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Emmylou released her first album 'Gliding Bird' in 1969. She was still establishing herself in the industry and finding her sound so it was a mixture of Joan Beez influenced originals with covers of some of the country/folk industries most prolific names such as Bob Dylan and Hank Williams. A folk re-imagination of Dionne Warwick/Bacharach/David hit 'I'll Never Fall In Love Again' gained the songwriter particular attention.
Her next LP 'Pieces Of The Sky' came six years later and charted at #7 on the US Country chart, it also included Harris's first hit single 'If I Could Only Win Your Love' which peaked at #4 on the Country singles chart. Whilst there was a lot of buzz around her major label debut, Harris established a solid backing band and released 'Elite Hotel' at the end of the same year. It topped the Country chart and included two number one singles, 'Sweet Dreams' and 'Together Again'. Her album success continued after the release of these two albums, to date she has had fourteen original albums chart within the top 10 of the US Country chart.
She scored a number one in 1987 when she recorded 'Trio' with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt. To date she has sold over 5.5 million records in the States. Emmylou is also known for her charity work, since 1999 she has performed an annual tour entitled Concerts for a Landmine Free World with proceeds going to Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. She has been joined by a large selection of artists on these tours, including Bruce Cockburn, Sheryl Crow, Steve Earle and Joan Baez to name a few. She has been honoured with numerous awards over her long career, perhaps her most successful being thirteen Grammy Award wins. Her first came in 1976 after the release of 'Elite Hotel' she won the award for Best Country Vocal Performance and her most recent was a victory in 2014 in the Best Americana Album category for 'Old Yellow Moon'.
On the one hand, it feels as if it’d be daft to suggest that Emmylou Harris is underappreciated - to a generation of songwriters, she’s taken on a status that borders on goddess, and she’s also got no fewer than thirteen Grammys on her mantlepiece - but that said, under her own name, she’s never experienced huge commercial success; the only platinum record she has to hang over said mantlepiece is for Trio, a collaboration with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt. Much like her old songwriting partner, and some would say musical soulmate, Gram Parsons, her influence is not in question, but she’s never quite been appreciated by a wider audience. She continues to write and record to this day, with Hard Bargain, her twenty-sixth full-length, released in 2011. She’s still touring, too, and back in May, she played shows in London, Bristol and Brighton that saw her lean heavily on her iconic 1995 album Wrecking Ball in its entirety, as well as play a handful of covers from the likes of Kate McGarrigle and Gillian Welch. For those UK crowds, it was a rare opportunity to see a legend of songwriting in the flesh; she might not be a household name, but neither her fanbase and influence are in serious doubt.
Joeg_67
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