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Emmylou Harris

 
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Emmylou Harris

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Country-western singer/songwriter who has occasionally appeared onscreen. ~ Rovi
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Singer, songwriter, guitarist, bandleader

Many country singers have achieved success by crossing over into the lucrative pop market. The dulcet-voiced Emmylou Harris has done just the opposite; she culled songs from pop, rock, and folk, and transformed them into traditional country fare. One of the most popular singers in Nashville, Harris has been praised on every side for her respect for traditional country music. To quote Alanna Nash in Esquire, the performer "has not only carried on the mission of taking pure, traditional country to a hip, pop audience, but through her own artistry and integrity has helped raise the music to a new position of respectability, carving an identity for herself unique in all of country music."

In Country Music U.S.A., Bill C. Malone observed that Harris seems dedicated to the preservation of older country music. Still, Malone wrote, "Harris is a true eclectic, borrowing from many styles. Her concerts and LPs contain a mixture of contemporary and traditional material, rock-flavored songs and Appalachian-sounding ballads, and modern country-and-western numbers." It is Harris's vocal abilities that have guaranteed her an audience, no matter the style of her presentation. A Time correspondent characterized her singing as "more … melancholy Appalachian bluegrass than … western swing," adding: "Despite its range, her voice is most telling because of its feathery delicacy, an almost tentative dying fall capable of stirring deep emotions."

Harris was born on April 2, 1947, in Birmingham, Alabama, but she grew up in the Maryland and Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., and in North Carolina. Her father was in the Marine Corps and her family moved often, though never back to the Deep South. In high school she was a cheerleader as well as class valedictorian, and was a member of the honors society. Musically, she hated piano lessons but played saxophone in her high school marching band, and dutifully went to clarinet lessons. Instead of music, her first love was drama, and she joined the Drama Club with aspirations of becoming an actress.

During a year and a half of studies at the University of North Carolina on a drama scholarship, Harris sang at the local club, the Red Door, where she was paid ten dollars a night. After dropping out of UNC and giving up her dream of acting, she moved to New York City and thus to Greenwich Village, where she sang country and folk music—often with friend Mike Williams—in coffeehouses and nightclubs.

In 1970 she and her first husband moved to Nashville to try their luck in the country format. She failed to become a hit there, and her marriage dissolved. With a newborn baby to care for, she returned to her parents' home in Maryland and began singing at clubs in Washington, D.C. Her performances with a band she pulled together, at the Red Fox Inn and the Cellar Door—in between waitressing jobs—were hailed by Washington audiences, who were receptive to her country-folk-bluegrass blends.

Released First Record
After getting a manager and signing with Jubilee Records for her first record, Gliding Bird, Harris met Gram Parsons in Washington in 1972. The young Parsons, formerly with the Byrds, was a primary force in the burgeoning country-rock movement. He invited her to join him and his band, the Fallen Angels, in Los Angeles, to sing backup on his first solo album. Over the ensuing two years, Harris became Parson's protege, learning from him the special roots of country and honky-tonk music and developing from a "serious folkie" into a country/rock lover. "It was an ear-opening period for me," Harris told Newsweek. "I'd always liked Hank Williams and Buck Owens, but with Gram I discovered that country music was a natural form of singing for me."

On September 19, 1973, Parsons died of a heart attack, brought on by a mixture of tequila and morphine. Left to her own resources, Harris formed the Angel Band and started playing at the Red Fox Inn the way Parsons had taught her. About her career, she told Vicki Jo Radovsky of Entertainment Weekly, "It was Gram who said we should be singing traditional country. He understood that it belonged with rock & roll." Harris signed with Warner Bros. Records, where she was paired with Brian Ahern, a gifted producer who gladly followed her natural tendency to not strive for a pop sound, and he helped her find a European audience. A short time after their first release, Pieces of the Sky, Harris was climbing the country charts with hits like the Louvin Brothers' "If I Could Only Win Your Love," A.P. Carter's "Hello, Stranger," and Buck Owens's "Together Again." Harris and Ahern were married in 1977.

Formed the Hot Band
Buoyed by the success of such hit singles as "One of these Days," "Sweet Dreams," "To Daddy," and "Two More Bottles of Wine," Harris formed her Hot Band in the late 1970s after the success of Pieces of the Sky, releasing Elite Hotel, which secured a Grammy Award and number one success. The Hot Band became legendary over the years, starting the careers of such soon-to-be legendary musicians as Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Albert Lee, and Rodney Crowell. Occasionally, Harris would bolster her string of hits with guest star duets featuring the likes of Buck Owens, Roy Orbison, Don Williams, John Denver, and Earl Thomas Conley. Harris's willingness to expand her sound and work with interesting collaborators resulted in close to 40 country hits from 1975 to 1989.

For many years Harris worked out of Los Angeles, in studios she built with Ahern. When that marriage ended, she returned to Nashville. Then another marriage, this time to Paul Kennerley—a Grammy Award-winning songwriter who helped her with The Ballad of Sally Rose—dissolved. Harris had by this time achieved musical success by following her own formula, by surrounding herself with a distinctive backup band, and by recording a quaint mixture of traditional, modern, and original tunes, all in a fine voice.

Harris maintained spontaneity in her music by dropping the Hot Band and taking on an acoustic/blue-grass band named the Nash Ramblers in 1990. They quickly made their fame with an album recorded at the location of the original Grand Ole Opry, by then a dusty, neglected building. Their album, At the Ryman, served as the symbolic beginning for the revival of downtown Nashville and of the old Ryman building itself. Soon after, she was back in the studio and winning more Grammys, including one for her experimental work on Wrecking Ball. She left Elektra/Asylum to gain more freedom and gathered yet another band, called Spyboy, for a tour. The album Spyboy was released to fulfill an obligation with Elektra.

Many critics have agreed that Harris recorded two "masterworks" during her career. The first was Roses in the Snow, a work from the early 1980s that was decidedly bluegrass in flavor. With its acoustic accompaniments and traditional songs, Roses in the Snow harked back to the work of the Carter Family, Ralph Stanley, and Flatt & Scruggs, and it was a surprise commercial success for Harris. Her other outstanding accomplishment was the "country opera" album The Ballad of Sally Rose, a theme piece for which Harris wrote the lyrics herself. Based loosely on Harris's own life, The Ballad of Sally Rose follows a woman singer through the heights and depths of her career. In Stereo Review, Nash observed that the work "carries a desperation, a smoldering, aching passion to connect with the poignant realities that live in the heart and not just the head."

