Country-folk royalty

Emmylou Harris is a musical grandmother to folk greats like Lucinda Williams and John Prine, and on her latest release, All I Intended to Be, she sits proudly atop her throne as Nashville royalty.

Harris calls herself an occasional writer of songs, but more importantly, someone who sings what she loves.

With her soulful voice and confident interpretation of other artists’ lyrics, Harris delivers an album that is sorrowful at moments but never hopeless. Her characters tell of pain and loss without wallowing in their suffering.

On her 21st studio album, Harris collaborates with famed artists of bluegrass, country and folk. The song “Gold” features Dolly Parton, and two songs, “How She Could Sing The Wildwood Flower” and “Sailing Round the Room” were written and performed with Canadian folk artists Anna and Kate McGarrigle. Harris has said “Sailing” is a tribute to life and death as inspired by the case of Terri Schiavo.

Though the album is full of beautiful ballads, Harris twangs it up with Billy Joe Shaver’s “Old Five and Dimers,” a duet with John Starling that provided the album’s title line.
Her crisp soprano pays tribute to Merle Haggard on the cover of “Kern River,” and in her rendition of Tracy Chapman’s “All That You Have is Your Soul,” Harris repeats the gorgeously simple chorus until you believe it.

The album’s final song, “Beyond the Great Divide” showcases a catchy riff behind the poetry of an idyllic country landscape.

Though the music isn’t innovative, Harris sticks to what she knows best: steel-pedal guitar, twangy riffs and lilting harmonies. As a recent Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, she has clearly figured out her formula for success. The album is both a solid introduction to folk for new listeners (even those who would rather swallow a banjo than listen to “country” music) and a satisfying staple for Harris fans.

It’s a folk album that tries – and succeeds – to be everything the genre was intended to be: a storytelling medium that can both break your heart and pick up the pieces.