The great Emmylou Harris returns home to accept award
HoLy*Chapin.Luvr
01/23/03
MARY COLURSO
News staff writer
When she answers the phone in her Nashville office, she says, "Hi,
this is Emmy."
Her voice is calm, her manner reserved, her time limited.
During the eight-minute conversation, you feel that if you're going to
call her anything, it really should be Ms. Harris.
This, after all, is one of the most famous and influential people ever
born in Birmingham. A country singer to be reckoned with. A folk-rock
innovator. A master craftswoman.
Over the past 35 years, Emmylou Harris, 55, has forged a distinguished
career in music that has brought her many accolades, from glittering
Grammys to a rootin-tootin' award from the National Cowgirl Hall of
Fame.
On Saturday, Harris will collect one more honor this time from her
appreciative home state as she's inducted into the Alabama Music Hall
of Fame. She's one of five achievers who'll be feted for their
lifetime contributions at an 8 p.m. ceremony at the Arthur Outlaw
Convention Center in Mobile.
"Emmylou has flown through about four genres of music with ease," says
David Johnson, executive director of the hall of fame. "She has been
able to mix traditional country with pop, rock and folk, making all of
it work.
"In everything she does, she knows how to interpret a song and
understand a song. Music is her life, what her whole life has been.
She's the epitome of music. She keeps pushing music to a new edge."
Harris, who lives in Nashville, will head south this weekend to attend
the induction ceremony with nine or 10 guests. She plans to perform
that evening, as well, most likely including the song "Boulder to
Birmingham" on her short set list.
So how does the Alabama award stack up against about 30 other honors
Harris has received?
"Well, it's a hall of fame; I think that's pretty great," she says.
"And it's in my home state. Any roots I have are there."
While firmly rooted in the American music world as a recording artist,
guitarist, band leader, collaborator and songwriter, Harris has said
that she never felt anchored to any particular place in her youth.
A self-described "service brat," Harris will sometimes mention growing
up with an Alabama mother and a Yankee father who relocated often
during his 30-year career in the U.S. Marine Corps.
But she usually doesn't dwell on the past in public interviews and she
rarely goes into detail about her personal history.
"Everywhere you live, everything you go through in life influences
your life," she says. "It's hard for me to look back and pinpoint even
one thing that's most important."
Still, Harris did discuss her childhood in some depth when she won
Billboard magazine's Century Award in 1999. During her recent
conversation with The Birmingham News, she confirmed several pieces of
information reported in Billboard, and revealed a few other tidbits
that might be of interest to her fans in Alabama.
Wayfaring family:
Born in Birmingham on April 2, 1947, she is the daughter of Eugenia
Murchison Harris, 81, and Walter Rutland "Bucky" Harris, who died in
1993 at age 72.
On her mother's side, Harris can trace her genealogy to farmers in
Chilton and Elmore counties, around the cities of Clanton and
Wetumpka.
Harris' maternal grandparents lived in Birmingham; Eugenia Murchison
attended Woodlawn High School. She met her future husband in
Pensacola, during a visit there with some girlfriends.
At that time, Walter Harris whose family came from Howard County, Md.
was in Florida for officer training school. He had been a veterinary
student at the University of Virginia before enlisting in the Marines
during World War II.
Emmylou Harris has said that despite their different backgrounds, her
parents fell in love at first sight.
They corresponded for a while, very politely, before Walter Harris
surprised the Murchison family by calling on Eugenia at her parents'
house and getting down on his knees in their living room.
She accepted his proposal. When Eugenia's family expressed
reservations about the match, the two eloped, Harris has said.
After a civil ceremony, the young couple moved to Texas, where Walter
Harris was stationed as a fighter pilot. He was soon sent overseas.
Harris' older brother, Walter Rutland Harris Jr., was born while her
father was flying Corsairs during the war.
Magic City memories:
By the time daughter Emmylou arrived, the Harris family had relocated
to Birmingham. Harris has said that one of her earliest memories is
standing in a crib in their house on 54th Street, watching her father
come in the front door.
Harris briefly attended elementary school in Woodlawn; she was about
age 6 and in the middle of first grade when her father was transferred
to Cherry Point, N.C.
Harris spent part of her youth in North Carolina, and part in
Woodbridge, Va., graduating from Garfield High School there as class
valedictorian. On vacations and over the winter holidays, her family
would usually visit relatives in Maryland and Alabama.
As a student, Harris tried her hand at piano, clarinet and saxophone.
When she became interested in folk music around age 16, she got her
first guitar, a Kay. It cost $30 and was bought by her grandfather in
a Birmingham pawn shop.
