Red dirt - a great album from Emmylou (Emmylou Harris in general)

Member Name: cswann

Product:	Emmylou Harris in general
Date:	15/10/01 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some excellent tunes, Great atmospheric backing

Disadvantages: Maybe a little on the melancholic side, lyrically

Emmylou Harris' work over the last few years is, I think, proof that you can continue releasing good albums, and progress musically. Hell, even country artists, not normally known for being adventurous, can do it.

In the 60s, Emmylou featured on Gram Parsons' excellent "G.P." and "Grievous angel" albums, and her own albums such as Quarter Moon in a ten cent town" (1978) and "Wrecking Ball" (1995), were landmarks, in their own way, and all are worthy additions to any record collection.
When it comes down to it, though, she may not be very well known, with no big hit singles. One of her most famous songs is "Boulder to Birmingham", but I guess a lot of people won't know it.

Be that as it may, the "Red dirt" album is a quite astonishing record, and represents a departure for Emmylou. Broadly speaking, it is a 'country music' record, but there's none of the yee-ha country style that some might expect.
It's produced by Malcolm Burn, sidekick of Daniel Lanois, who himself produced Emmylou's "Wrecking Ball". This album was recorded at Burns' house in New Orleans, and it does have that sound of the Deep South about it, somehow. You can imagine the heat and the sweat? the hot summer nights.

Overall, I'd describe the album as very atmospheric, and? haunting.
First track, "The Pearl" has a hymnal quality, both in the tune and in the lyrics of the chorus ("And we cry allelujah").

In contrast, there's a melancholy feel to many of the other tracks. "Bang the drum slowly", for example, is a addressed to her dead father, and has a sparse echoing, acoustic quality.
There's a sadness in "Boy from Tupelo", which is about someone rejected in love. The line "the sweetheart of your rodeo" brings to mind, of course, The Byrds' (their album called "Sweethearts o
f the rodeo"), inevitably reminding me of the Gram Parsons connection.
The tone is one of despair on "I don't want to talk about it", but the music is great - it has a shuffling, infectious kind of rhythm.

There's some collaboration with big names - "Tragedy" features Bruce Springsteen and his wife Patti Scialfa on backing vocals, and "My Antonia", a song is inspired by Willa Cather's novel, is a duet with Dave Matthews.

Emmylou is now over 50, but her voice is as good as ever - I think it's improved in fact. She has written, or co-written, all except one of the songs - and the fact they they are of such high quality is another sign that she's certainly not 'past it'.

Don't be put off by the 'country' tag - "Red dirt" is definitely worthy of investigation by any music fan.

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