Emmylou Harris "Wrecking Ball": C/D?

Lanois also wrote "Where Will I Be".

So I noted upthread.

For the curious:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ssuxdnGAWI

Also of interest:

http://www.bigozine2.com/archive/ARrarities08/ARehwreckout.html

If it weren't for Lanois, this would be one of my favorite albums. As it is, I find the production suffocating. A collection of brilliant songs that I never, ever come back to.

I definitely see why people would be put off by the Lanois production on this, but I love it. Loved the selection of songs on this, and thought her performance was amazing throughout. At the very least, it's what got me more interested in Emmylou, to the point where I started trawling he back catalogue and hooked me for the subsequent releases.

dear thread:

thank you for introducing me to this album, I just listened to Where I Will Be about fifty times in a row. sux that the only vinyl pressing of it ever is waaaaaay out of print but w/e, I'll track one down someday.

signed, James Cobo

I never get tired of this album. It's fascinating to hear Emmylou singing with such raw emotion.

she's essentially been remaking it over and over again for over 15 years now

That was true for "Red Dirt Girl" (which is a good album though not as otherworldly as "Wrecking Ball"). But is it really true for anything after RDG? I didn't really pay much attention after that, what's worth checking out?

Being that Lanois is primarily responsible for that otherworldly quality which arguably makes this record so unique and special, I find it interesting that some people are bristling against his involvement, despite loving it otherwise?

Also ironic that Lanois's tools of the trade are generally more organic, more analog, than many other sonic gloop masters. He's the king of the right players in the right room with the right mics and amps, bar the odd delay effect or two. Like Neil Young, he's really into overdriving the amps to get cool effects.

But is it really true for anything after RDG? I didn't really pay much attention after that, what's worth checking out?

The one I like a lot is All The Roadrunning, the duet album with Mark Knopfler. The rest, not so much.

Also, Willie Nelson's Teatro feels like Wrecking Ball II, with Lanois producing and Emmylou featured.

i should listen to Teatro again -- i thought it was all wrong for Willie when it came out, but maybe I'd dig it more now...

I dig "I Never Cared For You" and "Darkness On The Face Of The Earth" a lot, but haven't returned to the rest of the album since I first heard it.

I didn't like "Teatro." It felt waaaaaay too much like Willie going for the same thing, but WIllie is so much his own thing he doesn't need that. I didn't see him play Farm Aid with Lanois and two Cuban drummers, though.

that Farm Aid set was dope

was a weird day, with Mellencamp & the rapper during Jack and Diane, and Phish and Neil Young, and Woody Harrelson in a suit made out of weed, and Brian Wilson

lol that all sounds pretty magical

it was great! plus Hootie.

when will lanois produce a hootie album... achtung hootie.

I forgot all about Hootie! I remember thinking, hey, I'm going to keep an open mind, but Hootie was soooooo boring.

is there any licensing fuckery that would prevent Wrecking Ball from getting reissued? every copy listed on popsike has gone for over $150, usually WAY over.

I don't understand, you can get it used for a penny on Amazon.

Vinyl.

gonna assume that not many copies of this were printed on vinyl -- 1995 was probably a low point in major labels even putting albums out at all on vinyl.

Getting back to Teatro for a sec, I could never get into it despite how badly I wanted to. Was actually hoping for Wrecking Ball II, but what I found was big on atmosphere and low on actual songs. The song selection on Wrecking Ball, on the other hand, is flawless.

OTM.

I honestly don't really remember Teatro, I set it aside before anything sank in and never went back to it. But yeah, the songs on Wrecking Ball would have made for a great Emmylou album no matter how she recorded it. The production made it into something else again, but the foundation is solid to start with.

Getting back to /Teatro/ for a sec, I could never get into it despite how badly I wanted to. Was actually hoping for /Wrecking Ball II/, but what I found was big on atmosphere and low on actual songs. The song selection on /Wrecking Ball/, on the other hand, is flawless.

I picked up the Modern Classics reissue of Teatro today and it is quite beautiful; I've had it on tape since around the time this thread introduced me to Wrecking Ball but it's never sounded this rich before.

jesus goddamn christ

Discogs stats for the Grapevine vinyl:

    Have: 38
    Want: 263
    Avg Rating: 4.8 / 5
    Ratings: 10
    Last Sold: 30 Dec 14
    Lowest: $92.82
    Median: $167.49
    Highest: $216.10

that's absurd. surely this has been reissued?

I think that original UK vinyl release is the only time this album's ever been on vinyl, so it's understandably rare. Still, those prices are bonkers.

She played "Pilgrim" on Colbert and it reminded me how classic she is

Hearing the demos for this for the first time ever - even though its one of my all-time favorite albums, and am astonished. As good as the finished album, if not better.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4shDJvXWXd4

nice. this whole album has climbed up into my top 50 all time ranks pretty rapidly

That's from the expanded reissue, right? The bonus disc material is great, indeed, and quite revealing.

Finally picked up the reissue on vinyl - can’t think what took me so long to buy it for $60 when I’d have snapped up the no doubt inferior sounding original for twice that if I ever spotted it in the wild - & immersed myself in it last night. Christ, i’d forgotten how fucking deep this record is. Wept like a baby through half of it: how that steel guitar sings like a church organ while EH is transformed by the magic of folk music: “and if you were Willie Moore and I was Barbara Allen - or Fair Ellender, all sad at the cabin door, weepin’ and a-pinin’ for love” - “Sweet Old World” - “Blackhawk” - & that numinous take on “Every Grain of Sand”, where she turns Dylan’s bitterness into something humble and human - honestly one of the best records ever made, I think. The only tune that left me cold at all - strangely, because I recall it fondly - was “Orphan Girl”, which came across as kind of rote or predetermined or something - never transcended its setting, & I don’t feel like Emmylou brought as much emotion to her reading of it as Gillian Welch later did to hers. A super-important track though, historically, because Welch/Rawlings probably wouldn’t have had anything like the career they did if that song hadn’t been on this record.

I like the first two sides of outtakes too, mostly - the unproduced take of “Where Will I Be” is a highlight, and it was great to hear her do “Still Water”, though I don’t think she quite caught the magic that Lanois’ own version did. “Stranger Song” was good. The Richard Thompson number was pretty unremarkable.

Now I have to track down a copy of that documentary - you mean I’m gonna have to buy this album AGAIN? - it was released with the CD version of the rerelease.