Emmylou Harris – Heartaches & Highways: The Very Best of
Synopsis
Anyone who calls themselves a fan of the ‘old-style’ of country music knows who Emmylou Harris is. She’s played with Gram Parsons, Johnny Cash, George Jones, and most recently, she provided back-up vocals for Bright Eyes on his astonishing I’m Wide Awake, it’s Morning album. This disc of greatest hits (and personal favorites, natch) shows that Emmylou Harris sounded like an old woman even when she was young in the early seventies. Don’t take this as a negative, however. It just means that her voice has always had the levity needed to really push forward the idea of sad country love. And boy, are there a lot of songs here about sad country love. Her version of “Love Hurts” is still the best because of it’s simplicity and honesty (and lack of synthesizers). “Born to Run” makes her sound like she could have been punk rock if she sped everything up and got some tatoos and smoked more. Finally, “The Connection”, her most recent song, shows that her songwriting skills actually became more personable over time, as well as her backing band.
Negatives
The negative points here are that a lot of this sounds dated and cliche, because a lot of these songs have been soundtracked into the ground and abused in their context.As well, many of these songs simply sound dated on their own, and are sometimes difficult to get past some of the more ‘typical’ sounding folk love songs.
Postives
The positives, however, are that all the hipster kids out there now have a companion piece for an artist that inspired many current favorites. Bright Eyes, Rilo Kiley, Jack White, and Ryan Adams all tout Emmylou as inspirations to what they do now. As well, there’s very few country artists not named Cash who can make the pain of the midwest sound so good.
Cross-breed
Emmylou Harris mostly sounds like a chilled-out Loretta Lynn. As well, you can definitely tell where LeAnn Rimes learned to shape her southern accent into a pretty medley.
Buy it because…
You once told someone that you hate new country but love the old stuff. Well, this is the old stuff, and you were right. You do like the old stuff. The simple-but-honest lyrics, the clang of a classic steel guitar, the crooning of old Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt as backup singers (To know him is to love him) and the absolute tearjerking moments you only thought Johnny Cash was capable of reflecting (Calling My Children Home). It’s all here, and now you can know where all those new guys get it from.
