Emmylou Harris has one of the most beautiful voices in the folk country genre and impeccable musical taste in her choice of songs to record. Another extraordinary contribution Emmylou makes to American music is in introducing worthy younger singer-songwriters to the world’s attention. I first learned of the work of Gillian Welch and Steve Earle from this record. While I knew Lucinda Williams work, I had never heard the revelatory Sweet Old World before. What’s more, Harris often provides a more compelling version of the songs than the originals. She makes musical choices which enhance the original and bring out elements that the songwriter didn’t foresee in his or her own material.
Every song on her brilliant Wrecking Ball is profoundly beautiful, haunting and mysterious. AllMusic.com’s Jason Ankeny says:
Wrecking Ball is a leftfield masterpiece, the most wide-ranging, innovative, and daring record in a career built on such notions. Harris’ voice, which leaps into each and every one of these diverse compositions — culled from the pens of Neil Young, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Earle, and others — with utter fearlessness, as if this were the album she’d been waiting her entire life to make. Maybe it is.
A good deal of the credit here goes to the profound mystery Daniel Lanois adds to the sound of the record as its producer. But I don’t think you can isolate the influences to say who deserves credit for what. On a great album such as this, all the choices contribute to a brilliant production.
It’s hard to single out one indiividual song for special mention since all are so good. But since it’s titled Wrecking Ball (hear the song here), it seems reasonable to give it consideration. Emmylou’s version brings out the deep mystery of Neil Young’s original lyrics (hear Neil Young’s version here):
I see your smoky eyes
Right across the bar
I’ve seen that look before
Shining from star to star
Though I can’t take that chance
If you got time for one dance
Meet me at the wrecking ball
Wrecking ball
Wear something pretty and white
And we’ll go dancin’ tonight
Meet me at the wrecking ball
Wrecking ball
Wear something pretty and white
And we’ll go dancin’ tonight.
She makes the spooky nightclub, the Wrecking Ball, seem like Miss Havisham’s mansion. Actually, the Wrecking Ball isn’t a place of death and decay, but rather like a haunted forest where lovers tryst. It certainly isn’t a free and open space. More like a deep place where love is tested, perhaps even in a deeper well.
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