Red Dirt Girl

Emmylou Harris

Nonesuch Records, 2000

http://www.emmylouharris.com

REVIEW BY: Mark Millan

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 08/05/2008

By the year 2000, Emmylou Harris had come a long way from the days of singing with Gram Parsons, recording with The Hot Band, and countless collaborations with some of the finest artists in the music world. Following the critically acclaimed Wrecking Ball, released in 1995, was going to be tough work. That album gave Harris a fresh sound (thanks to Daniel Lanois) and won her a new audience while still keeping her loyalists happy. The decision to write all of the songs herself (save for one cover and a few co-writes) was to be this record’s masterstroke.  The second major decision that would prove to be just as rewarding was recruiting Malcolm Burn to produce the record. Malcolm worked as a sound engineer on Wrecking Ball and several other projects for Daniel Lanois.

The soundscape that Burn provides here, much like its predecessor, leans more to alternative rock than to country, a genre which most folks would associate Harris with. With great help from Buddy Miller, Darryl Johnson, and a few guest appearances, Harris brings her lyrics to life in a way that only she could. At times, her singing is angelic, and in the case of “Bang The Drum Slowly,” an elegy for her late father, it’s touchingly mournful. “My Antonia,” a duet with Dave Matthews, is an enchanting ditty sung with great tenderness by Matthews, who provides the male perspective of the conversational lyrics.

“I Don’t Wanna Talk About It Now” is one the most rockiest songs Harris has recorded to date, and it’s one of the many highlights to be found here. Its opening lines “God knows how I love ya / Like a user needs a drug / And I’ll never be free of ya / You are poison in my blood” set the tone for this caustic slow burner about an obsession to hold onto an unrequited love. “J’ai Fait Tout (translated: I Did Everything I Could) follows a similar path but it comes with a twist in that the darkness of the lyrics is countered with a light breezy groove that’s catchy as hell.my_heart_sings_the_harmony_web_ad_alt_250

Whilst some may recoil at having to listen to Harris’ voice for the entirety of an album, for me it’s one of life’s greatest pleasures. Without the faintest hint of a “country twang,” her ability to evoke any desired (or required) emotion is nothing short of genial. One of several examples of her gift here is “Tragedy,” an almost country ballad save for a haunting arrangement set by Burn and the equally haunting harmonies of Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa. Her performance here is truly soulful.

Harris shifts gears for the title track and tries her hand at some direct storytelling. It’s a touching tale of a childhood friend who’s life went from bad to worse, and it’s here that the album has its only genuine country moment.

The only cover on this record is a Patty Griffin song, “One Big Love,” chosen purely for its infectious groove and nonsense lyrics (a case in point: “Everybody do like a monkey / If you wanna go on and be funky.”) It’s a welcome relief at the right time from the dark mood that’s quite prevalent throughout the record. The track is rock in its execution and gives the band a chance to let loose and have fun.

The album is bookended by the two most curious songs to be found here. Opener “The Pearl” is given the full Burn atmospheric treatment to accompany Harris’ poem-like lyrics, which relate the age old metaphor that true beauty must first have suffered some pain; in this case, it’s how the oyster becomes the pearl. The closer is not as simple to decipher. Harris herself has said she likes to end an album with “a dot, dot, dot, tune in next time,” and she has certainly done so here with “Boy From Tupelo.” The lyrics are evasive at best and may even give a sly nod to Elvis: “Just ask the boy from Tupelo / He’s the king and he ‘oughta know.” 

Harris toured heavily behind this record; it charted well and was again well-received by the critics and her fans alike. It also very deservedly won her a Grammy for “Best Contemporary Folk Album.” This was Harris’ thirty-first album as either a solo release or collaborative effort, and in my opinion it’s her best, the shiniest jewel in her crown, proving that not only was she a wonderful singer but an introspective and sensitive writer, too -- an artist in the truest sense of the word.

Rating: A

User Rating: Not Yet Rated


Comments

 








© 2008 Mark Millan and The Daily Vault. All rights reserved. Review or any portion may not be reproduced without written permission. Cover art is the intellectual property of Nonesuch Records, and is used for informational purposes only.