Emmylou Harris: All She Intended To Be

In four and a half decades singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris has won thirteen Grammy Awards. Her career first gained traction in small clubs and coffee houses in Washington and its suburbs.  I was only a few miles from most of the venues she played then but never saw her perform. Still, it was impossible not to see and hear the advertising in and around Bethesda, Chevy Chase and Silver Spring. By the early '70's she moved to Los Angeles to work with Gram Parsons and his band, The Grievous Angels. When Parsons died in 1973 the devastating event led her to focus on Parsons's search for the fusion sound he called "cosmic American music."  The sound Harris and Parsons produced in their short time together , in addition to her life-long dance with experimental sounds in folk, blues and country music would have a significant impact on decades of American music.

Today, Harris continues to produce innovative and award-winning sound. In 2014 her album of duets with Rodney Crowell - Old Yellow Moon -  was her latest Grammy winner. Here is a track from the album:

Today Emmylou Harris turns 68. Fame has been kind to her given such a long and successful touring and recording career. She's brought quality entertainment to millions of people since the beginning in those early days with Graham Parsons. We'll never know where the two of them would have gone together in the world of music but it's safe to say it would have been far. Here is a song she and Bill Danoff wrote as a tribute to Parsons:

I don't want to hear a love song
I got on this airplane just to fly
And I know there's life below
But all that it can show me
Is the prairie and the sky

And I don't want to hear a sad story
Full of heartbreak and desire
The last time I felt like this
It was in the wilderness and the canyon was on fire
And I stood on the mountain in the night and I watched it burn
I watched it burn, I watched it burn.

I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
I would hold my life in his saving grace.
I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham
If I thought I could see, I could see your face.

Well you really got me this time
And the hardest part is knowing I'll survive.
I have come to listen for the sound
Of the trucks as they move down
Out on ninety five
And pretend that it's the ocean
coming down to wash me clean, to wash me clean
Baby do you know what I mean

I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham
I would hold my life in his saving grace.
I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham
If I thought I could see, I could see your face.

Sources:

Photo, emmylouharris.com

Lyrics: play.google.com