Amazon.co.uk Review: Emmylou Harris's 1975 major-label debut unveiled the formula that she would revisit numerous times throughout the decade: a melding of traditional country's honesty, folk music's heart, and country rock's punch. Her choice of material followed a similar curve--everything from Merle Haggard, Tammy Wynette, and the Louvin Brothers to the Beatles and Shel Silverstein. Former Elvis sidemen James Burton, Glen D. Hardin, and Ron Tutt along with guests like Ricky Skaggs, fiddler Richard Greene, and pianist Bill Payne of Little Feat form a formidable supporting cast. What's most impressive is Harris's versatility--she moves from delicate acoustic ballads to buoyant two-steppers to lavish string arrangements without ever sounding overmatched. She even takes a very personal tale like Dolly Parton's wonderful "Coat of Many Colors" and makes it her story. She may have inherited the band and the vision from her late mentor Gram Parsons, but the shimmering soprano voice is all her own. --Marc Greilsamer
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - One of the Best Country Albums Ever!
I really love this album. Emmyloyu has a great voice! She is one of the best female singers ever! The songs "Bluebird Wine", "Sleepless Nights", and "Boulder to Birmingham" are so beautiful and good! This is a 70's classic!
Rating: - The start of a great career
Yes, there was an Emmylou album before this – the Gliding bird album on an independent label – but good though it was, it is this album that marks the beginning of Emmylou's career as we know it. Setting a pattern that would characterize many of Emmylou's albums, it featured many covers and few originals. Top quality musicians and Emmylou's superb voice ensured that the covers were often as good as, and sometimes better than, the originals.
On this album, there are three new songs, ... Read More
Rating: - 'I stood on the mountain, in the night and I watched it burn ...'
This official debut album from 1975 is an impressively varied and emotionally stirring collection of quality songs that includes compositions by country legends like Merle Haggard, a Lennon/McCartney composition and a powerful Harris co-composition: her aching, poetic tribute to Gram Parsons titled Boulder to Birmingham. This reissue of Pieces of the Sky has been enhanced by the addition of two previously unreleased tracks.
Of the up-tempo numbers, If I Could Only Win Your Love, Bottle ... Read More
