Features:
Description:
It's a sobering testament to the power of flash over substance that Nashville's major labels now routinely crank out slick "new country" videos while more heartfelt, authentic country music is nowhere to be found on industry radar. The inequity seems almost appalling in the case of Emmylou Harris, now releasing albums and this excellent concert video on her own imprint, despite an integrity and artistry that frankly tower above those of the "new country" pinups that get by on innuendo and packaging. Although Harris helped open the country-music establishment to a new generation of rock-savvy songwriters and musicians, her music has always been concerned more with emotional truth than commercial crossover. Accordingly, when the new "hat" acts eclipsed the more authentic bluegrass and traditional country accents in Harris's music, she neither surrendered nor complained, sustaining her high standards while evolving toward a more mature personal style. The mid-'90s witnessed her bravest high-wire walk on the remarkable Wrecking Ball, in which she collaborated with producer Daniel Lanois to radically shift the sound and sensibility of her music. That partnership--clearly the most galvanic since her '70s apprenticeship with the late Gram Parsons, whose austere country-rock blueprint shaped Harris's earlier solo output--has directly influenced her subsequent band, Spyboy, which preserves the moody synthesis of electric textures and acoustic timbres mapped with Lanois. Like the excellent Spyboy live album, this companion video, shot during performances at Nashville's Exit/In club, augments Harris's ravishing soprano and acoustic guitar with alternative country hero Buddy Miller's lead guitar and the lean, limber New Orleans rhythm section of bassist Darryl Johnson and drummer Brady Blade. Every bit as precise as her fabled Hot Bands, Spyboy handles older signature songs such as "Love Hurts" and "I Ain't Living Long Like This" capably, but it's on the Wrecking Ball songs--including "Where Will I Be," "Deeper Well," "All My Tears," and "The Maker"--that the results verge on transcendence. --Sam Sutherland
| 
