The original Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Emmy Lou “EMMYLOU” HARRIS was born on April 2, 1947 in Birmingham, AL and is 75 years old today. Daughter of a Marine Corps pilot, she sang folk songs in the D.C. area and privately wondered to Pete Seeger if she would ever be a folk singer because she hadn’t suffered enough.
She was a single mother when Chris Hillman persuaded fellow Burrito Brother Gram Parsons to see her act one night and Parsons found his duet partner. They made some memorable music together until his death a few short years later. Emmylou became keeper of the flame of “Cosmic American Music” and, surrounding herself with stellar musicians known as “The Hot Band”, she turned out a number of fine, mostly country albums that threw in a few good songs regardless of the genre (Lennon-McCartney, Delbert McClinton, etc.) over the next decade.
She later formed the Nash Ramblers, who recorded an important live album at the Ryman Auditorium as part of the successful effort to save the historic Mother Church of Country Music. She has recorded 26 studio albums beginning with an eponymous 1969 album on the Jubilee label, and 4 live ones including a recently-discovered 1990 concert recording with the Nash Ramblers, and she has always been in demand as a duet partner and harmony vocalist with musicians of multiple genres.
She has been nominated for more than 40 Grammys, winning 14 times, and in 2018 she received a Lifetime Achievement Award from them. Among her charitable interests are her work with Concerts for a Landmine Free World and animal rights, having founded Bonaparte’s Retreat animal shelter in Nashville.
She continues today to expand her musical horizons and record music whose hallmarks are superior instrumentation, excellent songwriting and inimitable vocal stylings. She is also a fine songwriter in her own right. Emmylou Harris has been a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame since 2008 and in 2015 a star-studded group of artists paid tribute at Constitution Hall in Washington, DC with “The Life & Songs of Emmylou Harris”, later released as a CD.
It’s nearly impossible to choose a favorite song, but I chose this one for the sublime pairing of her incomparable voice with Leonard Cohen’s poetic imagery, and the images in the video enhance it all. Feel free to post your own favorite Emmylou song.