14
Oct

Emmylou Harris — “Goin’ Back to Harlan [live]”
(from Lilith Fair: A Celebration of Women in Music) — Going

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.

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