“Wrecking Ball” by Emmylou Harris

Posted by Lou Ashby on Apr 2, 2009 in Music | 2 comments

Wrecking Ball is a 1995 Emmylou Harris album that found the country music singer veering away from the traditional acoustic sound for which she’d become known, to team up with rock producer Daniel Lanois (most commonly associated with U2). The album has been noted for its murky, atmospheric feel, and featured guest performances by Steve Earle, Larry Mullen, Lucinda Williams, and Neil Young (who wrote the title song). Though her choice of songs had always been eclectic, the album was regarded as a departure for Harris who, by the age of 48, had become something of an elder stateswoman in country music. It received almost universally positive reviews, making many critics’ year-end “best of” lists, and pointed Harris’ career in a somewhat different direction, where she would incorporate a harder, albeit plaintive edge that would single her out from the complacent, country music mainstream. As a career-redefining album, Wrecking Ball was likened to Marianne Faithfull‘s 1979 Broken English album and Johnny Cash‘s later American Recordings. Wrecking Ball won the 1995 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Recording.

Nyack’s Larry Mullen Jr. lends his drums to most of the album.

Because Emmylou Harris has performed traditional country music and recorded with ’70s country rockers like Gram Parsons and Linda Ronstadt, many fans associate her with that style of music. In reality, Harris floats in some netherland amid country, rock and folk. Her latest album turns this stylistic ambiguity into a stunning virtue: Wrecking Ball is a wrenching collection of songs that merges popular and historical styles like a 1990s rethink of the Band.

Some of the contemporary feel comes from producer Daniel Lanois, who brings his own style into play: atmospheric background combined with powerful, clear-cut melodies. He provides the perfect setting for Harris’ lucid, crystalline voice. The songs come from stellar writers like Neil Young, Lucinda Williams, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, yet they don’t feel like cover versions here. Harris fully inhabits each song without overwhelming it; she’s an expert interpretative singer.

Harris interprets the tunes, but they also interpret her:Instead of emoting, she lets the feelings inherent in each one come through as simply as a still-life painting. Her take on “Every Grain of Sand” honors the contemplative spirit of Dylan’s original, although his thoughtful folk sound is amplified here into a plaintive cry set to a waltzlike meter.

“Goodbye” evokes a past love affair, the memory of which eludes the singer’s grasp. The listener, however, can find traces in the heartbreaking simplicity of the melody, in Harris’ voice and in Lanois’ lead guitar. The title track might first conjure an incongruous picture of destruction; it’s actually about a dance, the low, thumping backbeat contrasting bizarrely with Harris’ ethereal, sweet delivery. Wrecking Ball progresses like a true song cycle; Harris ponders life’s difficulties with a grim wisdom that avoids both sarcasm and pessimism.

 

SUSAN RICHARDSON from Rolling Stone