We’ve moved into the 1980’s, you can tell because opening song “I Don’t Have To Crawl” has synthesisers on it.

“Evangeline” is a kind of a compilation album, being made up of tracks from previous album sessions that went unused at the time. And to be honest, it sounds like it. It’s confused and disjointed. We have two more songs from the ill-fated sessions with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt (the standard “Mr Sandman” and the title song), another “standard” in “How High The Moon” and a cover of Creedence’s “Bad Moon Rising”.

There are some bright spots. There’s a passable try at Gram and the Burrito’s “Hot Burrito #2”, nothing special but OK. “Spanish Johnny” sung in duet with Waylon Jennings sounds as great as you’d expect it to given the two singers. But the best thing on “Evangeline” is James Taylor’s “Millworker”. Originally written for the Broadway musical “Working” based on Studs Terkel’s book “Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do”. The song is written from the point of view of a woman, widowed and left with three children to raise who works in a textile mill, daydreaming and reflecting on her life. A quite beautiful song that Emmylou handles with respect and skill.

“Evangeline” was released in 1981 and gave Emmylou a Top 5 Country album and a top 10 single (“Mr Sandman”, although she had to re-record Dolly and Linda’s parts for the single as their record companies wouldn’t allow them to appear on a single). 

Millworker - https://youtu.be/aTmd2OyqtaM

Following on from “Blue Kentucky Girl” and it’s more straight ahead Country sound “Roses In The Snow” is Emmylou Harris possibly giving the bird to those Country purists who were saying she wasn’t Country enough and making a Bluegrass album…is that Country enough for all o’ y’all ! Ricky Scaggs, a renowned Bluegrass mandolin and fiddle player, had been a member of the Hot Band for some years and you can’t help but imagine he must have had some influence on this stylistic turn.

On this album Emmylou performs songs made famous by Bluegrass legends Flatt & Scruggs, the first family of Country, the Carter Family, Johnny Cash and the most un-Bluegrass Paul Simon. Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Willie Nelson and Bluegrass guitar maestro Tony Rice make guest appearances. The other significant appearance on “Roses In The Snow” is autoharpist Bryan Bowers, whose presence on the record adds the sound of the Carter Family, Mother Maybelle Carter played the instrument, which in turn lent the album the old-time sound that Harris and producer Brian Ahern were aiming for.

In the early 80’s Nashville was in the middle of its Urban Cowboy period, thanks to the movie of the same name starring John Travolta! Light poppy Country music was back on the radio and was becoming a big deal after a few years of (sales) stagnation. Some in Country music though were looking back to more traditional earlier forms and anticipating the rise of the likes of Dwight Yoakam and the alt. Country style later in the 80’s, this album would have been a big deal when it landed on the record company. Bluegrass and Appalachian music would see its rise some 20 years later (thanx in part to another movie “O Brother Where Art Thou”) but in the early 80’s it was a no-no. But Emmylou was and always had been a good seller, so the record company went with it.

And this is different from the off. On the Title track we hear fiddles, banjos, acoustic guitars, fabulous harmonies courtesy of vocal trio The Whites (featuring Ricky Scaggs wife Sharon White BTW), all the lead instruments given their spot to shine as they dip and wind and spin around each other, let’s not forget that in its time Bluegrass was dance music and “Roses In The Snow” (the song) swings. That mood is picked up again on side two’s “I’ll Go Stepping Too” and “Jordan” featuring the unmistakable vocals of the mighty Johnny Cash.

There are so many great things on this record it’s hard to pick out a single highlight. That first blast on the title track is a hoot(enanny), the version of the traditional classic “Wayfaring Stranger” (later made even more accessible by Johnny Cash on “American III”), “Green Pastures”, a duet with Ricky Scaggs with harmonies provided by Dolly Parton and “Gold Watch and Chain”, an A.P Carter (Carter Family) penned song which highlights Skaggs and Linda Ronstadt. Even the version of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Boxer” fits right in. 

This is music that Jason Isbell will soon describe in song as being made by “old men with old guitars, smoking Winston Lights” and “harmonising with the wind”, the sort of music that, in my idealised picture of the South, families sit around on their porches playing and singing with each other. This is folk music in all its glory, music made and played by the folk.

It’s over in a flash, it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome. Let’s call it Emmylou’s best and most consistent album since “Pieces Of The Sky”. It may also be a terrible thing to say and of no interest to anyone but me but, Emmylou looks utterly stunning on the cover picture of this record, the first time I really noticed what a beauty she is. Anyways don’t mind me, this is a great record.

Roses In The Snow - https://youtu.be/T5z4a-AgUUI

The Hot Band are all here, we have contributions from Dolly and Linda Ronstadt, an Everly Brother and, most importantly for me, Gram is back. “Blue Kentucky Girl” (a song originally recorded by the great Loretta Lynn in 1965) finds Emmylou moving to a much more trad Country style, perhaps following rumblings from some Country purists that the Country Rock style she’d forged ahead with was more Rock than Country.

Let’s get straight to it. The absolute gem on this record is the cover of Gram Parson’s “Hickory Wind”. It is one of Gram’s greatest songs, written and recorded for The Byrds album “Sweetheart Of The Rodeo” in 1968, the very birth point of Country Rock. He then recorded another version in a faux-live style for his 1974 solo album “Grievous Angel”, a version on which Emmylou sings with him. She gives it everything here and I’d argue it’s one of her greatest vocal performances. You can hear the longing and the loss in her voice and there’s a rough edge to her singing that you don’t usually hear from her. A great take of a wonderful song.

There’s another Louvin Brothers song sung in duet with Don Everly. The closing two songs are as Country as Country can be. Firstly Loretta Lynn’s song that lends its title to this album, one of those lyrics that maybe Loretta wasn’t entirely happy with, telling her roving man he can come back anytime to his blue Kentucky girl, even the strongest personalities had to bow to the Nashville studio execs sometimes. The Coal Miners Daughter was, after all, no stranger to having her own songs censored, particularly “The Pill” in which she wasn’t telling any roving man to come back “Miniskirts, hot pants, and a few little fancy frills, Yeah, I'm making up for all those years since I've got the pill”, sent shockwaves through Nashville and was much more Loretta’s style !

The final track is Rodney Crowell’s “Even Cowgirls Get The Blues” including harmony vocal support from Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt. This track came out of some ill-fated recording sessions where the trio attempted to make an album together. It took them another 9 years before they managed to nail that.

This is a much better record than its predecessor. Better arranged, performed and recorded, there’s just more life to it. It’s very much more “Country” than her previous records but even the go at The Drifters “Save The Last Dance For Me”, country style, works. There’s also that little rough edge to Emmylou’s voice that I’ve not heard before. Oh, and Gram.

Hickory Wind - https://youtu.be/gDrf1sOLgEk