Emmylou Harris is featured on today's edition of NPR's All Things Considered. She spoke with host Melissa Block about her new album, Hard Bargain, and what Block calls a "strain of wistfulness" in the songs she wrote for it, including "The Road," about her relationship with Gram Parsons. Harris joins Steve Earle on his Hardcore Troubadour Radio show on Sirius XM Outlaw Country this weekend, featuring solo performances of songs from Hard Bargain and a very special duet.
Emmylou Harris is featured on today's edition of NPR's All Things Considered. She spoke with All Things Considered host Melissa Block about her latest Nonesuch album, Hard Bargain, released earlier this week, and what Block calls a "strain of wistfulness" in the songs she wrote for it.
"There's a certain grace in accepting what your life is and embracing all the good things that have been—but there's still an expectation of good things to come," Harris tells NPR. "Not necessarily what you expected."
In the segment, Block plays back an interview Harris's friend and mentor Gram Parsons gave not long after they first began working together in the early 1970s. "She just sang like a bird," Parsons recalls of first seeing her perform. Harris wrote the opening song on Hard Bargain, "The Road," about Parsons, who died of a drug overdose less than two years after the two began working together.
Listen to the complete All Things Considered piece at npr.org.
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Emmylou Harris joins Steve Earle on this week's episode of his Hardcore Troubadour Radio show on Sirius XM Outlaw Country, featuring solo performances of songs from her new album "Hard Bargain" and a very special duet on "Ft. Worth Blues." Tune in Saturday 9 pm ET, Sunday 9 am ET, Monday 1 am ET, Tuesday 8 pm ET and Thursday midnight ET.
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Pop Matters calls Hard Bargain "a treat," giving it eight stars out of ten.
"It’s another fresh start for Harris and it’s her most satisfying record in years," writes reviewer Steve Leftridge. "First, Emmylou’s writing is sharper and more focused than ever, favoring tight verses and distinct choruses, and she’s much improved as a lyricist. Second, producer Jay Joyce helps give the record a warm, relatively unfussy sound ... And finally, she sounds at ease in these songs—her singing hasn’t felt this unforced in years."
Read the review at popmatter.com.
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Harris is on her way to Norway this weekend for two concerts: at the Sentrum Scene in Oslo on Saturday and Grieghallen in Bergen for the Bergenfest on Sunday. For additional upcoming performances, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.
To pick up a copy of Hard Bargain, head to the Nonesuch Store now, where orders include high-quality, 320 kbps MP3s of the complete album at checkout.
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