Pieces of the Sky

shes never been a favorite of mine but i dont have complaints

Beautiful, light, breezy, has the freshness despite being 50 years old. Timeless quality, even if not perfect.

Ok - for country then this is pretty good. Great voice.

3.

Just a really good Country album. I have a soft spot for these 60's and 70's soft Country albums sung by women. It's a good blend of originals and covers and it all just sounds really good. Living country legend.

shades of Wynette and Dolly while hinting at - and inspiring - the Allison Krauss and others to come. Beautiful and just a little different in it's time. 4

I’ve been learning that while I’m mostly not a fan of modern country pop, I actually do like a lot of classic country. This album is a wonderful example of a country album I enjoy. There is so much more substance to these songs compared to what gets spun on country music radio today. I especially like the bluegrass feel on a few tracks and her cover of For No One was spectacular.

Lovely stuff, this.

Country music.

ELH has an amazing voice, but unfortunately the tunes on this album don't really do it justice for me. Or maybe it is the generic country/folk stylings of the music that lets it down. Anyway, it's a solid 3 for me, but nothing more than that

Nice voice, but pretty generic country

Great emotion and a unique and beautiful voice. She successfully bridges sorrow filled traditional country with a more modern vibe. Great execution, fine instrumentation and songwriting with a killer little block of covers - Coat of Many Colors and For No One - make this an interesting listen.

Emmylou Harris is a name I’ve known forever but whose music I’ve never heard. This was a lovely Sunday morning.

There’s no denying she has a very clear lovely voice. I personally don’t care for pretty, high-register folk music, so this album is not for me. I did however really like the one country honky-tonk song that snuck in!

I will not include the bonus tracks from the expanded edition in this review.

About half a year ago, I talked about how singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris worked with Gram Parsons on his solo career up until his tragic passing. Well, Emmylou decided to continue in Gram's legacy with her own solo career. Pieces of the Sky serves as her major-label debut, and I consider it to be a solid effort, for what it's worth.

Emmylou has a very distinct soprano delivery that feels both delicate and resilient, as her country performance seems to take more cues from folk rock. Thus, she carried a very charismatic spirit through upbeat tunes like "Bluebird Wine" and slow-burning ballads like "Too Far Gone". Probably the most notable track on his record is "Boulder to Birmingham", a song she penned in tribute to Gram, as she ruminated on the feelings she was experiencing from his untimely passing. It is a genuinely moving piece as Emmylou illustrated the lengths she would go to see him again. This is some very promising songwriting from her on this track.

Unfortunately, "Boulder to Birmingham" is the only track on which Emmylou had a songwriting credit. The rest of this album saw her perform songs from other songwriters and artists around her, including The Louvin Brothers with "If I Could Only Win Your Love", Merle Haggard with "The Bottle Let Me Down", The Everly Brothers with "Sleepless Nights", The Beatles with "For No One", and, in particular, her contemporary and future collaborator Dolly Parton with "Coat of Many Colors". Emmylou did her best performing her renditions of these songs to showcase her range. I just don't find them as transformative compared to the original works, that's all.

Still, I enjoyed Pieces of the Sky for establishing a country singer-songwriter in the making. If anything, I'm glad she continued in her friend's legacy and forged her path.

Am I turning into a country music fan? I think this is the second album of hers that I think is fantastic :-(

Geez, what's wrong with me?

While I can't cite any particular song I liked, I enjoyed it as a whole. Beautiful voice.

Country has never been my thing and I doubt it ever will.

I know about Emmylou Harris, of course; she's from here in the DC suburbs. Part of this recording was done right here in my neighborhood, in fact. But I never went to the effort of checking her out when she was making records in the 70s because she was country and I was prog, and that was that.

The faster songs on here have some really good toe-tapping guitar, fiddle, and mandolin and such, and her voice of course is great. I struggled to get through the slower material; I do like "Boulder to Birmingham," though, since I'm a sucker for a sad travel song, and of course Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors" has such touching lyrics.

I think I'm a 3 on this one. She's still pretty country, and I'm still pretty prog, so while I think this is very good for what it is, it's still a little too calm and sweet for my liking.

Not a bad country album. She could sing fairly well and it wasn’t all about tractors and beer so that gets it an extra star. 3/5

If I've learned nothing else from this list, it's that I actually find Country from the '60s and '70s to be pretty listenable.