Emmylou Harris: The Show Goes On

Harris at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco, 2005

Emmylou Harris, my "sweetheart of the rodeo," was born on this day in 1947. She played many of the local clubs and coffee houses in metro DC when I was there around 1970.  It was impossible not to see and hear the advertising for her performances in and around Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Silver Spring. Unfortunately, I never  found myself in the audience. Eventually, she moved to Los Angeles to work with Gram Parsons and his band, The Grievous Angels. When he died in 1973, she was devastated, but carried on Parsons's search for the fusion sound he called "cosmic American music." Two years later, with the release of her album, Pieces of the Sky, she was on her way. The sound Harris and Parsons produced in their short time together would have a significant impact on decades of folk, rock, and country music to follow.

Here is the song she wrote with Bill Danoff as a tribute to Parsons:

Harris's career as a songwriter and entertainer just seems to keep going and going without an end in sight. I say, "Let it go!"

Power Line's cultural beacon, Scott Johnson, wrote a fine post on Harris a few years ago. Access it here to enjoy more music, lyrics, and information. 



Sources
Photos and Illustrations:
By Yogibones from (optional) (Flickr) [CC BY 2.5 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5)], via Wikimedia Commons