Musical Ear Honed by Folk and Rock
Harris may have shown an unusual dedication to country music, but she also had an ear honed by folk and rock. She and Ahern recorded a trove of offbeat songs, such as "Poncho and Lefty" by Townes Van Zandt, "The Boxer" by Paul Simon, and tunes by the Beatles and Bruce Springsteen. She sang with the likes of Bob Dylan and countless other respected rock and country stars, but always went her own way in the end. She has joked of the time she released Blue Kentucky Girl and the record company recalled the cardboard cutouts of Harris in cowboy boots and hat, which they had distributed for marketing. She didn't exactly fit into the country niche, but Kentucky Girl ended up winning a Grammy Award.

In 1995 Harris released Wrecking Ball, which was considered to be her most experimental album. It was produced by Daniel Parsons of "atmospheric work" fame with U2, Peter Gabriel, and Bob Dylan. On her impressive Duets compilation, she was featured with Parsons, Roy Orbison, George Jones, and John Denver. With Cowgirl's Prayer she returned to folk. When she did a bluegrass album, the critics sang a dirge; however, she told Timothy White of Billboard, "If I can't sustain an artistic statement that I believe in, then if my career's over—it's over. Cause this is what I have to say right now."

Roots Music Icon
Harris stopped hitting the country charts in 1994, but thanks to constant touring and a devoted fan base, her albums have continued to achieve respectable sales on both the pop and country charts. Moreover, her latter day projects have allowed her to do pretty much as she pleases, artistically. "Harris has an impeccable ear and loads of integrity, but that's just the icing on her cool cake," stated Radovsky. "She has both preserved and deepened this nation's awareness of its vital roots music," according to White. But for her fans, it's not all about "quietly confounding the rhinestone regulars of country music," according to Entertainment Weekly's Jeff Gordinier. He concluded, "Emmy is an icon."

Ending her association with Asylum/Elektra, Harris signed on with the more folk-friendly Nonesuch label in 2003. Now sporting lovely silver hair and a voice unchanged by the passage of time, she has continued to make modern audiences aware of traditional country and folk music and its power to tell a great story. Although she no longer commands radio airplay, her contributions to soundtracks of such motion pictures as Because of Winn-Dixie, Sling Blade, Where the Heart Is, and Brokeback Mountain have kept her tender, graceful style firmly in the public mind.

In 2008 Harris's prolonged success resulted in her induction into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Characteristically, the singer shared the credit. "I feel like that guy in the Verizon Wireless commercial with this sea of people behind me," she was reported as saying by Country Standard Time. "They're there, to the right of me, the left of me, and backward and forward. They've been there since the beginning, and they're with me still."

Selected discography

Solo
Gliding Bird, Jubilee, 1969.
Pieces of the Sky, Reprise, 1975.
Elite Hote, Reprise, 1975.
Luxury Liner, Warner Bros., 1977.
Quarter Moon in a Ten-Cent Town, Warner Bros., 1978.
Profile: The Best of Emmylou Harris (compilation), Warner Bros., 1978.
Blue Kentucky Girl, Warner Bros., 1980.
Roses in the Snow, Warner Bros., 1980.
Light of the Stable, Warner Bros., 1980.
Cimarron, Warner Bros., 1981.
Evangeline, Warner Bros., 1981.
Last Date, Warner Bros., 1982.
White Shoes, Warner Bros., 1983.
The Ballad of Sally Rose, Warner Bros., 1985.
Thirteen, Warner Bros., 1986.
Profile II: The Best of Emmylou Harris (compilation), Warner Bros., 1984.
Angel Band, Warner Bros., 1987.
Bluebird, Reprise, 1989.
Duets (compilation), Reprise, 1990.
Brand New Dance, Reprise, 1990.
At the Ryman (live), Reprise, 1992.
Cowgirl's Prayer, Asylum, 1993.
Songs of the West, Warner Bros., 1994.
Wrecking Ball, Asylum, 1995.
Spyboy, Eminent, 1998.
Red Dirt Girl, Nonesuch, 2000.
Anthology: The Warner-Reprise Years (compilation), Rhino, 2001.
Nobody's Darling But Mine, Nonesuch, 2002.
Stumble Into Grace, Nonesuch, 2003.
The Very Best of Emmylou Harris: Heartaches & Highways, Rhino, 2005.
Songbird: Rare Tracks & Forgotten Gems, Rhino, 2007.
All I Intended To Be, Nonesuch, 2008.

With Gram Parsons
GP, Warner Bros., 1972.
Grievous Angels, Warner Bros., 1973.

With others
(With Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt) Trio, Warner Bros., 1987.
(With Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt) Trio II, Elektra/Asylum, 1998.
(With Dolly Parton) Western Wall: The Tuscon Sessions, Elektra, 1999.
(With Mark Knopfler) All the Roadrunning, Waner Bros., 2006.

Sources
Books
Complete Marquis Who's Who, Marquis Who's Who, 2001.
Malone, Bill C.,Country Music U.S.A., revised edition, University of Texas Press, 1985.
Nash, Alanna, Behind Closed Doors: Talking with the Legends of Country Music, Knopf, 1988.

Periodicals
Billboard, December 4, 1999; December 18, 1999.
Entertainment Weekly, June 25, 1993; September 29, 1995; August 20, 1999.
Esquire, September 1982.
High Fidelity, August 1980.
Newsweek, April 17, 1978.
People, November 15, 1982; January 14, 1991; May 10, 1999; September 25, 2000.
Stereo Review, May 1985.
Time, June 16, 1975.

