It was a sunny, warm Nebraska day in May during the mid-1990s as Mark, Chuck, and I were rolling along a highway from Omaha to Lincoln. Mark and I had flown in to spend the weekend with our friend Chuck who lived outside Lincoln with his wife Donna. The three of us shared a love of music so not surprisingly music blared from the cassette player in Chuck’s truck and we sang along. Chuck inserted another tape and I heard applause and a female voice say, “Bless your heart.”
The band started to play and the singer sang a rousing rendition of Steve Earle’s “Guitar Town.” At the end of the song she said simply, “Hello! I’m Emmylou Harris. These are the Nash Ramblers. Welcome to the Ryman!”
For the next hour we listened to Emmylou Harris and the Nash Ramblers live album, At The Ryman. During that hour I became a fan of Emmylou Harris and received a quick introduction to what would become known as Americana music – a mix of country, rock, folk, and bluegrass tunes.
Emmylou Harris had been known to many long prior to then, of course, and I was somewhat familiar with her. Her recording of “Mr. Sandman” with Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton was well known despite not being released as a single. That trio of singers and longtime friends had released a critically acclaimed album in 1987 entitled – appropriately enough – Trio. A Trio II would follow in 1999.
Emmylou was born on April 2, 1947, in Birmingham, Alabama. Her father was an officer in the Marine Corps and spent 10 months as a Prisoner of War during the Korean Conflict. “We didn’t know he was a prisoner of war until just before he was released,” she told James McMahon of The Guardian in 2018. “I never talked to him about his experiences. He wouldn’t ever talk about it.” She wrote the song “Bang The Drum Slowly” about how she meant to ask her father about the war and other things. And no longer has the chance to.
Her father’s assignments took him to Cherry Point in North Carolina, Camp Lejeune and then eventually Quantico, Virginia. The frequent relocations did not affect her academically as she graduated as valedictorian from Gar-Field Senior High School. She was also a cheerleader as well as a saxophonist in the marching band “…just to be the good student and the good girl that I was,” as she put it.
Emmylou had aspirations to become an actress. She won a small scholarship to the University of North Carolina’s drama program when she was crowned Miss Woodbridge. But her interest in folk music was growing and became more of a driving force in her life. She dropped out of college and played the folk music scene in both Boston and New York City at the end of the folk music boom of the 1960s. While she was getting some notice on her own, it wasn’t until she met Gram Parsons that her career took off.
Parsons had been asked by Chris Hillman to join him in hearing Emmylou play at a small club in Washington, D.C. The two hit it off and soon Emmylou was touring with Parsons as his duet partner. She worked with him on his first solo album entitled GP released in 1973. The partnership was tragically short-lived as Parsons died from a morphine overdose on September 19, 1973.
Parsons’ death was difficult for Emmylou to process. They had recently finished work on his second solo album, Grievous Angel. The album would be released posthumously.
“That was a very hard time because I really felt I had found where I was supposed to be,” she would later recall. “Even though I probably assumed that at some point I would make a record on my own, that was something I wasn’t even thinking about. I just was thinking about what we would do together. Musically, I mean. Then suddenly I’d lost a friend and a teacher, someone I felt I still had so much to learn from. It was devastating.”
Emmylou credits Parsons with helping her find her own voice. “I really believe no one would have paid me any attention if it wasn’t for Gram,” she has said. Her songs “Boulder To Birmingham” and “The Road” are tributes to Parsons. She has continued to champion his work throughout her career.
And just as Emmylou credits Parsons for finding her voice, artists including Suzy Bogguss, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Deana Carter, Terri Clark, the Dixie Chicks, Patty Loveless, Kathy Mattea, Pam Tillis, and Trisha Yearwood have credited her as an influence. She has also recorded with a number of artists who hold her in high regard such as Linda Ronstadt, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Roy Orbison, Ryan Adams, Johnny Cash, Lucinda Williams, Lyle Lovett and Rodney Crowell.
Emmylou has excelled as both a songwriter and an interpreter of songs. She has sold more than 15 million records, won 14 Grammy Awards, three CMA Awards, and four Americana Awards. She is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum, as well as the Academy of American Arts and Science.
A longtime social activist, Harris has lent her voice to many causes, most passionately to animal welfare. In 2004 she established Bonaparte’s Retreat with the goal of rescuing shelter dogs and adopting them into forever homes.
The Ryman Auditorium had been left dormant for nearly 20 years at the time of recording Emmylou’s At The Ryman, the concert and album we listened to on that Nebraska day some thirty years ago. It has been given near-universal credit for the renewed interest in reviving the cherished concert hall, which was completely renovated soon after.
Emmylou and the Nash Ramblers recreated that historic concert in 2017. And the good-rocking mama from the Guitar Town continues to make music.
[Material in this article was obtained from the following: The Rolling Stone Encyclopedia of Rock & Roll (3rd Edition); The Guardian; The Official Emmylou Harris Website; and, The Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum.]
Next up – James Taylor
