What a pleasure it was to catch Emmylou Harris’ show in Houston this week. She seems to work all the time – showing up at major festivals, putting out records, rescuing dogs, etc. I wasn’t going to miss this opportunity to see her touring in support of her newest CD – “Hard Bargain”.
This show was all about Emmylou and her forty year (so far) journey of gathering and sharing songs. Her Red Dirt Boys – including fellow ND member Will Kimbrough (vocals, guitars, mandolin and even banjo), Phil Madeira (vocals, keyboards, guitar, accordian, lap steel) and Rickie Simpkins (vocals, mandolin, fiddle) provided just the right amount of polished musicianship to compliment the amazing voice of Emmylou Harris.
While she opened the show with the new “Six White Cadillacs” and included several others from Hard Bargain (“Home Sweet Home”, “The Road”, “My Name is Emmitt Till”, “The Ship on His Arm”), her song selections this night spanned her entire career. She did covers from some of her songwriter idols – Merle Haggard (Kern River), Buck Owens (Together Again), Townes Van Zandt (Pancho & Lefty, If I Needed You) plus many classics from throughout her brilliant career – “Boulder to Birmingham”, “Red Dirt Girl”, “Luxury Liner”, “Tulsa Queen”, “Hello Stranger”, “One of These Days”, “Even Cowgirls Get the Blues”, “Wheels”, “Sin City”, “Green Pastures”, “Orphan Girl”, “Get Up John” and “Born to Run”.
I was pleasantly reminded of what a prominent place Emmylou Harris holds in my own personal musical listening journey.