Online
"Awards," Emmylou.net, http://www.emmylou.net/#awards (November 30, 2008).
"Biography for Emmylou Harris," IMDB.com, http://www.imdb.com (November 30, 2008).
CMT Country.com, http://www.artist.country.com/cmt/art (February 5, 2002).
Countrystars.com, http://www.countrystars.com/legends/bios/harris_e.html (February 5, 2002).
"Emmylou Harris," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (November 30, 2008).
"Emmylou Harris, Pops Stoneman inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame," Country Standard Time, http://www.countrystandardtime.com/news/newsitem.asp?xid=1634 (November 30, 2008).
Grammy.com, http://www.grammy.com (February 5, 2002).
Rolling Stone.com, http://www.rollingstone.com/artists (February 5, 2002).
35th Country Music Association Awards, http://www.cmaawards.com/2001 (February 5, 2002).
  • Genres: Country

Biography

Though other performers sold more records and earned greater fame, few left as profound an impact on contemporary music as Emmylou Harris. Blessed with a crystalline voice, a remarkable gift for phrasing, and a restless creative spirit, she traveled a singular artistic path, proudly carrying the torch of "cosmic American music" passed down by her mentor, Gram Parsons. With the exception of only Neil Young -- not surprisingly an occasional collaborator -- no other mainstream star established a similarly large body of work as consistently iconoclastic, eclectic, or daring; even more than four decades into her career, Harris' latter-day music remained as heartfelt, visionary, and vital as her earliest recordings.

Harris was born on April 2, 1947, to a military family stationed in Birmingham, AL. After spending much of her childhood in North Carolina, she moved to Woodbridge, VA, while in her teens and graduated high school there as class valedictorian. After winning a dramatic scholarship at the University of North Carolina, she began to seriously study music, learning to play songs by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. Soon, Harris was performing in a duo with fellow UNC student Mike Williams, eventually quitting school to move to New York, only to find the city's folk music community dying out in the wake of the psychedelic era.

Still, Harris remained in New York, traveling the Greenwich Village club circuit before becoming a regular at Gerdes Folk City, where she struck up friendships with fellow folkies Jerry Jeff Walker, David Bromberg, and Paul Siebel. After marrying songwriter Tom Slocum in 1969, she recorded her debut LP, 1970's Gliding Bird. Shortly after the record's release, however, Harris' label declared bankruptcy, and while pregnant with her first child, her marriage began to fall apart. After moving to Nashville, she and Slocum divorced, leaving Harris to raise daughter Hallie on her own. After several months of struggle and poverty, she moved back in with her parents, who had since bought a farm outside of Washington, D.C.

There she returned to performing, starting a trio with local musicians Gerry Mule and Tom Guidera. One evening in 1971, while playing at an area club called Clyde's, the trio performed to a crowd that included members of the country-rock pioneers the Flying Burrito Brothers. In the wake of the departure of Gram Parsons, the band's founder, the Burritos were then led by ex-Byrd Chris Hillman, who was so impressed by Harris' talents that he considered inviting her to join the group. Instead, Hillman himself quit to join Stephen Stills' Manassas, but he recommended her to Parsons, who wanted a female vocalist to flesh out the sound of his solo work, a trailblazing fusion of country and rock & roll he dubbed "cosmic American music." Their connection was instant, and soon Harris was learning about country music and singing harmony on Parsons' solo debut, 1972's G.P. A tour with Parsons' backup unit, the Fallen Angels, followed, and in 1973 they returned to the studio to cut his landmark LP Grievous Angel.

On September 19, just weeks after the album sessions ended, Parsons' fondness for drugs and alcohol finally caught up to him, and he was found dead in a hotel room outside of the Joshua Tree National Monument in California. At the time, Harris was back in Washington, collecting her daughter for a planned move to the West Coast. Instead, she remained in D.C., reuniting with Tom Guidera to form the Angel Band. The group signed to Reprise and relocated to Los Angeles to begin work on Harris' solo major-label debut, 1975's acclaimed Pieces of the Sky, an impeccable collection made up largely of diverse covers ranging in origin from Merle Haggard to the Beatles. Produced by Brian Ahern, who would go on to helm Harris' next ten records -- as well as becoming her second husband -- Pieces of the Sky's second single, a rendition of the Louvin Brothers' "If I Could Only Win Your Love," became her first Top Five hit. "Light of the Stable," a Christmas single complete with backing vocals from Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Neil Young, soon followed; Harris then repaid the favor by singing on Ronstadt's "The Sweetest Gift" and Young's "Star of Bethlehem."

For her second LP, 1976's Elite Hotel, Harris established a new backing unit, the Hot Band, which featured legendary Elvis Presley sidemen James Burton and Glen D. Hardin as well as a young songwriter named Rodney Crowell on backup vocals and rhythm guitar. The resulting album proved to be a smash, with covers of Buck Owens' "Together Again" and the Patsy Cline perennial "Sweet Dreams" both topping the charts. Before beginning sessions for her third effort, 1977's Luxury Liner, Harris guested on Bob Dylan's Desire and appeared in Martin Scorsese's documentary of the Band's legendary final performance, The Last Waltz. Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town followed in 1978, led by the single "Two More Bottles of Wine," her third number one. The record was Crowell's last with the Hot Band; one of the tracks, "Green Rolling Hills," included backing from Ricky Skaggs, soon to become Crowell's replacement as Harris' vocal partner.

Released in 1979, Blue Kentucky Girl was her most country-oriented work to date, an indication of what was to come a year later with Roses in the Snow, a full-fledged excursion into acoustic bluegrass. In the summer of 1980, a duet with Roy Orbison, "That Lovin' You Feelin' Again," hit the Top Ten; a yuletide LP, Light of the Stable, followed at the end of the year. Shortly afterward, Harris quit touring to focus on raising her second daughter, Meghann. Evangeline, a patchwork of songs left off of previous albums, appeared in 1981. Shortly after, Skaggs left the Hot Band to embark on a solo career; his replacement was Barry Tashian, a singer/songwriter best known for fronting the 1960s rock band the Remains.

In 1982, drummer John Ware, the final holdover from the first Hot Band lineup, left the group; at the same time, Harris' marriage to Ahern was also beginning to disintegrate. After 1981's Cimarron, Harris and the Hot Band cut a live album, Last Date, named in honor of the album's chart-topping single "(Lost His Love) On Our Last Date," a vocal version of the Floyd Cramer instrumental. Quickly, they returned to the studio to record White Shoes, Harris' final LP with Ahern at the helm. Her most far-ranging affair yet, it included covers of Donna Summer's "On the Radio," Johnny Ace's "Pledging My Love," and Sandy Denny's "Old-Fashioned Waltz."