"I played that until my fingers bled," she recalls. "The strings were
so high off the fretboard. I had that for at least a year, then I
bought a Gibson J50. I still have the Kay, but I don't have the
Gibson."
Her first idols were Peter, Paul and Mary, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Son
House, the Carter Family, Judy Collins and, of course, Woody Guthrie.
As she started performing professionally, Harris says, one of her very
first bookings came at the rocky natural amphitheater at Horse Pens 40
in Steele.
"I remember being hired by (the park's founder) Warren Musgrove and
how beautiful it was and probably how nervous I was," she says.
According to the Horse Pens Web site, Harris played and sang barefoot
at that show, standing on a wooden door balanced on the rocks. The
park's lore maintains that she was paid a platter of fruit for her
efforts, although Harris has never verified it.
We do know for sure that the fledgling folkie spent the next three
decades polishing her skills, improving her abilities and discovering
the nuances of her talents.
Unfurling her resume:
To date, Harris has released 25 solo albums and contributed to about
250 other recordings by luminaries such as The Band, Guy Clark, Lyle
Lovett, Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Nanci Griffith,
Steve Earle, Kathy Mattea, Rodney Crowell, George Jones, Marty Stuart
and Rosanne Cash.
She has performed all over the world, helped to revitalize Nashville's
Ryman Auditorium and been named to the prestigious ranks of the Grand
Ole Opry.
"Every concert with Emmy is sort of like a little adventure," says
Nashville guitarist Buddy Miller, who plays in Harris' band. "Her
attitude is, "Let's take it wherever the music wants to go.'"
In 2000, her love of bluegrass and old-time music led Harris to be a
key participant in the soundtrack of the movie "O Brother, Where Art
Thou?," which launched a cultural juggernaut.
Aside from inspiring enormous popular interest in those high, lonesome
mountain sounds, the film spun off a documentary, "Down From the
Mountain," and a highly successful concert tour. Harris was there for
it all.
Her work has brought her back to the Birmingham area on many
occasions, but Harris says she hasn't made a special point of
directing her tours to Jefferson County.
"It's not like that. I go where they send me," Harris says.
Although she's pleased to sing and play for a hometown crowd, Harris
says it usually feels no different performing here than it does in
Orlando, Memphis, Baton Rouge or any other city.
A startling exception to that rule came on Nov. 19 at the BJCC Arena,
when Harris climbed on stage with Bruce Springsteen during his concert
with the E Street Band.
"He kindly asked me to sing with him and suggested `My Hometown.' He
didn't know I was from Birmingham," Harris says. "I got an amazing
thrill standing there singing that song, and it really came home to
me. I thought, `This is great.' It was a goosebump experience."
Harris, Page XX -- HARRIS:
Singer gets thrill in hometown
XX
allthisjoy
contribution she has made to so many genres of music.
Someone else who Emmylou performed with was John Denver.
<<"John sang with Emmylou Harris on the album "Will The Circle Be Unbroken
- Vol. 2", and also on the song "Wild Montana Skies" on the album "It's
About Time.">>
Wild Montana Skies was a hit in country music for John and you can clearly
hear Emmylou on this duet. Great song and I love these two together.
Best,
Dot
=========
"HoLy*Chapin.Luvr" wrote:
> Emmylou Harris returning home to accept music hall of fame award
>
> 01/23/03
<<To date, Harris has released 25 solo albums and contributed to about
HoLy*Chapin.Luvr
Emmylou, I believe
On Thu, 23 Jan 2003 16:36:55 -0500, allthisjoy <allth...@ftc-i.net>
wrote:
Dean Eaton
Even though it's a compilation, Emmylou's "Duets" album has always been one
of my favorites.
"If I Needed You" with Don Williams, Emmy and Roy Orbison on "Lovin' You
Feelin' Again", "One-paper Kid" with Willie Nelson, and of course her work
with Gram Parsons - the list is endless.
I've always harbored the notion that, if her career had taken a different
turn, Emmylou would have been the greatest harmony singer in the history of
country. Which, in a way, she already is
--
Dean
"HoLy*Chapin.Luvr" <HolyDEC...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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HoLy*Chapin.Luvr
mine..
Roy was awesome... sad he had to go..
On Thu, 23 Jan 2003 23:54:22 GMT, "Dean Eaton" <dce...@earthlink.net>
wrote:
Dean Eaton
hearing Emmylou's distinctive reedy voice in the background. Your ears perk
up and say, "Hey, it's Emmy!" You never mistake her for anyone else.
The listing of her back-up performances on www.all-music.com goes on for
pages - and I'll bet it isn't anywhere near complete.
Dean
"HoLy*Chapin.Luvr" <HolyDEC...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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