Customer Reviews
Just Beautiful - By: I. F. Coyle, 08 Jul 2008 
Takes a couple of listenings, but after that it just blows you away. Several standout songs, particularly "How she could sing The Wildwood flower" (which I took to be a reference to an earlier generation of the Carter Family rather than June Cater & Johnny Cash) "Gold" is just beautiful, but particularly the magnificent "Sailing Round the Room". Anybody remember the last poor, or even average, album Emmylou made?
Touching The Sublime - By: The Wolf, 06 Jul 2008 The title : a fanfare, a declaration & a manifesto.
This collection of thirteen new recordings brings us
to some kind of pinnaclein Ms Harris's long career.
She must know this to be true. The evidence is there for us to hear.
After the dry, rasping austerity of 'Red Dirt Girl' (2000);
the warm, reassuring classicism of 'Stumble Into Grace' (2003)
and the uncomfortably eneven collaboration with Mr Knopfler,
'All The Road Running' (2006); 'All I Intended To Be' is a
trancendent epiphany. A true & perfect wonder.
Maturity of voice & musical vision; finely honed interpretive insight
and the ability to create a sense of intense gravitas from the simplest
ingredients are all marks of an artist functioning at the very
height of her remarkable powers.
A track by track deconstruction would seem somehow ignoble given
material of such consumate beauty.
Suffice to say that with the song 'All That You Have Is Your Soul'
the world seems to turn to face the sun. Music to warm the coldest spirit.
Either side of it twelve more wonderful examples of songs to raise
your hopes & break your heart.
Quintessential.
Inimitable.
Sublime.
A disappointment - By: Graham M. Jones, 02 Jul 2008 
Not rubbish. How could any Emmy Lou Harris album ever be, but be returning to producer Brian Ahern, she has effectively gone back to the sound if her 1976 album "Quarter Moonin a Ten Cent Town", & that's one step too far back to the future. After the progressive nature of her last three albums, Emmylou has obviously decided she doesn't want her rock fans any more, & to say the same thing again,she's gone backwards.
Make no mistake though, this album is beautifully played & exquisitely sung (who would have expected anything else) but after a few listens, I can't remember any of the songs.
A huge disappointment, & ifin any doubt buy "Quarter Moon", it's fabulous.
They say there's ne progressin this kind of music, & here's the proof
Exceptional - By: Steve Keen, 26 Jun 2008 Rapidly shaping up to be one of the best of 2008, this is probably Emmylou Harris's best record since Spyboy, although stylistically it is closer to Wrecking Ball, & I have to add that there was nothing at all wrong with the intervening works.
It was a well-placed, curiosity-pricking ad for Spyboy, Harris's 1998 live album, that got me started. Until then I'd only had a vague regard for the "country" genre. After, I was hooked, & was amazed at her ubiquity, finding her making appearances with Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith, Rodney Crowell, Sheryl Crow, Dolly Parton & Linda Ronstadt, as well as being the driving force behind the Gram Parsons tribute The Return Of The Grievous Angel (Brilliant. I don't care what the reviewers say).
And they return the compliment, with Dolly here joining Harris on Gold, their voices intertwining perfectly.
Emmylou Harris is not, of course, just about country. The rhythm section she brought to Londonin the wake of Spyboy would not, on the evidence of their jamming mid-concert, have looked out of place with Herbie Hancock. Ricky Skaggs, at one time part of Harris's band, remarked rather petulantly of her more recent music that it was "not country", but all of it, country & otherwise, shares a cabinet with Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell & The Clashin my world. The label is everything & nothing.
But though country is, I guess, what this latest offering is closer to, what counts is that the songs, music & production add up to an exceptional experience.
Songs first. Some great originals; some superb covers. Standoutsin the latter category are Merle Haggard's Kern River; Billy Joe Shaver's Old Five And Dimers Like Me; & a totally stunning version of Tracy Chapman's All That You Have Is Your Soul, which comes about closest to a political statement here, & has a trace of Lovin' You Again, from Cowgirl's Prayer, just as the rendition of Crowley & Routh's Beyond The Great Divide has a fade reminiscent of Gone, Long Gone from Trio II. Almost inevitably there is also a song cowritten by Harris with the McGarrigles, How She Could Sing The Wildwood Flower. Also inevitable is that the sisters joinedin on the recording.
Musically there is a stellar array of contributors, armed with an arsenal of instrumentation from mandolin, through accordion, banjo & fiddle, together with the obligatory guitars, Dobro & steel & some exotica such as mandocello & baritone electric guitar. Musicians include old standbys such as Buddy Miller (the only thing a girl needs, as she described him when they appeared on Jools Holland's show) & John Starling.
Finally, the production, & the tribute to that element is that, although this collection has taken several yearsin gestation it sounds, as Bob Harris observed when Emmylou appeared on his radio programme, of one time.
Two closing notes. First, listening this gave me an even greater appetite to listen to Harris's back catalogue. And second, it is very seldom that I will play a record two timesin succession: this is one of the exceptions.
The Best for Years - By: John G. Smith, 25 Jun 2008 Fantastic album. The best that Emmylou has made for years & the Brian Aherne production & recording magic shines through. Great to hear some of the old Hot Band still doing their stuff. If you love Emmylou's music, you can't not have this album.