After leaving Ahern, she and her children moved back to Nashville. There, Harris joined forces with singer/songwriter Paul Kennerley, on whose 1980 concept album The Legend of Jesse James she had sung backup. Together, they began formulating a record called The Ballad of Sally Rose, employing the pseudonym Harris often used on the road to veil what was otherwise a clearly autobiographical portrait of her own life. Though a commercial failure, the 1985 record proved pivotal in Harris' continued evolution as an artist and a risk taker; it also marked another chapter in her personal life when she and Kennerley wed shortly after concluding their tour. Angel Band, a subtle, acoustic collection of traditional country spirituals, followed, although the record was not issued until 1987, after the release of its immediate follow-up, Thirteen.

Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt had first toyed with the idea of recording an album together as far back as 1977, only to watch the project falter in light of touring commitments and other red tape. Finally, in 1987, they issued Trio, a collection that proved to be Harris' best-selling album to date, generating the hits "To Know Him Is to Love Him" (a cover of the Phil Spector classic), "Telling Me Lies," and "Those Memories of You." The record's success spurred the 1990 release of Duets, a compilation of her earlier hits in conjunction with George Jones, Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons, and others. Fronting a new band, the Nash Ramblers, in 1992, she issued At the Ryman, a live set recorded at Nashville's legendary Ryman Auditorium, the former home of the Grand Ole Opry. At the time of the record's release, Harris was also serving a term as President of the Country Music Foundation.

In 1993, she ended her long association with Warner Bros./Reprise to move to Asylum Records, where she released Cowgirl's Prayer shortly after her separation from Paul Kennerley. Two years later, at a stage in her career at which most performers retreat to the safety of rehashing their greatest hits again and again, Harris issued Wrecking Ball, perhaps her most adventuresome record to date. Produced by Daniel Lanois, the New Orleans-based artist best known for his atmospheric work with U2, Peter Gabriel, and Bob Dylan, Wrecking Ball was a hypnotic, staggeringly beautiful work comprised of songs ranging from the Neil Young-penned title track (which featured its writer on backing vocals) to Jimi Hendrix's "May This Be Love" and the talented newcomer Gillian Welch's "Orphan Girl."

A three-disc retrospective of her years with Warner Bros., Portraits, appeared in 1996, and in 1998 Harris resurfaced with Spyboy. Following the release of Trio II later that year, she and Ronstadt again reunited, this time minus Parton, for 1999's Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions. In 2000 Harris returned with Red Dirt Girl, her first album of original material in five years, featuring appearances from Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, Jill Cuniff, and Patty Griffin. She also made an appearance on the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, along with a number of traditional blues, country, and folk artists. In 2003, Harris released Stumble into Grace; two years later, she collaborated with Conor Oberst on I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, as well as recording a version of "The Scarlet Tide" with Elvis Costello for the soundtrack to Cold Mountain. The retrospective The Very Best of Emmylou Harris: Heartaches & Highways was also released in 2005 on Rhino Entertainment.

All the Roadrunning, a collection of songs written with Mark Knopfler over the course of seven years, was released in 2006. In 2007 Harris sang a duet with Anne Murray, which appeared on Murray's 2008 album Duets: Friends and Legends. The Brian Ahern-produced All I Intended to Be arrived in 2008 as well. Hard Bargain, Harris' 21st studio album, was released by Nonesuch early in 2011. Produced by Jay Joyce, the album featured the striking Harris originals “Darlin’ Kate” (written for Kate McGarrigle) and “The Road” (written for Gram Parsons). ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Emmylou Harris

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Emmylou Harris

Emmylou Harris at the Greenbelt Harvest Picnic, 2011
Background information
Born April 2, 1947 (1947-04-02) (age 64)
Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Genres Folk, country rock, country, bluegrass, rock, pop, alt-country
Occupations Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments Voice, guitar
Years active 1970–present
Labels Jubilee, Reprise, Warner Bros., Elektra, Asylum, Rhino, Nonesuch
Associated acts Ryan Adams
The Band
Bright Eyes
James Burton
Beth Neilsen Chapman
Earl Thomas Conley
Elvis Costello
Rodney Crowell
Iris Dement
John Denver
Dixie Chicks
Bob Dylan
Steve Earle
Vern Gosdin
Patty Griffin
Arlo Guthrie
Mark Knopfler
Albert Lee
Little Feat
Dave Matthews
Kate and Anna McGarrigle
Willie Nelson
Juice Newton
Roy Orbison
Gram Parsons
Dolly Parton
John Prine
Linda Ronstadt
Ricky Skaggs
Bruce Springsteen
Don Williams
Lucinda Williams
Neil Young
Warren Zevon
Website www.emmylouharris.com

Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947 in Birmingham, Alabama) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has released many chart-topping albums and singles over the course of her career, and has won 12 Grammys and numerous other awards.

In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including Gram Parsons, The Band, Linda Ronstadt, Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Mark Knopfler, Guy Clark, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Rodney Crowell, and Neil Young.

Contents

Biography

Early years

Emmylou Harris is the daughter of a career military family, her father, Walter Harris, was a military officer and her mother, Eugenia was a wartime military wife. Her father, a member of the Marine Corps, was reported missing in action in Korea in 1952 and spent ten months as a prisoner of war. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Emmylou Harris spent her childhood in North Carolina and Woodbridge, Virginia, where she graduated from Gar-Field Senior High School as class valedictorian. In high school she also won a drama scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she began to study music seriously, learning to play the songs of Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez on guitar. Leaving college to pursue her musical aspirations, she moved to New York, working as a waitress to support herself while performing folk songs in Greenwich Village coffeehouses. She married fellow songwriter Tom Slocum in 1969 and in the following year recorded her first album, Gliding Bird. Harris and Slocum soon divorced, and Harris and her newborn daughter Hallie moved in with her parents in the Maryland suburbs on the edge of Washington, D.C.[1]

