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Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is a country
music singer, songwriter and musician from
Birmingham, Alabama, United States|USA.

== Early years ==
Harris graduated high school as class
valedictorian and won a dramatic scholarship to
the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
It was around that time that Harris began to study
music seriously, heavily influenced by artists
like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez.

Harris married fellow songwriter Tom Slocum in
1969, and recorded her first album the following
year, Gliding Bird. After the album's release,
Harris' record label declared bankruptcy. Around
that same time, Harris' marriage to Slocum began
to fall apart and the couple were soon divorced.
Harris, who lived for a brief time on her own with
her newborn daughter Hallie in Nashville,
Tennessee, was forced, after struggling
financially, to move back in with her parents, who
were now living in Washington, D.C.. 

== Career ==
Harris soon returned to performing, as part of a
trio with local musicians Gerry Mule and Tom
Guidera. One night, in 1971, members of the
country group The Flying Burrito Brothers happened
to be in the audience, including former The
Byrds|Byrds member Chris Hillman, who took over
the band after the departure of its founder Gram
Parsons. Hillman was so impressed by Harris that
he briefly considered asking her to join the band.
Instead, in 1972, Hillman ended up recommending
her to Parsons, who was looking for a female
vocalist to work with on his first solo album.
Harris toured as a member of Parsons' "Fallen
Angels" band, and in 1973, Harris returned to the
studio with Parsons to record Grievous Angel.
Parsons was found dead in his hotel room on
September 19, 1973, from an overdose of drugs
including alcohol.

Eventually, her path crossed with Canada|Canadian
producer and future husband Brian Ahern (with whom
she had another daughter, Meghann). He produced
her debut album, released in 1975 on Reprise
Records, entitled Pieces of the Sky. The album
included a number of cover songs, including The
Beatles' "For No One," and Harris's first hit
single, The Louvin Brothers' "If I Could Only Win
Your Love." She created The Hot Band, a group of
studio and touring musicians that included Elvis
Presley band alumni Glen D. Hardin,Hank DeVito and
James Burton.  

Harris' subsequent albums, Elite Hotel (1976),
Luxury Liner (1977), and Quarter Moon in a Ten
Cent Town (1978) were all country hits, but also
won Harris points with rock listeners.  While
country music  was enjoying a good deal of
crossover success at the time, the approach of
many country artists was to try to marry their
music with smooth, L.A.-style pop; Harris,
however, had more of a rock and roll sensibility
than many of her contemporaries, and aimed her
music in a bit more rockish direction.  

In addition to her own solo work during this
period, Harris began a number of ongoing
collaborative relationships with other artists,
many of which she would revisit throught the
course of her career.  A Christmas single, "Light
of the Stable," was released in 1979, and featured
backing vocals from Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt,
and Neil Young.  From the mid-1970s on, Harris had
begun working with all three artists, recording
two trio albums with Parton and Ronstadt (as well
as a number of singles), another a duet album with
Ronstadt, and a number of various projects with
Young.  In addition, her vocals were prominently
featured on Bob Dylan's 1976 Desire album).  She
also worked with The Band during this period,
appearing in their film "The Last Waltz".

Her 1979 album Blue Kentucky Girl featured
straight Loretta Lynn/Kitty Wells-style country,
while 1980's Roses in the Snow was a
Grammy-winning collection of bluegrass material.

In 1980, she recorded "That Lovin' You Feelin'
Again" with rock legend Roy Orbison for which they
would win the Grammy Award for best vocal duo, and
in 1981, she reached #37 on the Billboard pop
charts with a cover of "Mister Sandman" from her
Evangeline album.  (The album version of the song
featured harmony by Dolly Parton and Linda
Ronstadt, but neither Parton's nor Ronstadt's
record companies would allow their artists' vocals
to be used on the single, so Harris rerecorded the
song, singing all three parts.)

1983's White Shoes was an ecclectic collection,
pairing a rockish reading of "Diamonds are a
Girl's Best Friend" with a remake of the Donna
Summer hit "On the Radio".  Though not previously
noted for her songwriting, Harris wrote all the
songs on her 1985 album, The Ballad of Sally Rose,
a somewhat autobiographical piece, based on her
relationship with Parsons, which Harris herself
described as a "country opera".

In 1987, she teamed up with Parton and Ronstadt
for their long-promised Trio album.  The album was
nominated for three Grammy awards (it took the
award for "Best Country Collaboration"), reached
the top ten on both the pop and country charts,
and launched four hit singles.  

In the early 1990s, she dissolved The Hot Band in
favour of a carefully selected group of acoustic
musicians(Sam Bushfiddle, mandolin & vocals, Roy
Huskey, Jr.bass & vocals, Larry Atamanuikdrums, Al
Perkinsbanjo, guitar, dobro & vocals, John Randall
Stewartguitar, mandolin & vocals) she named The
Nash Ramblers.  They recorded a Grammy-winning
live album at the Ryman Auditorium that led to the
8 million dollars restoration of the facility into
a premium concert and event venue.

Around this same time, Harris (and seemingly every
other country artist over 40) started receiving
less airplay, as mainsream country stations began
shifting their focused to the youth-oriented "new
country" format.  While Harris' recent albums had
done reasonably well, her chart success was on the
wane.  Her 1993 Cowgirl's Prayer album, while
critically praised, received very little airplay,
and its single, "High Powered Love" failed to
chart, prompting her to shift her career in a new
directon.

