When it comes to country music there are two sounds that I cherish above all others.  The first is what I call the lonely voice of country which can only be found in those haunting melodies from a well-played pedal steel guitar.  I have to admit that I am not a musician but if I could take one instrument and attempt to make it my own, it would have to be the pedal steel.

The second sound of country music that I love is a voice that can’t be learned or re-created.  It’s a voice that the celebrated country music writer and historian Chet Flippo once described as “one of the finest, most shimmering instruments in country music history”.  That voice belongs to Emmylou Harris and it will be on full display in Charlottesville on Monday, June 23rd when Emmylou performs at the Charlotteville Pavilion.  The concert is a benefit for Live Arts youth programs and tickets are still availabe.  Doors open at 6pm, show starts at 7pm.  For ticket information click here.

[Emmylou Harris photo by Chris Kuhl]

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Country music isn’t where Emmylou Harris’s career began.  She started out as a folksinger in the late 60’s, playing in many of the same New York City folks clubs that her idols Janis Ian and Joan Baez had once played.  But after a record deal turned sour and when success in New York City didn’t come, Emmylou returned to her home in Washington, D.C. where she would continue to perform in folk clubs into the early 70’s.

Still virtually unknown at the time of her return to D.C., Emmylou would then be discovered in part by Chris Hillman, who at the time was a member of the seminal country-rock band The Flying Burrito Brothers.  Hillman, at the suggestion of a couple mutual friends, had paid a visit to a club where Emmylou was performing and was left completely blown away.  It was Hillman who would later introduce Emmylou to Gram Parsons and the rest, as they say, is music history.

Emmylou Harris would only record two album with Gram Parsons, his solo debut GP and its follow-up Grievous Angel, before Gram’s unexpected death at the age of 26.  But those two albums, along with Gram’s earlier work with the International Submarine Band, the Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers, would become integral pieces in the rise of country-rock, or as Gram described it “Cosmic American Music”.  In addition, those two albums recorded with Parsons would also serve as Emmylou Harris’s introduction to the rest of the music world.

[You can check out more about Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, and the impact of their brief collaboration in the video below.]

Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris from Lost Highway:  The History of American Country

Following the death of Gram Parsons, Emmylou would eventually set out on her own solo career.  Joined by a collection of musicians that would soon become known simply as her Hot Band, Emmylou released her debut album Pieces of the Sky in 1975.  In many ways the album was a continuation of Parsons’ musical vision, combining rock and country while earning praise from Rolling Stone as well as gaining the attention of country radio.  Harris’s version of the Louvin Brothers’ tune “If I Could Only Win Your Love” from Pieces of the Sky reached into the Top 5 on the country charts.

Since that 1975 debut Emmylou has went on to record close to twenty solo albums, she has collaborated on recordings with the likes of Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Mark Knopfler, and has appeared as contributing vocalist on albums by Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Ryan Adams, Willie Nelson, and Bright Eyes just to name a few.  Since 1976, Harris has received twelve Grammy Awards and in February of this year she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.  Her most recent album All I Intended to Be was released on June 10.

Today Emmylou Harris’s appeal stretches far beyond the realm of country music.  She has in many ways become an icon in American music across the board.  Never selling her vision to fit the trends of the day, Emmylou Harris has blazed a musical career centered around the spirit and integrity of the song itself.  In doing so she has kept alive the flame of Gram Parsons and his Cosmic American Music.

Just last year Rhino Records released a 5-disc box set featuring rare gems and forgotten classics from Emmylou Harris’s much celebrated music career.  It seems appropriate that the box set should bear the title Songbird because when I hear that voice it is the sound of a songbird sweetly singing.

If there are any other Emmylou Harris fans out there, feel free to share a favorite album or song. And who knows, maybe I’ll run into you at the show.

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