Emmylou Harris

By: Lori Smerilson Carson

Country roots are strong in American music due to a variety of extremely talented legends such as Singer/Songwriter Emmylou Harris. During the over forty years of creating catchy, soul-reaching, global albums and hits, she has racked up quite a collection of music that has earned many accolades. Among those several accolades, she has won fourteen Grammy Awards, four Americana Awards, three CMA Awards, the Billboard Century Award and in 2018, she received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2008, she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. She has collaborated with several world renown artists such as Linda Ronstadt, Rodney Crowell, Mark Knopfler, Willie Nelson and Dolly Parton.  Now, she is bringing her extraordinary music and flair to Palm Beach at Glazer Hall on March 22^nd.

Catching up with Harris just prior to her U.S. and European tour, she revealed some details about her show, her music, a bit about her past, and what fans can look forward to.

SFL Music Magazine: You are going on tour and will be playing at the newly renovated Glazer Hall in Palm Beach. What can fans look forward to with this new show?

Emmylou Harris: Well, the new show, it’s not really new. I just change the setup that we do almost every night, a little bit. Certain songs drift to the back of the list and others move to the front. Don’t really know what we’re going to do until probably the day of the show, but we have a bunch of songs that we draw from.

SFL Music Magazine: You have your latest album SPYBOY. What would you say inspires your songs when you write? What inspired that album?

Harris: Well, that album really was just live. It was live songs from the previous album that came out in 1995 was WRECKING BALL. So, I put a band together to tour that album which had certain, different perhaps, sonic rhythmic things on it that were a bit new to me headed by Buddy Miller in my rhythm section. Of course, we needed more songs than the songs that we recorded on the album in order to do a whole show. So, we revisited material from the earlier albums from years past. And of course, with the different musicians they always take on a different take. In a way, they sort of become new to me. So, SPYBOY is actually a release of that album from1998 with five tracks that were not on the original album, but they’re still all live tracks that were recorded back in the late 1990’s.

SFL Music Magazine: What would you say influenced you originally to become a singer/songwriter?

Harris: Oh, Joan Baez. I think there were a lot of gals my age, if we had our long dark hair (she laughed), learned three chords. We all wanted to be Joan Baez. Her extraordinarily beautiful voice, her guitar playing, and her ethic too. She sang songs that weren’t just about puppy love. She sang songs that had I think a deeper meaning and sometimes had social significance.

SFL Music Magazine: Do you feel that her influence plays into some of your songs?

Harris: I have written, but I’m basically a song interpreter, and a song just has to resonate with me on a very real level. It has to be lyrics that I really want to sing, and once in a while, I get an idea of my own and I have to follow it through to the end.  There is a singer/songwriter friend of mine that calls them “pre-made up songs.” That’s a Victoria Williams quote actually.

SFL Music Magazine: You have sold over fifteen million records…

Harris: Honey, I really don’t know how many records I’ve sold. I’m just grateful enough to have had enough success where I can keep doing what I love. I mean, that’s all we really want.

SFL Music Magazine: What would you attribute to your success and longevity?

Harris: First of all, I think you really have to love and be committed to going on the road and making records, but fortunately, if what you’re doing, it moves people and they come to your shows and they buy the albums. So, apparently what I’ve been doing over the years has resonated with enough people to come to the shows and look to what I’m going to be doing next, but ultimately, it sounds like a cliché’, be true to yourself.

SFL Music Magazine: Would you recommend that to a new artist?

Harris: I can’t imagine anybody going into this business unless they were passionate about it.

SFL Music Magazine: I also saw that you received an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music?

Harris: I think Linda Ronstadt had something to do with that (she laughed). She’s been a great supporter and friend to me for many, many years.

SFL Music Magazine: You have collaborated with numerous world renown musicians. Are there any new collaborations or anyone you would like to collaborate with that you haven’t yet?

Harris: You know, I just take what comes along. At this point, I feel like I have enough albums and projects over the years to provide me with enough material to keep going until I’m not going to be going anymore. So, I’m not recording any more albums. I draw from the material I’ve done over the last fifty or so odd years.

SFL Music Magazine: You do a lot of social activist work with animals in the Nashville area. I love that you started Bonaparte’s Retreat for shelter dogs to find a forever home. How did that come about?

Harris: Well, I’ve always had a love for animals. I’ve always had pets, but there were a few years when I didn’t. I guess because I thought I was traveling too much. I didn’t realize I could have a dog on the bus (she laughed). I got one in the early nineties, Bonaparte and when he died, I didn’t think I would get another dog, but that’s another whole story. We had other pets and dogs, cats in the house, but I thought that in his memory since he had been a shelter dog from Nashville Humane and I had gotten my other dogs and the cats from there. I have a rather big yard, and I thought I could make a place like a fostering place for a few dogs, and that actually ended up morphing into my own dog rescue called Bonaparte’s Retreat which we started in 2004. So, we’ve been going for a while now, and it’s been a great joy in my life I have to say.

SFL Music Magazine: What can people do to help with that?

Harris: Send money (she laughed). What we do is we basically focus on dogs that sometimes languish in the shelters. The big dogs. The old dogs. That’s where my heart really lies. Dogs that have medical issues that might require a big veterinarian bill. Whether it’s a leg amputation or other expensive surgeries or if they’re heartworm positive, it’s asking a lot for somebody to take on that expense and go with maybe a younger, healthier dog, but these dogs that we take still have a chance at a good life. They just need those medical things taken care of. We’re a relatively small shelter as shelters go, but we do take on the hard cases.

SFL Music Magazine: Thank you for doing that. That’s wonderful! As for Florida, was there anything in particular you were looking forward to?

Harris: I just love getting on the bus (she laughed). I’m not sure whether we’re flying or on the bus, but I love playing. Like Willie says, “the life I love is makin’ music with my friends”. I know that sounds easy to say that, but it really is something that I look forward to whenever we get a gig or a weekend where we can go out and play these songs that still have meaning to me. I enjoy playing live and doing these songs again. So, it’s not really work for me. Rodney Crowell always says, “the work involved is the travel.” But I don’t even mind the travel if it’s on the bus.

SFL Music Magazine: Is there anything else for people to know about the upcoming show at Glazer Hall?

Harris: I don’t think so because I’m not really sure what I’m going to do (she laughed).

SFL Music Magazine: It’s impromptu or how does that work?

Harris: I just work on the set list from the list of songs that we have worked up. Sometimes we might work up something and throw it in the day of the show. Yeah, I’ve been with these guys a long time. They’re terrific musicians, so it’s not just the songs, it’s the musicianship that I think people will really enjoy.

SFL Music Magazine: Anything else to add?

Harris: I’m just grateful that people are still showing up.