Emmylou Harris Anthology: The Warner/Reprise Years" (Rhino, $31.98), was issued, just five years after "Portraits" covered roughly the same ground (from 1975 to 1992). Still, the new set includes the CD debut of a number of hard-to-find tracks such as the B-sides "Fool Thin Air" "Mama Help" and the Crowell-written "Precious Love."
Harris also plays a significant role in another anthology released at the same time, the two-disc "Sacred Hearts & Fallen Angels: The Gram Parsons Anthology."
Harris sings the opening track on the recently issued "Concerts for a Landmine-Free World" (Vanguard), but she played a key role in organizing the two tours chronicled on the album. John Prine, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Nanci Griffith, Steve Earle and Bruce Cockburn are among the other artists appearing on the album, which benefits the Vietnam Veterans of American Foundation Campaign for a Landmine Free World.
Harris contributes a
version of the classic
"Barbara Allen" on the
soundtrack to the
motion picture
"Songcatcher"
(Vanguard), released
earlier this year.
("Songcatcher" opens
Friday in Hartford at
Cinema City.)
Her current tour is to support "Red Dirt Girl," the acclaimed album she released last fall that won her 10th Grammy this year against a strong field of Johnny Cash, Billy Bragg & Wilco, Earle and John Hiatt.
It was her second victory in the category of best contemporary folk album.
The first came five years ago with the similarly atmospheric "Wrecking Ball," another career departure for Harris, who lent her voice to the songs of Lucinda Williams, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix and producer Daniel Lanois.
On "Red Dirt Girl," however, Harris wrote nearly every song on the album (save for Patty Griffin's "One Big Love").
Between those two albums, Harris seemed particularly busy, touring with her Spyboy band for a live album issued in 1998 on her own Eminent label.
Also in 1998, she joined Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt for the first time since 1987 on "Trio II" and paired with Ronstadt the following year for "The Tucson Sessions," which the two women took on the road.
Harris' place in the charts these days is quite prominent and tied to a completely different project.
For 13 weeks, she's been atop the country albums chart as part of the "O Brother, Where Art Thou" soundtrack, now up to more than 1 million in sales.
On it, she teams with Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch to sing the song of the Sirens in the film, "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby." Just the type of song that would fit in fine at a bluegrass festival.