Emmylou Harris, whose album Hard Bargain is due out tomorrow, is the subject of a feature profile in the New York Times Sunday Arts & Leisure section, which says the new album "is suffused with kindly intimacy, acknowledging sorrows and reaching past them." The AP says her new songs are "up to her high standards." Harris also spoke with The Canadian Press and with the Los Angeles Times, which cites "her unwavering compassion throughout her career for the underdog, oppressed, the voiceless." The video for the song "Six White Cadillacs" has premiered on Garden & Gun, which says the album "packs a powerful, bluesy punch"; watch the video here.
Emmylou Harris, whose new album, Hard Bargain, is due out on Nonesuch tomorrow, is the subject of a feature profile in the latest New York Times Sunday Arts & Leisure section by Jon Pareles. In the article, Harris, a frequent and renowned interpreter of others' songs, discusses the challenges of songwriting and the personal stories behind some of the 11 songs she wrote for the new 13-track album. Hard Bargain, says Pareles, "is suffused with kindly intimacy, acknowledging sorrows and reaching past them. It is one of only three of her albums for which Ms. Harris wrote the majority of the songs by herself: Red Dirt Girl in 2000, Stumble Into Grace in 2003 and now Hard Bargain."
Harris is in New York this week to celebrate the release of Hard Bargain, performing songs from the album in a sold-out show at Bowery Ballroom tomorrow night, talking with Pareles's colleague at the New York Times, Dana Jennings, Wednesday for a sold-out TimesTalk, and performing on the Late Show with David Letterman on Wednesday, which fans across the US can watch on CBS starting at 11:35 PM ET.
---
Before then, fans can now catch a brand-new video from the deluxe CD/DVD edition of Hard Bargain. Following the recent premiere of "Goodnight Old World" on CMT (which you can now watch at nonesuch.com/media), Garden & Gun magazine today gave the world premiere of the video for the album track "Six White Cadillacs." The magazine says the album "packs a powerful, bluesy punch." Watch it here:
---
The Associated Press echoes the theme of the New York Times piece in its review of the new album. "Long celebrated as an interpreter with impeccable taste in material," says the AP's Steven Wine, "Harris composed 11 of the 13 tunes on Hard Bargain, and they're up to her high standards." Wine concludes: "Her silvery soprano is in fine form, and as always, her songs benefit from contributions by the world's greatest harmony singer: Harris." You can read the review at news.yahoo.com.
---
Harris also spoke with The Canadian Press for an extensive article about her songwriting and two particularly personal songs on the new album: "The Road," about her friendship with country-rock legend Gram Parsons—"What a blessing it was to meet Gram," she says—and "Darlin' Kate," about her frienship with the late Canadian singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle, whom Harris calls "one of the most extraordinary musicians" she has ever met. You can read the article via google.com.
---
Harris also spoke with Los Angeles Times writer Randy Lewis from her home in Nashville about both her music and another one of her passions: her dog rescue, Bonaparte's Retreat. Lewis cites the album track "Big Black Dog," about her dog Bella, as "a lighthearted yet sincere ode to the loyalty and unconditional love that she prizes about her work with her animal companions."
He also cites her new song "The Ballad of Emmett Till" as a song that "points to her unwavering compassion throughout her career for the underdog, oppressed, the voiceless, the disenfranchised members of society, human or nonhuman."
Read the article at latimes.com.
--
There's just one more day to pre-order Hard Bargain and receive the manuscript lyric sheet for the song "The Road," signed by Harris. To do so, head to the Nonesuch Store now.
- Log in to post comments
