Portraits
Compared to her sometime singing partner Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris is not an especially distinctive singer or songwriter. She lacks the raw talent to match the towering high points of Parton's career, but at the same time Harris has managed to avoid the embarrassing lapses that have plagued Parton. Harris has exhibited a deep understanding of what makes the best country music endure and a stubborn refusal to accept anything less. You can comb through her 20 albums and never find an embarrassingly corny novelty number, a shamelessly maudlin weeper, or a less-than-flawless vocal. This box set gathers all her commercial hits, staples of her live shows, prime examples of her every phase, her best collaborations with other artists, and five previously unreleased tracks.--Geoffrey Himes