Emmylou Harris

Blessed with a voice of crystalline purity, an extraordinary command of phrasing, and an unceasing drive to create, Emmylou Harris left an indelible imprint on modern music that few others have matched. She forged a distinctive route through the genres, faithfully upholding the legacy of “cosmic American music” first shaped by her mentor Gram Parsons and thereby influencing both country and rock. Harris launched her career as a folk singer in New York City, issuing her debut album in 1970, only for the recording to vanish amid her label’s bankruptcy filing. The following year, while performing at a folk club in Washington, D.C., she caught the attention of Chris Hillman, who promptly recommended her to his onetime Flying Burrito Brothers bandmate Gram Parsons. Harris supplied exceptional harmony vocals to Parsons’ solo releases G.P. in 1972 and Grievous Angel in 1974, absorbing his guidance in country music until his death in September 1973. Transitioning to a solo career, she delivered Pieces of the Sky in 1975, Elite Hotel in 1976, and Luxury Liner in 1977, fusing deep reverence for country tradition with the energy and stylistic daring she had absorbed from rock. Although already recognized as a masterful interpretive singer, Harris asserted her songwriting voice with the ambitious 1985 concept album The Ballad of Sally Rose and achieved both critical and commercial breakthrough in 1987 through the platinum-certified Trio, recorded with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt. The 1992 live recording At the Ryman rekindled her artistic momentum via an intimate acoustic performance, while 1995’s Wrecking Ball, produced by Daniel Lanois, yielded a haunting, atmospheric collection equally steeped in alternative rock and country textures. Throughout the 2000s she continued pushing boundaries, maintaining a foothold in country yet drawing fresh ideas from rock and alternative sources; notable partnerships included 2006’s All the Roadrunning with Mark Knopfler and the 2013 album Old Yellow Moon and 2015 release The Traveling Kind, both with Rodney Crowell. With the possible exception of occasional collaborator Neil Young, no other major artist has assembled a body of work as consistently iconoclastic, wide-ranging, or audacious; even after more than four decades, her later recordings retained the same emotional depth, visionary quality, and vitality that marked her earliest work.

Harris entered the world on April 2, 1947, into a military family then stationed in Birmingham, Alabama. After passing much of her childhood in North Carolina, she relocated to Woodbridge, Virginia, during her teenage years and graduated high school there as class valedictorian. Awarded a drama scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, she immersed herself in music studies, mastering songs by Bob Dylan and Joan Baez. She soon formed a duo with fellow UNC student Mike Williams, ultimately leaving school to head for New York, only to discover that the city’s folk scene was fading in the aftermath of the psychedelic era. Harris nevertheless stayed in New York, working the Greenwich Village club circuit and becoming a fixture at Gerdes Folk City, where she befriended Jerry Jeff Walker, David Bromberg, and Paul Siebel. Following her 1969 marriage to songwriter Tom Slocum, she recorded her first album, 1970’s Gliding Bird. Shortly after its release her label declared bankruptcy; while pregnant with her first child, her marriage began to unravel. After moving to Nashville, she and Slocum divorced, leaving Harris to raise daughter Hallie alone. Months of hardship and financial strain later prompted her to return to her parents, who had purchased a farm outside Washington, D.C.

There she resumed performing, assembling a trio with local players Gerry Mule and Tom Guidera. One night in 1971 at the club Clyde’s, the group played for members of the Flying Burrito Brothers. With Gram Parsons having departed, Chris Hillman now led the band and was so struck by Harris’s abilities that he contemplated inviting her to join; instead, Hillman left to work with Stephen Stills in Manassas yet urged Parsons to hear her. Parsons sought a female vocalist to complete the sound of his solo projects, a pioneering blend of country and rock & roll he termed “cosmic American music.” Their rapport proved immediate, and Harris quickly absorbed country traditions while supplying harmony on Parsons’ 1972 debut G.P. A tour with his Fallen Angels ensued, and in 1973 they returned to the studio for the landmark Grievous Angel.

On September 19, mere weeks after those sessions, Parsons died in a hotel room near Joshua Tree National Monument in California, the result of long-standing struggles with drugs and alcohol. Harris, then back in Washington to collect her daughter for a planned move west, remained in D.C. and reunited with Tom Guidera to form the Angel Band. The group signed with Reprise and relocated to Los Angeles to record her major-label solo debut, 1975’s Pieces of the Sky. The album, largely composed of covers spanning Merle Haggard to the Beatles and produced by Brian Ahern—who would helm her next ten records and later become her second husband—yielded the Top Five single “If I Could Only Win Your Love,” a Louvin Brothers rendition. The Christmas single “Light of the Stable,” featuring backing vocals from Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Neil Young, followed; Harris reciprocated by appearing on Ronstadt’s “The Sweetest Gift” and Young’s “Star of Bethlehem.”

