Emmylou Harris carries on crusade against music categories
BRIAN MCCOLLUM
* 02/07/99
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
(Copyright 1999)
What's in a name or a music category? You can bet that an
Emmylou Harris song filed under any of them would sound as sweet.
Harris, keen song interpreter and bearer of that golden voice,
certainly knows something about getting pigeonholed across the
musical map. Three decades into a versatile career, she can recite
the definitions by heart.
"If it sells, it's country," she said laughing. "If it doesn't,
it's folk."
Harris inhabits a dusky stylistic world that has long tripped up
critics, a place that's both rural and cosmopolitan, traditional and
progressive. Her name turns up in annals of rock, pop, country and
folk, as she maintains her lifelong crusade, as she says, to "fight
against categories."
Meanwhile, as her adopted home of Nashville has turned its sights
over the last decade toward younger, pop-oriented acts, it's not
surprising that she's seen her place on the country charts usurped.
Like so many who have idealized American roots music, Harris
understands that her yearning for a richer culture might be
hopelessly romantic in the face of commercial demands.
* "I always had a vision of country music that never realized
itself," she said. "It's odd. I never really came from Nashville.
I live here, but I was always just circling."
She's quit listening to country radio "maybe I'm missing
something," she said diplomatically and keeps her ears tuned now to
a modest but limber local station that plays everything from Fats
Domino to Patty Griffin.
"There are obviously a lot of talented people out there, but
they're struggling," she said. "But, you know, music good music
is always going to survive. And ultimately history will be the judge
of what we remember and what touches us. I feel like there's
fantastic music being made now, and always has been."
Harris says she felt right at home last summer when she played a
string of dates on the Lilith Fair tour, the traveling contingent of
female artists that became the year's biggest rock festival. She
immediately became a fan of left-field rocker Liz Phair and groove
band Luscious Jackson.
"It's great to be around creative people, to see the variety of
music that's out there," she said. "You don't get a chance, when
you're an artist, to see as many people live as you'd like. You're
always on the road."
Last year was supposed to be Harris' break from work. As it
turned out, she said, "it became a kind of running joke about Emmy's
year off."
Not long after Lilith came the release of "Spyboy," showcasing
Harris' concert work with her top-notch backing band, the album's
namesake. As much a career retrospective as a concert disc, it
featured a rare live recording of her legendary "Boulder to
Birmingham," a track from the 1975 debut album she recorded shortly
after the death of mentor Gram Parsons.
So now 1999 is the official year off; aside from occasional gigs,
Harris is keeping herself at home to write songs. Already recorded
and due out soon is "Trio II," with Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton.
* She says she envies artists such as country rocker Steve Earle,
who "spoils it for the rest of us" by effortlessly writing on the
road.
"You can't wait around for that muse. This is a job," she said
with a laugh. "But you do have to give yourself the time. You have
to cordon yourself off from distractions and force yourself to wait
for the muse."
