AS Emmylou Harris and her fine backing band, Spyboy, confidently strode through a delicious set of wondrous twists and turns on Sunday night, it dawned on this listener that, almost 30 years after her first recording, she has no right to be still this good. We could reasonably expect a woman prepared to trade on her illustrious past, not one eager to challenge expectations and record an album that stretched the limits, of the country music genre.
It is almost 18 months since Wrecking Ball, on a new record label, Grapevine, saw Daniel Lanois's ambient folk/ country moodiness proved a perfect fit for Harris's aching, tragedy filled voice and the inspired selection of songs. As Portraits, the recent three CD retrospective of her Reprise recording career shows, Harris had reached an artistic impasse. Although in the 1970s she had almost single handedly given Nashville a badly needed infusion of credibility, her most recent work had lacked purpose.
Wrecking Ball changed all that. As such, the real surprise on her latest visit to Dublin was that she was not promoting a new album. If that was a minor disappointment her electric and eclectic show proved ample compensation. Supported by the excellent three piece Spyboy, she revisited the songs on Wrecking Ball, squeezing every last ounce of emotion from tracks such as Lucinda Williams's Sweet Old World and Steve Earle's Goodbye. She also travelled through her back pages for tributes to John Duffy, Bill Monroe and Townes Van Zandt with the latter's Pancho & Lefty, one of the highlights of the evening. Other notable blasts from the past included Love Hurts and Boulder To Birmingham.
Songwriter and guitar/mandolin player Buddy Miller was quite remarkable leading the band with a string of dexterous ripples and runs. And his duets with Harris fired up memories of Gram Parsons and her nibs at their best. His two comrades, Darryl Johnson (bass) and Brady Blade (drums) were also impressive, providing a compelling percussive undertow to the swirling melodies. We might have to wait a little longer for new material, but the way Emmylou and her band are working the old, there will be few complaints.