For her second album, 1976’s Elite Hotel, Harris assembled the Hot Band, featuring Elvis Presley alumni James Burton and Glen D. Hardin plus emerging songwriter Rodney Crowell on vocals and rhythm guitar. The record became a major success, with Buck Owens’ “Together Again” and Patsy Cline’s “Sweet Dreams” both reaching number one. Before commencing work on 1977’s Luxury Liner, Harris contributed to Bob Dylan’s Desire and appeared in Martin Scorsese’s documentary The Last Waltz. Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town arrived in 1978, propelled by the chart-topping “Two More Bottles of Wine,” Harris’s third number-one single. Crowell’s tenure with the Hot Band ended with that album; one track, “Green Rolling Hills,” introduced Ricky Skaggs, who would soon replace Crowell as Harris’s vocal partner.

Blue Kentucky Girl, released in 1979, marked her strongest country statement to date and foreshadowed the full bluegrass excursion Roses in the Snow the following year. In summer 1980 the duet “That Lovin’ You Feelin’ Again” with Roy Orbison reached the Top Ten, and the holiday collection Light of the Stable closed the year. Harris then paused touring to devote herself to raising second daughter Meghann. The 1981 patchwork Evangeline gathered previously unused tracks. Skaggs departed the Hot Band for a solo career and was succeeded by Barry Tashian, formerly of the Remains. In 1982 drummer John Ware, the last original Hot Band member, exited; around the same time Harris’s marriage to Ahern began to dissolve. Following 1981’s Cimarron, the Hot Band recorded the live album Last Date, whose chart-topping title track was a vocal adaptation of Floyd Cramer’s instrumental. They swiftly returned to the studio for White Shoes, Harris’s final project with Ahern, an eclectic set that included Donna Summer’s “On the Radio,” Johnny Ace’s “Pledging My Love,” and Sandy Denny’s “Old-Fashioned Waltz.”

After parting from Ahern, Harris and her children settled back in Nashville. There she collaborated with Paul Kennerley, on whose 1980 concept album The Legend of Jesse James she had previously sung backup. Together they developed The Ballad of Sally Rose, employing the road pseudonym Harris had long used; though commercially unsuccessful, the 1985 album proved crucial to her artistic growth and risk-taking, and an expanded edition appeared in 2018. The project also led to her marriage to Kennerley after touring concluded. Angel Band, a subdued acoustic collection of traditional country spirituals, followed but was not released until 1987, after Thirteen.

Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt had first discussed a joint album as early as 1977, yet the project repeatedly stalled because of scheduling and contractual obstacles. When Trio finally appeared in 1987 it became Harris’s best-selling album to date, yielding the hits “To Know Him Is to Love Him,” “Telling Me Lies,” and “Those Memories of You.” Its success prompted the 1990 compilation Duets, gathering earlier collaborations with George Jones, Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons, and others. (Harris rejoined Parton and Ronstadt for 1999’s Trio II; the two albums plus unreleased material were later assembled into the 2016 box set The Complete Trio Collection.) Fronting the Nash Ramblers, she issued the 1992 live set At the Ryman, recorded at the historic Ryman Auditorium; at the time she was also serving as president of the Country Music Foundation.

In 1993 Harris left Warner Bros./Reprise for Asylum Records and released Cowgirl’s Prayer soon after separating from Kennerley. Two years later she issued Wrecking Ball, one of her most daring statements, produced by Daniel Lanois—known for his atmospheric work with U2, Peter Gabriel, and Bob Dylan. The hypnotic album ranged from Neil Young’s title track, featuring the songwriter on backing vocals, to Jimi Hendrix’s “May This Be Love” and Gillian Welch’s “Orphan Girl.” The 1996 three-disc retrospective Portraits chronicled her Warner years; Spyboy appeared in 1998. After Trio II later that year, Harris and Ronstadt reunited without Parton for 1999’s Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions. Red Dirt Girl, her first collection of original songs in five years, arrived in 2000 and included contributions from Bruce Springsteen, Patti Scialfa, Jill Cunniff, and Patty Griffin; she also performed on the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack alongside traditional blues, country, and folk artists. Stumble Into Grace followed in 2003. In 2005 she collaborated with Conor Oberst on I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning and recorded “The Scarlet Tide” with Elvis Costello for the Cold Mountain soundtrack; Rhino simultaneously issued the retrospective The Very Best of Emmylou Harris: Heartaches & Highways.

All the Roadrunning, compiling seven years of songs written with Mark Knopfler, appeared in 2006. Harris sang a duet with Anne Murray for Murray’s 2008 album Duets: Friends and Legends. The Brian Ahern-produced All I Intended to Be was released the same year. Hard Bargain, her twenty-first studio album, emerged on Nonesuch in early 2011; produced by Jay Joyce, it featured the originals “Darlin’ Kate,” written for Kate McGarrigle, and “The Road,” written for Gram Parsons. Harris contributed vocals to three tracks on the Nick Cave/Warren Ellis score for Lawless, including “Cosmonaut” and “Fire in the Blood,” plus a version of Townes Van Zandt’s “Snake Song.” She next recorded Old Yellow Moon with Rodney Crowell, backed by a reunited Hot Band and produced by Brian Ahern; the album appeared in February 2013. The pair followed with The Traveling Kind, produced by Joe Henry and released by Nonesuch in May 2015. A counterpart to its predecessor, the record spotlighted original material co-written with Mary Gauthier, Cory Chisel, Will Jennings, and Larry Klein, among others, alongside covers of songs by Lucinda Williams and Amy Allison.