With Gram Parsons

Harris soon returned to performing as part of a trio with Gerry Mule and Tom Guidera. One night in 1971, members of the country rock group The Flying Burrito Brothers happened to be in the audience. Former Byrds member Chris Hillman, who had taken over the band after the departure of its founder Gram Parsons, was so impressed by Harris that he briefly considered asking her to join the band. Instead, Hillman ended up recommending her to Parsons, who was looking for a female vocalist to work with on his first solo album, GP. Harris toured as a member of Parsons' band, The Fallen Angels, in 1973, and the couple shone during vocal harmonies and duets. Harris was quite pleased, and invested a lot emotionally in their relationship. Later that year, Parsons and Harris worked on a studio album, Grievous Angel. Parsons died in his motel room near what is now Joshua Tree National Park on September 19, 1973, from an accidental overdose of drugs and alcohol. Parsons's Grievous Angel was released posthumously in 1974, and three more tracks from his last sessions with Harris were included on another posthumous Parsons album, Sleepless Nights, in 1976. There was one more album of recorded material from that period of time that was packaged with the name, Live 1973, but was not released until 1982.

The working relationship between Harris and Parsons is of great importance in country and country-rock music history. Parsons offered Harris a study in true country music, introducing her to artists like The Louvin Brothers, and provided her with a musical identity; Harris's harmony and duet vocals, on the other hand, were lauded by those who heard them, and helped inspire Parsons' performances. His death left her devastated at an emotional and musical crossroads. She eventually carried on with her own version of Parsons' musical vision, and was instrumental in bringing attention to his achievements. Harris's earliest signature song, and arguably her most personal one, "Boulder to Birmingham", written shortly after Gram's death, showed the depth of her shock and pain at losing Parsons. It was, according to her best friend Linda Ronstadt, the beginning of a "lifetime effort to process what had happened", and was just the first of many songs written and/or performed by Harris about her life with (and without) Parsons.

I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
I would hold my life in his saving grace.
I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham
If I thought I could see, I could see your face.
  —"Boulder to Birmingham"
  lyrics by Emmylou Harris

The Hot Band

Hot Band member James Burton

Warner Brothers A&R representative Mary Martin introduced Harris to Canadian producer Brian Ahern, who produced her major label debut album, Pieces of the Sky, released in 1975 on Reprise Records. The album was surprisingly eclectic, especially by Nashville standards, including cover versions of The Beatles' "For No One", Merle Haggard's "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down" and The Louvin Brothers' "If I Could Only Win Your Love". It also featured "Bluebird Wine", a composition by young Texas songwriter Rodney Crowell, who was the first in a long line of songwriters whose talents Harris has championed. The record was one of the most expensive country records produced at the time, featuring the talents of James Burton, Glen Hardin, Ron Tutt, Ray Pohlman, and Bill Payne, as well as two tracks ("Before Believing" and "Queen of the Silver Dollar") that were cut with the Angel Band. Two singles were released: "Too Far Gone", which initially charted at #73 (a 1979 reissue hit #13), and Harris's first big hit, "If I Could Only Win Your Love", a duet with Herb Pedersen (later a founding member of The Desert Rose Band), which peaked at #4.

Executives of Warner Bros. Records (Reprise Records's parent company) told Harris they would agree to record her if she would "get a hot band". Harris did so, enlisting guitarist James Burton and pianist Glen Hardin, both of whom had played with Elvis Presley as well as Parsons. Burton was a renowned guitarist, starting in Ricky Nelson's band in the 1950s, and Hardin had been a member of The Crickets. Other Hot Band members were drummer John Ware, pedal steel guitarist Hank DeVito, and bassist Emory Gordy, Jr., with whom Harris had worked while performing with Parsons. Singer-songwriter Crowell was enlisted as a rhythm guitarist and duet partner.[2] Harris's first tour schedule originally dovetailed around Presley's, owing to Burton and Hardin's continuing commitments to Presley's band. The Hot Band lived up to its name, with most of the members moving on with fresh talent replacing them as they continued on to solo careers of their own.

Elite Hotel, released in December 1975, established that the buzz created by Pieces of the Sky was well-founded. Unusual for country albums at the time, which largely revolved around a hit single, Harris's albums borrowed their approach from the album-oriented rock market. In terms of quality and artistic merit, tracks like "Sin City", "Wheels", and "Till I Gain Control Again", which weren't singles, easily stood against tracks like "Together Again", "Sweet Dreams", and "One of These Days", which were. While Elite Hotel was a #1 country album, the album did sufficiently well as a crossover success with the rock audience. Harris appealed to those who normally disapproved of the country market's pull toward crossover pop singles ("Together Again" and "Sweet Dreams" both topped the country charts). Elite Hotel won a Grammy in 1976 for Best Country Vocal Performance, Female.

Harris' reputation for guest work continued. Aside from contributing to albums by Linda Ronstadt, Guy Clark and Neil Young, Harris was tapped by Bob Dylan to perform on his Desire album, but entirely uncredited. Harris also filmed one of the studio sequences, owing to her touring schedule, in The Band's The Last Waltz, singing "Evangeline".

Burton left the Hot Band in 1976, choosing to remain with Elvis Presley's band, and was replaced by English guitarist Albert Lee. Harris's commercial apex was Luxury Liner, released in 1977, which remains one of her definitive records. On Luxury Liner, Harris's mix of songs from Chuck Berry ("(You Never Can Tell) C'est La Vie"), Gram Parsons (the title track and "She"), The Carter Family ("Hello Stranger") and Kitty Wells ("Making Believe") illustrate a continuity and artistic merit to country music often overlooked at the time. Despite Top Ten singles with "C'est La Vie" and "Making Believe", the album's best known track is the first recorded cover of Townes Van Zandt's classic "Pancho & Lefty", which would be a #1 hit for Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard in 1983. At the end of 1977, Crowell left the Hot Band to pursue a solo career; his replacement was bluegrass multi-instrumentalist and singer Ricky Skaggs.

Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town signaled a slight change of direction from Harris's previous three albums. Rather than mixing classic and contemporary, the album is made up largely of recently written songs, though from a wide variety of writers. "Two More Bottles of Wine", written by Delbert McClinton, became Harris's third #1 single, "To Daddy", written by Dolly Parton, went to #3, and a third single, "Easy From Now On", went Top Twenty. The album included two songs apiece from Crowell ("I Ain't Living Long Like This" and "Leaving Louisiana In The Broad Daylight") and songwriter Jesse Winchester ("Defying Gravity" and "My Songbird"), and Utah Phillips' "Green Rolling Hills".

