0143. Emmylou Harris
Red Dirt Girl
A long way in both time and style from her duets with Gram Parsons this feels like the final flicker of a fading flame. For an instant shining brighter than before.
For the second time in her career writing or co-writing the majority of the tracks I get the feeling that her label either thought it was her time (after over twenty solo-releases) or that they just wanted to push out another album to complete the terms of the contract. Since her previous album, Wrecking Ball, had been a success I'd like to think it's the former.
A welcome surprise is that the worst lyrics are the ones written by someone else. Like in One Big Love where the immortal lines of "everyone do like a monkey / if you want to go on and be funky" can be found. That's just bad writing and not even Emmylou's seasoned voice can save it.
But it's compensated in full by songs like Bang The Drum Slowly and the title-track Red Dirt Girl. Paired with smooth adult-oriented country it's a solemn album for the autumn years.
