’til they ring inside my head forever
(or: october 14’s honey from the hive)
posted at 1:30 pm by brandon in sweet you rock and sweet you roll
Emmylou Harris — “Goin’ Back to Harlan [live]”
(from Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women in Music) —
Because her mass-market popularity (and seeming commercial viability) had all but faded clean away by the mid-’90s, nobody was on the lookout for Harris to unleash her career-defining masterpiece, but that’s just what came to pass with the 1995 release of Wrecking Ball
, Harris’ astounding collaboration with U2’s famed producer Daniel Lanois. Miss Emmy covers Kate and Anna McGarrigle just fine on record, but the live take — raw, intense, electric, alive with crackling energy but crawling with seeping dread — captures brilliantly, and with an irreplaceably compelling sense of grace, the tragic inevitability of a woman who is powerless against the pull of her own lust-strewn heart.