Emmylou to receive ACM Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award

[russ]

ACM Awards: Early Winners, Voting Online, and a Cool 'Zine Pack

by Hunter Hauk
Mar 21, 2012

-- The Academy released the names of several early ACM winners this year, whose categories won't necessarily be addressed in the live broadcast on April 1. The special Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award will go to Emmylou Harris, Billy Sherrill, Ricky Skaggs, and Dwight Yoakum, all game-changers in the biz. Kenny Chesney gets the Crystal Milestone Award for his remarkable reach over the years (ticket sales, albums, all that good stuff). Vince Gill was recognized for the Career Achievement Award, and Alan Jackson got the Jim Reeves International Award. Other honorees include the legendary honky-tonk Fort Worth's Billy Bob's Texas for Nightclub of the Year and Nashville's Bridgestone Arena for Venue of the Year.

http://www.cowboysindians.com/Blog/Marc ... Zine-Pack/

[Rick]

While honoring Emmylou's contributions with the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award is obviously well-deserved, I was rather taken aback by the actual wording of the ACM's announcement (see http://www.acmcountry.com/special_awards.html ):

"Emmylou Harris brought a graceful delivery, beautiful harmonies and a wealth of exceptional material to her career in country music. Harris was discovered at a nightclub in Washington D.C., then provided her signature vocals to Gram Parsons’ seminal recordings. On her own, she arrived on the country charts in 1975. Over the next decade, she racked up 21 Top 10 singles, including five No. 1 hits. The Trio album with talented friends Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt earned the 1987 ACM Award for Album of the Year. Harris was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008."

Is it only me, or does it seem that the ACM's consistent use the past tense in Emmylou's write-up (specifically in the first sentence) implies that Emmylou's contributions are now all in the past? By contrast I note that Ricky Skaggs' write-up ends by stating that he's still active ("Since that time [the 1980's], Skaggs has focused on bluegrass music and now leads one of the most respected ensembles in the genre"), as does Dwight Yoakam's ("He remains active in music and film"). While most of Emmylou's write-up correctly uses the past tense to refer to actual past events, at the very least I'd change the first sentence to read "Emmylou Harris has continued to bring a graceful delivery, . . .", indicating that these characteristics not only were displayed in the past but are still displayed now. "Hard Bargain" and her current projects with Phil Madeira and Rodney Crowell all clearly show that Emmylou is continuing to enrich our lives with her music!

[Richard H]

Rick, I've read & reread that first sentence by the ACM. And then read it again. My own interpretation is that while the ACM must be aware that Emmylou has a successful ongoing career, they no longer think that it's strictly in country music, hence the past tense being used so much.

If that's the case, & I'm obviously just guessing here, they may have a point. Wrecking Ball was when, as I understand it, Emmylou decided to go off at a bit of a tangent musically & has more or less been on that trajectory ever since (good on her for doing so too), & Emmylou has more than once said that the last country record she made was in 1993 which would've been Cowgirl's Prayer, the album before Wrecking Ball. She disbanded the very country Nash Ramblers and formed the not so country Spyboy. Putting collaborations to one side, her album output since Cowgirl's Prayer, (which was 19 years ago, where did that time go??) has been Wrecking Ball, Spyboy, Red Dirt Girl, Stumble Into Grace, All I Intended To Be, & Hard Bargain. All I Intended To Be is for me the closest of those to a country album. So if Emmylou has had a career of almost 40 years, it could be argued that practically half of it has been outside of the "country format", whatever that really is. It's just all good music to me.

Maybe that's how the ACM are approaching it, or maybe not.

Maybe they just cobbled together something in a rush at 4.30 on a friday afternoon.

[Rick]

Hello Richard,

Yes, there may be such considerations as to drawing some kind of circle to differentiate ACM's vision of "Country" from other variations (e.g., "Americana"--although others seem to have accorded this a position within the broader "country" world--or even "Bluegrass"). And with Emmylou's music I wasn't thinking just of her albums--an interesting twist (in my opinion) is that in her live performances (both on her own and with the Red Dirt Boys or Buddy Miller or Gillian & Dave) she will take the same songs that appear on her albums and give them a much more "rootsy" feel than the studio versions. Personally I like them both--I have Emmylou's Telluride 2011 and Newport 2011 performances as well as her albums on my my playlist.

I remember once hearing a comment in an interview with a musician (maybe Ralph Stanley? Bill Monroe?) to the effect that there were no "bluegrass" songs or "country" songs, that it was all in how you play them--so you can take the same song and in different situations, with different musicians and different instruments, you may play it as "folk" or "rock" or "pop" or "country" or "bluegrass". Bottom line--I agree 100% with your observation that "it's just all good music to me" :-)

Ciao,

Rick

[Arlene]

Here's a nice article about Emmylou and her continuing to work with a vengence despite turning 65 last week; the article touches on why the ACM may not consider her primarily a country artist anymore-- she doesn't consider herself primarily one. :)

http://www.dispatch.com/content/stories ... iring.html

[Richard H]

Thanks for that Arlene.

[Rick]

Thanks, Arlene--it is a very nice article! I'm certainly glad that Emmylou is still going strong, although I suspect that if she were to retire from the touring, etc, she'd be pouring her skill and energy into animal rescue and other worthwhile activities: ". . . she has so much to give, Is there any other reason that we live".

I think that one point that comes through in the article is that Emmylou's music has always been broader than any particular genre, from Beatles' songs on her earliest albums to her folk medley on At the Ryman, and, to expand upon ACM's words (the descriptive portion of which is so very true), "Emmylou continues to bring a graceful delivery, beautiful harmonies and a wealth of exceptional material to all of her music" :-)