Comments on: Favorite Songs by Favorite Artists: Emmylou Harris

By: MotownMike

MotownMike — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 04:08:17 +0000

This is truly a great list not because I agree with everyone of Kevin’s choices rather because it spotlights a special talent who has a library full of great music. Great music that is defined in all of its facets: lyrics, vocals, preference, instrumentation. There are artists I enjoy more than EmmyLou but few that evoke emotion from me like her songs can do! And that to me, alongside the vast library of plain good music, is what makes her so special.

I’d add Making Believe, Tennessee Rose, Blue Kentucky Girl and Gulf Coast Highway to my personal list.

By: Michael

Michael — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 20:28:32 +0000

Cowgirl’s Prayer was the first CD of Emmylou’s that I bought when I was 13. I could listen to it from start to finish. My favorite track: “Crescent City”. Also enjoyed “High Powered Love” and “Jerusalem Tomorrow” as well.
Emmylou is a master interpreter and I think her cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “Tougher Than the Rest” stands as one of her finest moments. Also notworthy are “Lodi”, “Amarillo” and “Queen of the Silver Dollar”.
I also really liked Terri Clark’s take on Carlene Carter’s “Easy From Now On.”

By: Leeann

Leeann — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 20:48:07 +0000

In the past, I didn’t get into Emmylou because, as Kevin said, her voice is an acquired taste. Well, it seems that I’ve recently acquired the taste in a big way! I can’t get enough.

I heard an interview where Vince Gill said that the first time he heard Emmylou sing “Bluebird Wine”, he thought she was Dolly Parton and that Dolly just changed her name for the song. He even convinced his friends that she was Dolly. But then he found “Pieces of the Sky” and realized that there really was someone named Emmylou. When I hear her early stuff, she really does sound like Dolly to the untrained ear.:) By the way, Vince’s “Some Things Never Get Old”, from his These Days boxset, references Emmylou’s Bluebird Wine” and she lends great background vocals to a great song.

It took me long enough to give Emmylou a fair try, but I’m extremely glad that I finally have.

By: Paul W Dennis

Paul W Dennis — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 02:46:42 +0000

Remember Kevin, it’s only in the last few years that the CMHOF has elected multiple new members so there has been much much catching up to do and still some that needs to be done. In the years where only one new member was inducted, sometimes a non-singer was inducted thus lengthening the backlog (Rod Brassfield or the Duke of Paducah anyone ? I do agree that Minnie Pearl and Homer & Jethro deserved induction)

I absolutely think Emmylou is HOF-worthy and ,yes, I would have put her in before Vince Gill but I would not have enshrined her before Alabama or George Strait. If you check either this site or The 9513 I have had her NEAR the top of the list due for enshrinement. I refuse, however, to shed any tears for Emmylou waiting at most 8 years when even more worthy entrants waited 15,20 or more years, Now that the HOF is inducting three per year this sort of problem should eventually disappear.

I am on a forum that discusses Baseball’s immortals and the discussion rolls around to the upper tier of the Hall of Fame and other mere immortals. Emmylou is not upper tier – she isn’t/wasn’t nearly as important as Webb Pierce and he had to wait until ten years after his death to get inducted .

Anyway – she’s in and congratulations to her, she’s a worthy selection

By: Leeann

Leeann — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 00:16:10 +0000

As much as I love Vince, and you all know I do, I was surprised that he got into the HOF before Emmylou. Her contribution to the genre is undeniable. Who doesn’t know that name? Who doesn’t know that voice? What true country singer doesn’t revere her?We can split hairs, but I was pretty surprised to see anyone argue anything but Emmylou’s worthiness to be in the HOF. Sure, perhaps Pop Stoneman also deserves it, but I don’t think this supercedes Emmylou’s “long over due” induction.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 21:24:39 +0000

I think I can call it long overdue. Sure I can. Especially when the category she’s in (1975-present) inducted three eighties stars first, one of which was arguably a nineties star who happened to record in the eighties first. I think she should’ve been in there years ago, so in my view, it’s long overdue. Your disagreement with me doesn’t make my assessment unfair. It’s just a difference of opinion.

By: Paul W Dennis

Paul W Dennis — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 10:44:16 +0000

As an aside, I don’t think that you can fairly call Emmylou’s induction “long overdue” although that term could easily be said of the inductions of Tom T Hall and the Statler Brothers. Emmylou has been eligible for induction for less than ten years

IF you really want “long overdue”, I can make a really good case that Pop Stoneman should have been in the first or second class of inductees back in 1964 or 1965. Not only did Pop have the first million selling country disk back in 1924, but it was he who convinced Raph Peer to bring mobile recording equipment down to Bristol where Peer “discovered ” and recorded Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family.

By: Paul W Dennis

Paul W Dennis — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:43:49 +0000

Emmylou is not one of my favorite soloists, although I think she is the greatest harmony and background singer in the world. I have many of her albums but the only two I listen to with regularity are ROSES IN THE SNOW and AT THE RYMAN, both superlative efforts.

1. “That Loving You Feeling” w/ Roy Orbison
2. “Those Memories of You” w. Dolly Parton & Linda Ronstadt
3. “If I Could Only Win Your Love” – this is the song that brought her onto my radar
4. “The Boxer”
5. “Smoke Along The Track” – the original recdording was the B-side of Stonewall Jackson’s monster hit “Waterloo”. Emmylou’s version is nearly as good
6. “Wayfaring Stranger” – terrific take oin an old classic
7. “If I Needed You” w/ Don Williams
8. “I’ll Go Steppin’ Too”
9. “I’m Movin’ On” – a nice cover of the biggest hit in Country Music history (according to Billboard)
10T “Making Believe”
10T “Beneath Still Waters” – the only version to rival the Osborne Brother’s original version – not a chart hit for Sonny & Bob, but bluegrass rarely charted in the 60s and 70s unless associated with a movie or TV show

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:19:01 +0000

Methinks that we won’t only be alternating weeks, but genders too! I put up a page for just this feature so people can always find them easily.

By: Leeann

Leeann — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 23:08:22 +0000

I”m a fan of Garth Brooks, so he would fit in the category of “favorite artists” for me. So, you never know, you could get your wish…