Wrecking Ball

Emmylou Harris - Wrecking Ball

Wrecking Ball
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Music CD Cover

Artist: Emmylou Harris
Brand: HARRIS,EMMYLOU
Edition: Music CD
Published: 1995
CD Release Date: 1995-09-26
Music Label: Asylum Records
Soundtracks:
  1. Where Will I Be
  2. Goodbye
  3. All My Tears (Be Washed Away)
  4. Wrecking Ball
  5. Going Back to Harlan
  6. Deeper Well
  7. Every Grain of Sand
  8. Sweet Old World
  9. May This Be Love
  10. Orphan Girl
  11. Blackhawk
  12. Waltz Across Texas Tonight

Free Music Notes for Wrecking Ball

Free Music Review: Cosmic American Music
Hit: 5 Stars

Have you ever wanted to hear a near perfectly realized album, where each recorded song is compacted down to its absolute essence, & where any single subtraction/addition could destroy its fragile genius? Then reach straight for Wrecking Ball by Emmylou Harris & instrumentalist/jedi producer Daniel Lanois - a lushly ambient, experimental, American country music.

When it came out, many critics immediately threw it into the "Americana" category. & though I can understand that, I just can't sit comfortable with it. Harris/Lanois created something totally uncategorizable with their album - equally reminiscent of Eno's ambient stylings & equally country in spirit.

Wrecking Ball contains many imaginative & original versions of previous classic songs. Cover versions are not new to Emmylou's oervre, but what sets Wrecking Ball apart is that many of the original songwriters of the material she selected collaborate on her versions, inherently authorizing her takes: Steve Earl - "Goodbye," Neil Young - "Wrecking Ball," & Lucinda Williams - "Sweet Old World." If only Dylan could've sung background on "Every Grain Of Sand" or Hendrix's ghost on "May This Be Love," now that would be something! - the only possible flaws on the album. But like Dylan once said of Hendrix's take of "All Along The Watchtower," "Hendrix owns that song," one would have to argue with each of them if they couldn't similarly say the same about Harris' renditions. She not only totally owns both of those two tracks (the Dylan cover glides/swoons a bit more than the original; but, her Hendrix cover is possibly one of the most transcendent pieces of music ever recorded by mortals, to my ears - even surpassing the original utopian fury of Lord Jimi), but she also adds many new acres to each song's original plot, taking them just north of heaven. Wrecking Ball can't help but offer another argument for questioning who owns the original song, as it unconsciously throws off copyright laws like sparks, like so much refuse.

When I was first overpowered by Wrecking Ball, I tried in vain to find out the influences Harris/Lanois were drawing from .... I immediately found Gram Parsons at the center of Harris' primary influences: GP/Grievous Angel (Reprise,1973; 1974) which feature a young Emmylou on one of her premier backing vocal gigs. What Parsons claimed he was trying to do, that held the key for me, was to birth a "Cosmic American music." & though I now love Parsons for his genius, I never think he sonically attained that expansiveness. & now that I really love a lot of the older country stuff as well, I still have no idea where Wrecking Ball came from...other than in taking up the promise of Parson's "Cosmic American music" & delivering a fully conceived/actualized take of it.

& don't let me hear a whisper about Wrecking Ball being Emmylou's "crossover" album to the rock/pop mainstream - I might draw blood. With this album, there is no trace of her leaving her country roots behind (or her country audience, for that matter), descending into some kind of VH1 "contemporary pop" category to expand her vampirous market reach, like, say, Shania Twain or Faith Hill (two goddesses that should be seen but not heard). Rather, Harris, should be seen & heard for who she is, a beautiful artist who's depth & appreciation for the heart of soulful music places her outside of any territorialized marketing scheme, particularly one as creatively shackled as the "new country." Some of her head-scratchin' country audience should realize that she comes to fufill her old country roots not destroy them - despite what the title Wrecking Ball seems to imply. Her explorations beyond present country standards descend to the bottomless - not to the top of the haughty pop charts - that is, the bottomless depths of the human heart. Investigate some lyrics to the track "Deeper Well" to get my meaning:

I was ready for love I was ready for the money
Ready for the blood & ready for the honey
Ready for the winnin', ready for the bell
Lookin' for the water from a deeper well
I found some love and I found some money
Found that blood would drip from the honey
Found I had a thirst that I could not quell
Lookin' for the water from a deeper well

Well...lookin for the water from a deeper well
Well...lookin for the water from a deeper well

So, please don't question the integrity of her judgement again, especially about any "crossover"! If anything, Emmylou has crossed over the "new country" abyss to that lost American music & tapped its well, tuning into its watery chaos, & sweetly offering you a sip of the future as well. But the flavor wouldn't be so rich without Lanois' contribution - her choice to choose him for this album proves Harris'genius.

If much modern American country music could let go of its hokey wordiness & hyper-commerciality and plunge back into the mystery of the American countryside, instead of drawing inspiration from "big city" honky-tonks of the deep South, it could recapture its lost soul. I say let Wrecking Ball be the fountainhead, the blueprint for what comes next. . . .

Wrecking Ball Poster

No Description Available
No Track Information Available
Media Type: CD
Artist: HARRIS,EMMYLOU
Title: WRECKING BALL
Street Release Date: 09/26/1995
Domestic
Genre: COUNTRY

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