From Billboard.com – Emmylou Harris is preparing a 80-song boxed set due Sept. 18 via Rhino, which features two discs of obscure studio work and two additional CDs of rarities, many of them previously unreleased.
“For the most part, none of these songs have ever been on a compilation before,” Harris tells Billboard.com. “They’re kind of favorites — I call them my orphans, songs that maybe I didn’t even perform that much but I loved enough to record in the studio. They didn’t quite fit either the Hot Band or whatever I was doing. Things like ‘Coat of Many Colors,’ which was one of my favorite songs of all time, or ‘Ballad of a Runaway Horse’ and ‘1917.’”
Also included are several unreleased recordings with her Trio, which also featured Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt. “There’s an outtake from the aborted Trio album that we did in 1978, a Carter Family song called ‘Palms of Victory’ that’s just live off the floor,” Harris says. “There’s not even a solo on it — it’s just the band and the three women singing and I sound like I’m channeling Sara Carter. I wish — in my dreams!”
The second two discs boast numerous tracks Harris has recorded for tribute albums to such acts as Gram Parsons, Merle Haggard and Townes Van Zandt, as well as the original demo for “All I Left Behind” with Kate and Anna McGarrigle.
Harris put her next studio effort on hold to finish the boxed set, but is making progress on a new Nonesuch album with assistance from the McGarrigle sisters and Seldom Scene lead singer John Starling. Harris duets with the latter on “Old Five and Dimers” (“I finally decided that I was old enough to cut that song, reaching the grand ole age of 60,” she laughs).
“It’s kind of a combination of some of my own songs, some songs that I’ve wanted to record for a long time and some new things that I came across,” she offers of the effort. “You’ll get obth Emmylou the interpreter and Emmylou the songwriter.”
Harris, who will also tour heavily into the fall, has recently recorded guest spots for Parton’s next studio album, an Anne Murray duets album and old friend Danny Flowers’ “Tools for the Soul.”
Emmylou Harris – Making Believe
I was going to blog about this myself. I can’t wait for this project, though the article has me a bit worried that it won’t contain as many rarities as I was expecting. I don’t think album cuts that haven’t been on a compilation are anything to write home about, unless she actually includes cuts from albums that were never released on CD (Evangeline, Thirteen.)
I’m encouraged that Rhino is behind it and Emmylou is taking a personal interest.
Rhino’s a great reissue company. They had promised to eventually remaster and expand all of Emmylou’s WB catalog, and they made a pretty good dent in it. I hope they go back and finish the post-Roses in the Snow work.
This’ll make the second Emmylou boxed-set that I own… dang, how many songs do you have to throw away these days to prepare for the “boxed set stage” of your career?
Larry -Luckily I’ve held out ’til now. Seems there’s always a way to milk fans for a few more bucks without actually producing anything new.