Emmylou Harris: A Voice to Match Her Hair

She was cute in 1967, at age 20. She just kept getting more striking. Turn down the awful cover music, and watch this: age 40 to 70.

Here, the late John Hartford introduces her to an appreciative audience. This was a performance by the singers in O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). It was held at the Ryman Auditorium, the home of the original Grand Ole Opry, on May 24, 2000. This unique evening was filmed. It was released as Down from the Mountain that December. I was in Nashville in the week it was released. I went to a late-night showing at the Nashville Film Festival. I went back again the next day. I took my wife. I went back the day after that. This was the highlight of the movie.

I had known about Emmylou from the late 1960’s, but I did not buy any of her records. My mistake.

Here is my favorite song of hers. I always disliked the song until I heard this. It closed the movie, Soundcatcher (2000). This fact is mind-boggling: the band is one man, David Mansfield, who produced the soundtrack. He had toured with Bob Dylan in the mid-1970’s. When he left in 1978, he and T Bone Burnett formed The Alpha Band. Burnett produced the music for O Brother.

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