In 1995, Harris released Wrecking Ball, produced
by Daniel Lanois, best known for his work with U2
(band)|U2, Peter Gabriel, and Bob Dylan. An
experimental album for Harris, to say the least,
the record included Harris' rendition of the Neil
Young-penned title track  (Young himself provided
guest vocals on two of the album's songs), Julie
Miller's "All My Tears", Jimi Hendrix's "May This
Be Love", Kate and Anna McGarrigle's "Goin' Back
to Harlan" and Gillian Welch's "Orphan Girl". U2's
Larry Mullen, Jr showed up to play drums for the
project.  The album received virtually no country
airplay whatsoever, but did bring Harris to the
attention of alternative rock listeners, many of
whom had never listened to her music before.  The
following year, she appeared on Willie Nelson's
Teatro album, which was also produced by Lanois.

In 1998, Harris released the live Spyboy, backed
with a new band which included Nashville producer
and songwriter Buddy Miller.  The album updated
many of Harris' career hits.  Also, in 1998, Tara
MacLean recorded a cover of Harris' Christmas
single "Light of the Stable".

Her 1999 Red Dirt Girl album was produced by
Lanois protegé Malcolm Burn and, for the first
time since The Ballad of Sally Rose, contained a
number of Harris' own compositions.  Like Wrecking
Ball, the album's sound leaned more toward
alternative rock than country. Also in 1999,
Harris released a second Trio album with Parton
and Ronstadt, Trio 2 (which was actually recorded
in the early 1990s, but remained unreleased for
five years, due to record label disputes and
conflicting schedules and career priorities of the
three artists).  Harris and Ronstadt released a
duet album, Western Wall:  The Tucson Sessions the
following year.

In 2000, Harris guested on alternative country
singer Ryan Adams' solo debut Heartbreaker (Ryan
Adams album)|Heartbreaker. The same year she
joined an all star group of traditional country
music|country, folk music|folk and blues artists
for the T-Bone Burnett produced soundtrack to the
Coen Brothers film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?. A
documentary film|documentary/concert film was also
released about the making of the soundtrack, which
is entitled Down From The Mountain. In 2002,
Harris joined many of the same artists on the road
for the Down From The Mountain Tour.

Harris released Stumble Into Grace, her follow up
to Red Dirt Girl in 2003, and like its
predecessor, it contained mostly self-penned
material.


In 2005, Harris worked with Conor Oberst on Bright
Eyes (band)|Bright Eyes' release, I'm Wide Awake
It's Morning, performing backup vocals and
harmonies on three tracks.  In July, she also
joined Elvis Costello on several dates of his U.S.
tour, performing alongside Costello and his band
on several numbers each night.  July also saw the
release of The Very Best of Emmylou Harris:
Heartaches and Highways, a single-disc
retrospective of Harris's career, on the Rhino
Entertainment label.

== Activism ==
Since 1999, Harris has been organizing an annual
benefit tour called Concerts for a Landmine Free
World. All proceeds from the tours support the
Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation's (VVAF)
efforts to assist innocent victims of conflicts
around the world. The tour also benefits the
VVAF's work to raise United States|America's
awareness of the global landmine crisis. Artists
that have joined Harris on the road for these
dates include Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Bruce
Cockburn, Steve Earle, Joan Baez, Patty Griffin
and Nanci Griffith.

==Discography==
# Gliding Bird (Jubilee) 1970
# Pieces of the Sky (Reprise/Warner Bros.) 1975
# Elite Hotel (Reprise/Warner Bros.) 1976
# Luxury Liner (Reprise/Warner Bros.) 1977
# Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town (Reprise/Warner
Bros.) 1978
# Blue Kentucky Girl (Warner Bros.) 1979
# Roses in the Snow (Warner Bros.) 1980
# Evangeline (Warner Bros.) 1981
# Cimarron (Warner Bros.) 1981
# Last Date (Warner Bros.) 1982
# White Shows (Warner Bros.) 1983
# The Ballad of Sally Rose (Warner Bros.) 1985
# Thirteen (Warner Bros.) 1986
# Trio (with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt),
(Warner Bros.) 1987
# Angel Band (Warner Bros.) 1988
# Bluebird (Warner Bros.) 1989
# Brand New Dance (Warner Bros.) 1990
# At the Ryman (Warner Bros.) 1992
# Cowgirl's Prayer (Warner Bros.) 1993
# Wrecking Ball (Warner Bros.) 1995
# Portraits (Warner Bros.) 1996
# Spyboy (Eminent) 1996
# Red Dirt Girl (Nonesuch) 1999
# Trio 2 (with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt)
(Elektra) 1999
# Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions (with Linda
Ronstadt) (Elektra) 2000
# Stumble into Grace (Nonesuch) 2003
# The Very Best of Emmylou Harris: Heartaches and
Highways (Rhino Entertainment) 2005

==Further reading==
* In The Country of Country: A Journey to the
Roots of American Music, Nicholas Dawidoff,
Vintage Books, 1998. ISBN 067941567X

* Emmylou Harris: Angel In Disguise, Jim Brown,
Fox Music Books, 2004.  ISBN 1894997034

== External links ==
* imdb name|id=0004994|name=Emmylou Harris
* http://www.emmylou.net Fan site