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  1. 2023 Albums Thing 155 - Emmylou Harris “The Ballad Of Sally Rose”

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    I’ve not had long to live with this one. When I started waffling about these Emmylou Harris records I didn’t own it, it had been on my wantlist for a time but I hadn’t got around to finding a copy. With all the references up to now to Gram Parsons I thought it was the right time to buy a copy so I could talk to you about it…the things I do for all y’all…

    Released in 1985 and co-written with her then husband (English songwriter Paul Kennerley) “The Ballad Of Sally Rose” is a concept album. It tells the story of a young girl who has a baby at an early age. She then becomes a singer, meeting a character known as “The Singer” whose band she joins and is exposed to the road, his influence, talent and wild ways. They marry, her confidence grows as a performer and she is lured away from her husband to a solo career. By the time she realises she wants to be back with him and is returning to do just that she discovers “The Singer” has died in a car accident. A story eerily similar to that of the relationship between Emmylou Harris and Gram Parsons.

    After we kick off with “The Ballad Of Sally Rose”, a nice summary of our heroine’s entry into this world, the rest of Side 1 is pretty maudlin until penultimate song “Bad News” in which our anti-hero “The Singer” dies…before we’re even halfway in.

    Into Side 2 and you get the feeling that without the explanation on the inner sleeve this would be a confusing story to follow. Sally is out on tour with her “red hot band” the she’s singing about how her baby was taken by the “white line” (on the road or otherwise isn’t specified). It’s getting to feel like unsubtle references to GP are being forced into songs to support a story it was decided to tell before any songs were written and now they have to make themselves write that story in whet3 it doesn’t fit.

    By the time you reach the song “The Sweetheart Of the Rodeo” it’s beginning to feel like you’re listening to “Country music by numbers”, a symptom of writing with her husband who was British perhaps ? The music doesn’t feel authentically American but someone else’s idea of what Country should be. 

    “K-S-O-S” includes an instrumental snippet of “Six Days On the Road” a song that Gram performed with the Fallen Angels and the Flying Burrito Brothers, along with other Country standards that I’m sure Gram would have known and played.

    All in all it’s not Emmylou’s finest moment, her voice is beautiful throughout but the songs just aren’t good enough to tell the story. Caveat is I’ve written this after listening to it once, gimme another week and all the above might change. Me and Emmylou part ways for 10 years now, we’ll pick things up again in 1995.

    Long Tall Sally Rose - https://youtu.be/Tj3d2okYXKY

  2. 2023 Albums Thing 154 - Emmylou Harris “Evangeline”

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    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

  3. 2023 Albums Thing 153 - Emmylou Harris “Roses In The Snow”

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    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