Still admired
Emmylou Harris has transcended traditional category bins at record stores in each of the five decades she’s been in the business.
Depending on the year listeners first turned on to the Southern songstress, one might remember her as a country singer, a folksy singer/songwriter of the late ‘60s Greenwich Village vintage or an in-demand musical partner.
Harris, who comes to the Spokane Opera House on Thursday, never has been guilty of being complacent, even when she happens upon bankable entrees like her work with the soundtrack music for the film “O Brother Where Art Thou.”
“You know, I’ve always been kind of given cart blanche to do whatever I wanted and have managed to maintain fairly much the same level of commercial success, sometimes better than others,” she told DIB Internet Radio after the release of her 2003 album, “Stumble Into Grace.”
“But there were never millions and millions of records at stake. So I could kind of cruise along and have the freedom to do what I wanted, so I’ve been very fortunate in that way.”
Decades removed from her days as a tips-earning waitress tromping around New York desperate for a gig, she’s still drawing rave reviews.
“At 58, Harris sounds as good – maybe even better – than ever,” Florida’s St. Petersburg Times said of a May performance in Tampa Bay. “Not that you could guess her age from anything other than her silver mane, which also looked great.”
Harris’ hobnobbing around music industry circles from the Big Apple to Nashville to Washington, D.C., eventually resulted in her hitching up with the late Gram Parsons. She credits the country-rock revolutionary – who was looking for a female counterpart for his act – with launching her career.
“I lucked into this whole thing,” she said in a press release. “One little millimeter would have made the difference.
“If my baby sitter hadn’t been at that Flying Burrito Brothers concert and given Gram my number, if Gram hadn’t come into my life, who knows what would have become of me.”
Albums such as “Wrecking Ball,” “Red Dirt Girl” and “Spyboy” have carved a legacy for Harris and earned her the respect of her peers. She has appeared with artists ranging from Bob Dylan to Linda Ronstadt to Johnny Cash to Garth Brooks to Neil Young, most recently on Young’s new CD, “Prairie Wind.”
“She lit up the club,” uber-hip rocker Elvis Costello recently told New York Magazine about a Harris appearance at one of his gigs.
“When you’re in a hot, crowded club, the last thing you expect is that what the people are going to want to do is listen to a bunch of ballads, two or three of which weren’t even written by either of the artists on the stage,” Costello said. “But you know, it’s absolutely magical how she completely changed the atmosphere.”
She does well at her own gigs, too.
“Harris proved fun and feisty between songs,” the St. Petersburg Times said, “and even introduced a (very cute) shelter dog she’d adopted to remind attendees about animal adoption, spaying and neutering.”
Bob Barker must be so proud.