Emmylou Harris "Pieces of the Sky" (1975)
Reeling from the death of her collaborator and mentor Gram Parsons,;Emmylou was taken in hand by Brian Ahern who had also worked with Anne
Murray. There are hints of both Parsons and Murray here, with some
straight ahead, upbeat country tracks with gorgeous vocal harmonies on
the one hand; and lushly orchestrated, somewhat middle-of-the-road,
but pretty songs on the other.
Elvis' Vegas band, featured in Parsons' last album are also involved in
these recordings, as are (on two songs) the bar band that Harris had been
fronting when Parsons "discovered" her.
The only song she wrote on the record, 'Boulder to Birmingham' is great - it's crazy she barely wrote anything for the next decade. It's also interesting for being a "trick" debut - like Warren Zevon in a similar time-frame, it's easy to forget she made an unsuccessful debut in 1970.
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