The Roots Records

In 1977 (January), Harris married Brian Ahern.[3] Their (Harris' second) daughter, Meghann, was born in 1979. During this time, Harris cut three studio albums that reflected a shift toward traditional country (the industry, on the other hand, was about to embrace Urban Cowboy). The first key to the change in direction was her Grammy Award-winning 1979 album Blue Kentucky Girl. Apart from a cover of The Drifters' "Save The Last Dance For Me", the album was largely made up of classic-styled country material in the vein of Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells. One of her best-loved albums, the record includes songs ranging from The Louvin Brothers' "Everytime You Leave" to Willie Nelson's "Sister's Coming Home" to Gram Parson's signature "Hickory Wind". Wesley Rose took special interest in Harris' recording of "Beneath Still Waters", which became a #1 smash.

A Christmas album, Light of the Stable, was released in 1979; its title track featured backing vocals by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Neil Young, all three of whom Harris had been working with sporadically since the mid-1970s, and would continue to collaborate with through the 2000s. (Harris, Parton and Ronstadt began working on a planned trio album during this time, though it would remain unfinished for nearly a decade; a few of the tracks recorded for the project surfaced on the women's respective solo albums in the interim.) The album is largely acoustic, featuring readings of traditional fare such as "Silent Night", "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "The First Noel".

In the 1980s, Harris pursued country music's history even further with the bluegrass-oriented recording of Roses in the Snow, featuring Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice, Albert Lee, Emory Gordy Jr. and Jerry Douglas. Harris's versions of the traditional "Wayfaring Stranger" and Paul Simon's "The Boxer" were strong singles.

In 1980, Harris recorded "That Lovin' You Feelin' Again" with Roy Orbison. The duet was a Top 10 hit on both the Country and Adult Contemporary charts. They would win the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. She would also be featured on Paul Kennerley's concept album The Legend of Jesse James, which also featured Levon Helm of The Band and Johnny Cash.

Pop-chart success, songwriting

In 1981, Harris reached the Top 40 on the Billboard pop chart with a cover of "Mister Sandman"—again Top 10 Country as well as Adult Contemporary—from her Evangeline album. (The album version of the song was a track from the ill-fated Trio sessions with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt, but neither Parton's nor Ronstadt's record companies would allow their artists' vocals to be used on the single, so Harris re-recorded the song, singing all three parts.)

Harris moved to Nashville in 1982. White Shoes in 1983 included an eclectic pairing of the rockish reading of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" with a remake of the Donna Summer hit "On the Radio", as well as tracks from a diverse group of songwriters such as Hot Band member Crowell, Sandy Denny and T-Bone Burnett and was her last album produced by Brian Ahern until All I Intended to Be in 2008.

Harris's major-label releases thus far had included few self-penned songs, but in 1985 her songwriting skills were much in evidence with the release of a concept album The Ballad of Sally Rose, for which she co-wrote all of the songs. The album was semi-autobiographical in theme, based loosely on her relationship with Parsons. Harris described it as a "country opera", and a "huge commercial disaster".[4] Her co-writer and producer on the album was English songwriter and musician Paul Kennerley, writer of the hit singles "Born to Run" (on Harris's 1981 Cimarron album) and "In My Dreams" (on White Shoes). Kennerley also produced her next album, Thirteen. They were married in 1985 and divorced in 1993.

In 1987, nearly a full decade after they'd first attempted to do so, Harris teamed up with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt for their long-promised and much-anticipated Trio disc. The album was the biggest commercial success of Harris's career, spending five weeks at #1 on Billboard's Country Albums chart (also quickly reaching the Top 10 on the Pop Albums chart), sold several million copies and produced four Top 10 Country hits, including "To Know Him Is To Love Him", which hit #1. The disc was nominated for the coveted Album Of The Year Grammy award (given to U2 that year for The Joshua Tree) and the three women won the statuette for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal; the album's Linda Thompson-penned track "Telling Me Lies" reached #3 Country, #25 Adult Contemporary, and was also nominated for a Grammy as 1987's Best Country Song.

Harris also found time in 1987 to release a solo album, Angel Band, featuring traditional gospel songs, on which she worked with, among others, rising country star Vince Gill.

In 1989, she recorded two songs with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume II. In a snippet of studio chatter included on one of the tracks, she talked during the recording session about her beginnings and how music had changed:

Years ago I had the experience of sitting around in a living room with a bunch of people and singing and playing, and it was like a spiritual experience, it was wonderful. And I decided then that was what I was going to do with my life was play music, do music. In the making of records, I think over the years we've all gotten a little too technical, a little too hung up on getting things perfect. We've lost the living room. The living room has gone out of the music, but today I feel like we got it back.

Around 1991, she dissolved The Hot Band and formed a new band of acoustic musicians—Sam Bush on fiddle, mandolin and vocals, Roy Huskey, Jr. on bass and vocals, Larry Atamanuik on drums, Al Perkins on banjo, guitar, Dobro guitar and vocals, and Jon Randall on guitar, mandolin and vocals—which she named The Nash Ramblers. They recorded a Grammy Award-winning live album in 1992 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, which led to the $8 million restoration of the facility into a premium concert and event venue. It was her last album with Reprise Records.

New directions

By the 1990s, Harris started receiving less airplay as mainstream country stations began shifting their focus to the youth-oriented "new country" format. Harris's albums Bluebird and Brand New Dance (1989 and 1990, respectively) received ample critical acclaim and sold reasonably well, yet her chart success was on the wane. 1993's Cowgirl's Prayer—the first album since her switch to Elektra Records—was critically praised but received very little airplay,[5] and its lead single, "High Powered Love" charted very low, peaking at #63, prompting her to shift her career in a new direction.

