Profile: Best of Emmylou Harris
Less than two years after her mentor Gram Parson's death, Harris recorded her first album for Reprise.Pieces of the Skyinaugurated a suite of four mid-'70s albums and a surprising number of hits: her sound was clearly traditional, but also tastefully up-to-date with folk-rock and singer/songwriter styles, and her cyrstalline, febrile vocals took standards such as "Sweet Dreams" and "If I Could Only Win Your Love" back up the charts.Profilefocuses on these early hits, and if it's too brief to capture all the best songs from four-star albums such asElite Hotel,Luxury Liner, andQuarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town, it shows why Harris is important and why she continues to make adventurous country music. Through unfailingly tasteful song selection, brilliant occasional songwriting, and her cool, velvety soprano, Harris extended Gram Parsons's vision of "cosmic American music" and made it her own.--Roy Kasten