CD: Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain | reviews, news & interviews
CD: Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain
CD: Emmylou Harris - Hard Bargain
Country veteran shows the young'uns a clean pair of heels
Sunday, 17 April 2011
Forty years into her career, Emmylou Harris keeps on growing
Always renowned as an interpreter of other artists' material, Emmylou Harris has been a late developer as a songwriter. On 2008's All I Intended to Be, she successfully balanced cover versions with her own songs, but this time she has written eight songs single-handed, and three more in collaboration with Will Jennings. It's a sign of her writerly progress that her own work comfortably holds its own against the non-originals "Cross Yourself", composed by producer and multi-instrumentalist Jay Joyce, and Ron Sexsmith's slightly turgid title track.
Always renowned as an interpreter of other artists' material, Emmylou Harris has been a late developer as a songwriter. On 2008's All I Intended to Be, she successfully balanced cover versions with her own songs, but this time she has written eight songs single-handed, and three more in collaboration with Will Jennings. It's a sign of her writerly progress that her own work comfortably holds its own against the non-originals "Cross Yourself", composed by producer and multi-instrumentalist Jay Joyce, and Ron Sexsmith's slightly turgid title track.
In "The Road", Harris is unusually explicit about her work with Gram Parsons and the impact he had on her life
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