In 1995, Harris released one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the decade, Wrecking Ball, produced by Daniel Lanois, best known for his work with U2, Peter Gabriel and Bob Dylan. An experimental album for Harris, the record included Harris's rendition of the Neil Young-penned title track (Young himself provided guest vocals on two of the album's songs), Steve Earle's "Goodbye", Julie Miller's "All My Tears", Jimi Hendrix's "May This Be Love", Kate and Anna McGarrigle's "Goin' Back to Harlan" and Gillian Welch's "Orphan Girl". U2's Larry Mullen, Jr. showed up to play drums for the project. The album received virtually no country airplay whatsoever, but did bring Harris to the attention of alternative rock listeners, many of whom had never listened to her music before.

Harris then took her Wrecking Ball material on the road, releasing the live Spyboy in 1998, backed with a power trio comprising Nashville producer, songwriter and guitarist Buddy Miller and New Orleans musicians, drummer Brady Blade and bassist-vocalist-percussionist Daryl Johnson. In addition to performing songs from Wrecking Ball, the album updated many of Harris's career hits, including "Boulder to Birmingham".

Also in 1998, she appeared prominently on Willie Nelson's moody, instrumentally sparse Teatro album, produced by Wrecking Ball producer Lanois.[6]

During the summer of 1997 and 1998, Harris joined Sarah McLachlan's all-woman musical touring festival, the Lilith Fair, where new artists like Patty Griffin could share new experiences and ideas with seasoned musicians like Harris and Bonnie Raitt.

In January 1999, Harris released Trio 2 with Parton and Ronstadt. Much of the album had actually been recorded in 1994, but remained unreleased for nearly five years because of record label and personnel disputes, conflicting schedules, and career priorities of the three artists. Trio 2 was much more contemporary-sounding than its predecessor and was certified Gold. It included their version of Neil Young's classic "After The Gold Rush", which became a popular music video and won another Grammy—this one for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. Harris and Ronstadt then released a duet album, Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, later the same year. The two superstars toured together during the fall months in support of the disc. Both albums made the Top 10 of Billboard's Country Albums chart and did well on the pop side as well.

Also in 1999, Harris paid tribute to her former singing partner Gram Parsons by co-executive producing Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons, an album that gathered together more than a dozen artists. Harris performed duets with Beck, Sheryl Crow and The Pretenders on this album's tracks.

In 2000, Harris released her solo follow-up to Wrecking Ball, Red Dirt Girl, produced by Lanois protégé Malcolm Burn. For the first time since The Ballad of Sally Rose, the album contained a number of Harris's own compositions. Like Wrecking Ball, the album's sound leaned more toward alternative rock than country. Nevertheless it reached #5 on Billboard's Country Albums chart as well as a healthy #54 on the pop side. It also won Harris another of her 12 Grammy awards, in the category of Best Contemporary Folk Album.

Harris also accompanied on alternative country singer Ryan Adams' solo debut Heartbreaker and on Tracy Chapman's fifth album Telling Stories.

Also in 2000, Harris joined an all-star group of traditional country, folk and blues artists for the T-Bone Burnett-produced soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? The soundtrack won multiple CMA, ACM and Grammy awards. A documentary/concert film, Down from the Mountain, featured the artists performing music from the film and other songs at the Ryman Auditorium. Harris and many of the same artists took their show on the road for the Down from the Mountain Tour in 2002. In 2003, Harris supplied the finishing touches in harmonizing with the Dixie Chicks on a song they were recording in the studio, "Godspeed".

Recent work

Harris released Stumble into Grace, her follow-up to Red Dirt Girl, in 2003. Like its predecessor, it contained mostly self-penned material. In 2004, Harris led the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue tour with Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin. They performed singly and together and swapped instruments.

On September 9, 2005, Harris participated in "Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast", a series of concerts simulcast by most American television stations to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. She performed with Beth Neilsen Chapman and the Dixie Chicks, harmonizing on Patty Griffin's song, "Mary".

Harris playing in Rotterdam, Netherlands (2006)

In 2005, Harris worked with Conor Oberst on Bright Eyes' release, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, performing backup vocals on three tracks. In July, she joined Elvis Costello on several dates of his US tour, performing alongside Costello and his band on several numbers each night. Harris and Costello recorded a version of Costello's song, "The Scarlet Tide", from the soundtrack of the movie Cold Mountain. July also saw the release of The Very Best of Emmylou Harris: Heartaches & Highways, a single-disc retrospective of Harris's career, on the Rhino Entertainment label. This same year, Harris appeared as a guest vocalist on Neil Young's widely acclaimed Prairie Wind. She also appeared in the Jonathan Demme documentary-concert film Neil Young: Heart of Gold, released in 2006.

Harris performing in the Netherlands with Mark Knopfler

All the Roadrunning, an album of collaborations with former Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler, was released in April 2006 and supported by a tour of Europe and the US. The album was a commercial success, reaching #8 in the UK and #17 in the US. Selections recorded during the All the Roadrunning tour performance at the Gibson Amphitheatre were released as a CD/DVD package titled Real Live Roadrunning in November 2006. In addition to several of the compositions that Harris and Knopfler recorded together in the studio, Real Live Roadrunning features solo hits from both members of the duo, as well as a few classic tracks from Knopfler's days with Dire Straits.

Harris is featured on A Tribute To Joni Mitchell, released on April 24, 2007. Harris covered the song "The Magdalene Laundries" (originally on Mitchell's 1994 album, Turbulent Indigo). She sang "Another Pot O' Tea" with Anne Murray on Murray's album Anne Murray Duets: Friends and Legends, released November 13, 2007, in Canada and January 15, 2008, in the U.S.

Harris wrote a song called "In Rodanthe" for the 2008 film Nights In Rodanthe.

A solo album, All I Intended to Be, was released on June 10, 2008, to critical acclaim. Contributors include Buddy Miller, the McGarrigle sisters, Vince Gill, Phil Madeira, and Dolly Parton. She toured with an ensemble she dubbed the Red Dirt Boys, featuring Phil Madeira on accordion, guitar, and keyboards, Colin Linden on guitar and banjo, Rickie Simpkins on mandolin and fiddle, Chris Donohue on bass, and Bryan Owings on drums.[7] It did not include Miller, who was touring with Robert Plant, Alison Krauss and T Bone Burnett at the time. In 2009, Harris toured with Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, and Miller as "Three Girls and Their Buddy". Madeira, Simpkins, and Donohue performed with her in late 2008, and in 2009, appearing on "A Prairie Home Companion" and at MerleFest and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. In September 2009, Owings rejoined the Red Dirt Boys with Miller for the remainder of 2009.

