MUSICAL HEROES SERIES; RUTH PAXTON CHOOSES EMMYLOU HARRIS.

Edinburgh film maker Ruth Paxton has chosen Emmylou Harris, if you haven’t seen her work (or if you have) , we heartily suggest that you get yourself over to PaxtonWorks to see why she is so prevalent on awards lists.

The beautiful and talented Ruth Paxton

FROM RUTH:
I can’t sing, or play music. But dang, if I could, I’d want to sound like Emmylou Harris.

My country heroine Ms. Harris sings (and sometimes writes) songs about what it means to be human. Throughout her vast anthology of studio albums Harris rejoices in celebration of great love and friendships, and laments over painful memories and adversity. She whispers and belts out lyrics on those moments and those people in life that make it worth living.

Her voice is strong and distinctive; it’s rich and raw. It both soothes and sears through me. She’s the diva of loss. She sings, and it’s as if her very guts spill out. She sings and we feel her heart breaking. And she does it all with such effortless grace.

She’s so cool.

Here’s a clip of a young brunette her on the Old Grey Whistle Test in 1977, where she plays ‘LUXURY LINER FORTY TONNES OF STEEL’ with her very awesome Hot Band. Pay special heed to her
BEAUTIFUL blue tasseled culottes with matching cuffs… What a DUDESS.

LIVE CLIP:

I love how music has the power to become the soundtrack to periods from your past. When I was about 14, my Dad introduced me to Emmylou Harris when he made me a mix-tape with the opening track, ‘A WAYS TO GO’, from Harris’ 1993 COWGIRL’S PRAYER album. I was studying for my Standard Grade exams at the time and this song was score to my revision. I played + rewound + played + rewound + played that track until the cassette tape wound up squeaky. Criminally, no one has uploaded it to YouTube, so I have. Please ignore the zoom-y image and instead, picture me trying to master Trigonometry…

SONG CLIP:

I love Harris’ interpretations of traditional ballads and gospel songs, but I particularly dig the innovative approach on her more contemporary albums, especially RED DIRT GIRL (2000). I love the quality of the production on this release: the haunting, tribal sound; the poetic and deeply personal storytelling vibe – Harris creates music which feels ancient and original all at once. The title track is a compelling song describing youth trapped by poverty and locale. On writing it, Harris said she was inspired in part, after watching the film, BOYS DON’T CRY (1999). ‘RED DIRT GIRL’ is profoundly tragic, and beautiful and gets right to me.

LIVE CLIP:

I want to share another track from the same album: the epic and intimate, ‘MY BABY NEEDS A SHEPHERD’, on which, the combo of muffled drum-sound and lady-harmonies makes me quake.
LIVE CLIP:

*FOLKS should TOTES check those last two as studio recordings, there’s a lot of the texture I describe lost in the live performance.
I like Harris’ voice even more now she’s 64. She’s still well spicy. I’ll finish with a commemorative song from her latest album, HARD BARGAIN (2011), called ‘THE ROAD’. She wrote this for Gram Parsons, with whom she had a budding musical/love affair when he died of an overdose in 1973. I don’t think she’s ever gotten over losing him. The lyrics are a bit flowery, but fuck-it. Harris credits Parsons with giving her the confidence to forge a career. If that’s the truth, thank God they were introduced.
SONG CLIP: