Sunday, June 22, 2008
A+E, Music, Reviews

Emmylou Harris

“AlI I Intended to Be”  (Nonesuch)

Remember the part in “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” when the hapless Delmar is entranced by the sirens’ song? Emmylou Harris provided one of the voices of the female trio, and like the music in that scene, her own style is warm, haunting and inviting, yet with a slightly creepy undercurrent.
 
Producer Daniel Lanois first tapped this approach on Harris’ 1995 masterpiece “Wrecking Ball,” and while her new album doesn’t generate the same startling effect, Harris keeps a similar vibe flowing through its 13 gems. Her style is an amalgam of folk, bluegrass and country, yet more atmospheric than either in its purest form.

Her first album in half a decade, “All I Intended to Be” finds her mining familiar territory. Tunes such as the opening “Shores of White Sand” and Patti Griffin’s “Moon Song” glisten like droplets of dew on misty summer morning grass as Harris weaves her hypnotic voice through material that’s as classy and refined as she is.

It’s a melancholy trip, to be sure, but it’s never morose, sappy or bland. Producer Brian Ahern layers instruments and harmony vocals from old friends Dolly Parton, Buddy Miller and Kate and Anna McGarrigle with subtle precision, keeping the sound spacious yet focused.
  
The Nonesuch label allows Harris the freedom to create personal, beautifully realized music like this that has no logical radio outlet. But as long as there is an audience, however niche, for finely crafted Americana, Emmylou Harris can continue to release albums as blissfully noncommercial and eerily spellbinding as “All I Intended to Be.” 3.5 STARS—Hal Horowitz