In April 2009 Harris became a grandmother. Her daughter gave birth to a daughter, Prudence.[8]

In 2010, Harris regrouped with the latest version of the Red Dirt Boys—Madeira, Owings, Donohue, and Simpkins—for Lilith Fair summer dates and a scheduled US autumn tour.

According to an interview with Bonnie Tyler by Digital Spy, Emmylou Harris will be teaming up with her on Tyler's upcoming album. Harris will do backing vocals on a song, written and produced by Wayne Warner. A new solo album, Hard Bargain, was released on the Nonesuch label on April 26, 2011.

PBS host Tavis Smiley interviewed Harris in a program that aired on April 20, 2011. In the interview Harris spoke of being a straight-A student in high school, which led her to being selected as valedictorian, and recounted learning to play guitar by memorizing three chords on a Taylor 310CE.[citation needed]

Activism

In 1997 and 1998, Harris performed in Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair, promoting feminism in music. Since 1999, Harris has been organizing an annual benefit tour called Concerts for a Landmine Free World. All proceeds from the tours support the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation's (VVAF) efforts to assist innocent victims of conflicts around the world. The tour also benefits the VVAF's work to raise America's awareness of the global landmine problem. Artists that have joined Harris on the road for these dates include Mary Chapin Carpenter, Bruce Cockburn, Sheryl Crow, Steve Earle, Joan Baez, Patty Griffin, Nanci Griffith, Willie Nelson, and Lucinda Williams. Harris is a supporter of animal rights and an active member of PETA.[9] She founded, and in her spare time assists at, an animal shelter in Nashville.[10]

She became a member of the newly formed Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011.[11][12]

Awards and other honors

Grammy Awards

2005 Best Female Country Vocal Performance ("The Connection")

2001 Album of the Year (O Brother, Where Art Thou?)

2000 Best Contemporary Folk Album (Red Dirt Girl)

1999 Best Country Collaboration with Vocals ("After The Gold Rush", with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt)

1998 Best Country Collaboration with Vocals ("Same Old Train", with Alison Krauss, Clint Black, Dwight Yoakam, Earl Scruggs, Joe Diffie, Marty Stuart, Merle Haggard, Pam Tillis, Patty Loveless, Randy Travis, Ricky Skaggs & Travis Tritt)

1995 Best Contemporary Folk Album (Wrecking Ball)

1992 Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers At the Ryman, as Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers)

1987 Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (Trio, with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt)

1984 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female ("In My Dreams")

1980 Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group ("That Lovin' You Feelin' Again", with Roy Orbison)

1979 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female (Blue Kentucky Girl)

1976 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female (Elite Hotel)[13]

Country Music Association Awards

2001 Album of the Year (O Brother, Where Art Thou?)

1980 Female Vocalist Of The Year

1988 Vocal Event of the Year (Trio, with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt)[14]

Other honors

Discography

Collaborations and other appearances

References

  1. ^ "Charlie Rose Show" June 25, 2008
  2. ^ The Hot Band, Emmylou.net. Retrieved 2007-10-04.
  3. ^ Emmylou ... and Brian ... make beautiful music together.
  4. ^ Keast, James (June 2008). "Questionaire: Emmylou Harris". Exclaim.ca. http://exclaim.ca/Features/Questionnaire/emmylou_harris. Retrieved 14 May 2011. 
  5. ^ Cromelin, Richard (11 April 1996). "Q & A with EMMYLOU HARRIS: Singing With a Voice That's Always True to Her Heart". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1996-04-11/entertainment/ca-57283_1_emmylou-harris. Retrieved 14 May 2011. 
  6. ^ Cromelin, Richard (5 September 1998). "Willie Nelson, "Teatro," Island.". Los Angeles Times. http://articles.latimes.com/1998/sep/05/entertainment/ca-19591. Retrieved 15 May 2011. 
  7. ^ Varga, George (31 July 2008). "'I'm a storyteller'". The San Diego Union-Tribune. http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080731/news_1w31emmylou.html. Retrieved 14 May 2011. 
  8. ^ "All For The Hall California benefit concert review", Nashville Gab, http://www.nashvillegab.com/2009/10/all-for-the-hall-california-benefit-concert-review.html
  9. ^ Kentucky Fried Cruelty :: Celebrity Support :: Emmylou Harris
  10. ^ Bonaparte's Retreat
  11. ^ New humanities commission has Tennessee influence, BestCountrySingers.com
  12. ^ AMERICAN ACADEMY, Commission on the Humanities & Social Sciences - Commission Members
  13. ^ Grammy Award Winners at www.grammy.com, retrieved 21 March 2008/
  14. ^ Artist Detail Emmylou Harris www.cmaawards.com. Retrieved 21 March 2008.
  15. ^ Billboard.com: Backstreet Boys, Spears Top 1999 Billboard Awards
  16. ^ Morris, Edward (28 April 2008) CMT News: Emmylou Harris, Ernest V. "Pop" Stoneman Enter Country Music Hall of Fame. Retrieved 5 July 2008.
  17. ^ Edwards, Margot (7 October 2009). "Emmylou Harris Receives Berklee Honorary Doctorate". Berklee News. http://www.berklee.edu/news/1105/emmylou-harris-receives-berklee-honorary-doctora. Retrieved 14 May 2011. 

Sources

  • In the Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music, Nicholas Dawidoff, Vintage Books, 1998. ISBN 0-679-41567-X
  • Emmylou Harris: Angel in Disguise, Jim Brown, Fox Music Books, 2004. ISBN 1-894997-03-4
  • Fong-Torres, Ben. (1998). "Emmylou Harris". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 230.

External links

Awards
First
None recognized before
AMA Lifetime Achievement Award for Performing
2002
Succeeded by
Levon Helm

 
 
Related topics:
Maybe the Moon Will Shine (1991 Album by Marsha Thornton)
Friends in High Places (1991 Album by George Jones)
Sweet Temptation (1979 Album by Ricky Skaggs)

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