We were 8 years into owning Twist and Shout and I was
finally starting to feel like I was part of the music scene. We started out so
completely unconnected to the industry. I was a customer of the record stores
in town and I filled many seats at local concerts big and small, but
essentially I was an outsider. That night in 1995, I remember being at a show
downtown. There was a year or two where a series of shows was put on outdoors
in a very urban location. I think the band playing might have been Los Lobos
but I’m not sure. Either way one of my ex-employees came up to me and said “you
should come over to The Bluebird Theatre after this show. Emmylou Harris and
Daniel Lanois are going to play a private late night show.” !! I was very
excited. These were two artists I loved dearly. Emmylou since her days with
Gram Parsons and her early solo hits. I saw her in the mid 70’s with her
original Hot Band and was blown away by how effortlessly she straddled the
fence between country and rock. She brought down the house over and over.
Daniel Lanois had been a growing obsession through his work with Brian Eno, Bob
Dylan, Neville Brothers and more recently his first brilliant solo album
Acadie.
The idea of seeing them together was tempting. I had no idea how tempting.
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| Harris and Lanois perform "Wrecking Ball" in 2012 |
When we got to the Bluebird it was packed with hipsterati
and music industry insiders. I felt like this was possibly the best place in
the universe to be that night. There were candles around the stage and the
house lights were dim. They walked onstage and for the next hour and a half we
were collectively lulled into a state of euphoric devastation. That seems like
two unlikely emotions to work together, but that is the exact effect this music
has on the listener.
Wrecking Ball is musically euphoric while the lyrics and
overall effect are devastating. Finding beauty through melancholy is something
that Emmylou Harris has always done well.
Wrecking Ball consists of 12 songs carefully chosen
by Emmylou and Daniel, which through a combination of the emotional impact of
the lyrics, the perfection of Ms. Harris’ delivery and the utterly unique and
sympathetic production and musical style achieved by Mr. Lanois produces one of
the great albums of my lifetime. Lanois’ musical fingerprints are everywhere,
as he not only creates a swampy, mysterious atmosphere but adds musical touches
throughout, playing on every song. He never loses sight of the mission, and
this is ultimately the secret to this album and all Lanois’ great production work:
he keeps Emmylou’s voice and interpretive skills at the very center of the mix,
crystalline perfection – nothing distracts from the miracle that is her voice.
And her voice never found a greater group of songs to perform. Except for
Hendrix’s “May This Be Love” all the songs were fairly contemporary to the
album. Emmylou was trolling the best of the current crop of writers – Steve
Earle, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, Dylan, Julie Miller, Anna McGarrigle,
Neil Young, Rodney Crowell, Daniel Lanois and herself – and she came up with a
magical collection of songs. It’s not a bunch of happy ditties, in fact the
running order reads like a litany of human loss and sorrow. Take as an example
her version of “Sweet Old World,”
Lucinda Williams’ song of losing a friend to suicide, Already a powerful
statement, Emmylou takes this song to such an incredibly heartbreaking place
with a quavering voice and Neil Young harmonizing the chorus and adding a
plaintive harmonica wail. Or the aforementioned “May This Be Love;” Emmylou
brings her gentle calm to the vocal and Lanois doubles her vocal while bringing
forth Hendrix’s spirit with a squealing guitar solo. Each song is set,
jewel-like, into the perfect setting to show off the lyric and to keep
Emmylou’s voice the center of attention.
Lanois may have
reached his zenith as a producer with Wrecking Ball, which could be
selling the rest of his career short (after all he did pretty well with U2),
but with this album he seems to have found his sweet spot as both producer and
collaborator. He enhances all Emmylou’s natural gifts and together, they
delivered the album of her career. I’ve wanted to do this review for a while,
and it was a happy coincidence that when I
finally got around to it, there was
a deluxe version of it being released. Paired with a disc of demos and
outtakes, including Leonard Cohen’s “The Stranger Song” and Lanois’ excellent
“Still Water” as well as a DVD documentary on the making of the album, this
package gives the album the special treatment it deserves. I was thrilled that
the documentary contained not only footage of the band making the album - Neil
Young in the studio playing second banana to Emmylou - but also has some
footage of that special show at the Bluebird Theatre. Seeing it, took me right
back to that wonderful night, and re-ignited my burning love affair with this
album.
- Paul Epstein
Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Buddy Miller, and the Milk
Carton Kids kicked off their 11-stop “Lampedusa: Concerts for Refugees” tour
with a tremendous, intimate performance Thursday night at the Boulder Theater.
Seated together on stage, the artists swapped stories, played one another’s songs,
and joked with the audience giving the show a balanced atmosphere of
lightheartedness while still addressing the more serious purpose of the tour:
shedding light on the continuing global refugee crisis of over 65 million
people forcibly displaced from their homes.
After spending time in Ethiopia last year with the Jesuit Refugee
Service, Emmylou Harris took it upon herself to champion this critical cause and
even named the tour after the Italian island Lampedusa off the Sicilian coast that
serves as a waypoint for refugees from North Africa, the Middle East, and Asia
wanting to enter Europe. 
Taking turns playing songs by themselves and at times together,
Emmylou Harris was as ravishing and fantastic as I’ve ever seen her, Earle
sounded terrific especially in a beautiful performance of “Pilgrim,” Buddy
Miller’s guitar playing was magnificent, and the Milk Carton kids were an
excellent complement to their storied counterparts, bringing a gorgeous
acoustic sound and sprinkling in witty banter that had the audience and fellow
artists laughing throughout the entirety of the evening. Hearing this lineup together on stage was
truly a treat and a unique experience that will likely never happen again in
quite the same manner. This short tour
through the month of October is surely one not to be missed and is a terrific opportunity
to support an organization working to address a serious and deadly humanitarian
crisis.
