[.ca] Blue Kentucky Girl

Traditional country masterpiece:
Blue Kentucky Girl is a real roots country album, both in the sound and the nature imagery of the songs, as is obvious from titles like Beneath Still Waters, Hickory Wind, Sorrow In The Wind and Rough & Rocky. The rhythmic uptempo number Sister's Coming Home with its great fiddle opens the album, and is followed by the stirring slow ballad Beneath Still Waters. Hickory Wind is the Gram Parsons song, and of course Emmylou makes it her own with a soulful, delicate interpretation. The execution is quite different from her duet with Gram Parsons. This recording of Save The Last Dance For Me is probably the definite version by now, whilst Sorrow In The Wind is a poignant gentle song full of yearning, where the harmony vocals of Cheryl and Sharon White are almost magical. Other beautiful voices that contribute to this gem of an album are Don Everly on Everytime You Leave, and Ricky Skaggs and Fayssoux Starling on They'll Never Take His Love From Me. The title track and Even Cowgirls Get The Blues are rhythmic mid-tempo ballads with strong melodies. The two extra tracks include Cheating Is, an atmospheric ballad with Glen Campbell and the sorrowful I Know An Ending When It Comes, where her voice shines in glory. My favorite sequence on the album is the one from Hickory Wind to Sorrow In The Wind, as Harris takes the listener to places one seldom goes. Blue Kentucky Girl is amongst her very best work and stands proudly next to Roses In The Snow, Cowgirl's Prayer, Pieces Of The Sky and the more recent classics like Red Dirt Girl and Wrecking Ball. As always, a wise selection of great songs, beautifully interpreted.

Still awesome after all these years.:
This was the first Emmylou Harris album I ever bought. As many great albums as she has made, it's probably still my favorite. If you're unfamiliar with her work, this is probably the best intro to Emmylou you'll find. As with many Emmylou records, her talent for finding and interpreting songs is matchless. The song cycle here holds together as if the songs were written for one another. Backed by Ricky Skaggs, the Whites, Tanya Tucker, Don Everly, and many others, Emmy shines with her crystaline voice all the way through. Probably at her vocal peak with this record, Emmylou shows rockers, bluegrass pickers and country wannabes all how to do it -- and that she was doing it better decades ago. If you're a fan of new country, O Brother, roots rock or Americana, pick up this disc and listen to a master at work. Emmylou truly set the standard and blazed the trail for all those to come who would blur the lines of genres in the name of creative individuality.

My favorite Emmylou album:
Emmylou has recorded many brilliant albums throughout her career but the string of albums that she recorded between 1975 and 1980 are ultimately her most important legacy. Everybody has his or her favorite - this is mine, perhaps because traditional country is what I like best, and that's what this album is filled with. The set opens with Sister's coming home, an up-tempo song written by Willie Nelson, on which Tanya Tucker joins Emmylou for an incredible duet. I love Willie's music, but Emmylou and Tanya's version of this song is far superior to Willie's original. Next comes the superb ballad, Beneath still waters, a hitherto obscure George Jones song, which provided Emmylou with a country number one hit. Even better is Save the last dance for me, also a huge country hit for Emmylou. I've heard countless versions of this song including the original Drifters version as well as brilliant covers by Buck Owens and others, but this is the best I've ever heard. Among the other great covers here are Rough and rocky (Flatt and Scruggs), Hickory wind (a Gram Parsons song that first appeared on the classic album Sweethearts of the rodeo by the Byrds), Sorrow in the wind (Jean Ritchie - the song is sometimes titled Sweet sorrow in the wind), They'll never take his love from me (Hank Williams) and Every time you leave (Louvin Brothers) - with Don Everly. The title track, Blue Kentucky girl, was an early Loretta Lynn country hit that might have faded into obscurity but for Emmylou's revival of it. The album (as originally released) closes with one of my favorite country songs, Even cowgirls get the blues. Written by Rodney Crowell and with friends Dolly and Linda joining in, this is brilliant, although more restrained than Lynn Anderson's rousing up-tempo version, which is equally brilliant. Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings later recorded the song on their Heroes duet album, and they also did a great job with it. Two bonus tracks have been added to this re-mastered edition, including a cover of Cheatin'is, originally recorded by the talented but under-appreciated Barbara Fairchild. As far as I'm concerned, this is one of the best albums ever recorded by anybody in any genre of music.

Emmylou At Her Very Best:
This is early Emmylou Harris and probably one of her best efforts, if not the best. The title song will send shivers up your spine. Emmylou has one of those rare voices that never disappoints, no matter what she sings. You have probably heard "Save the Last Dance for Me" a zillion times, as it has been performed by many artists, but no one does it like Emmylou.

• Sister's Coming Home - Emmylou Harris, Tanya Tucker
• Beneath Still Waters
• Rough and Rocky
• Hickory Wind
• Save the Last Dance for Me
• Sorrow in the Wind - Emmylou Harris, Cheryl White, Sharon White
• They'll Never Take His Love from Me
• Everytime You Leave - Don Everly, Emmylou Harris
• Blue Kentucky Girl
• Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
• Cheatin' Is \o#\c\o*\c - Glen Campbell, Glen Campbell, Emmylou Harris
• I Know an Ending When It Comes \o#\c\o*\c