As regular readers may have grasped by now, I’m not overly excited by country music, but this album was simply gorgeous. Harris’ voice is so pure, it’s hard not to love it, and the music tends more towards the older folk/country style of things (with plenty of acoustic guitar, violin, and dobro) more than the twangy steel guitars of the Bakersfield sound; it’s a distant kin to May The Circle Be Unbroken, but also a little like John Pryne.
Harris mostly performs covers on here, including one from the Louvin Brothers (If I Could Only Win Your Love), one from Merle Haggard (The Bottle Let me Down), one from Dolly Parton (Coat Of Many Colours), and one from the Beatles (For No One).
For me, the stand-out track is the sole composition from Harris herself, Boulder To Birmingham, a forlorn song dedicated to her friend Gram Parsons who died the year before. The chorus really soars, and I guess that having written it herself she’s able to write to fit her voice.
“Well, you really got me this time
And the hardest part is knowing I'll survive”
And the hardest part is knowing I'll survive”
A close second is the final track on the album, Queen Of The Silver Dollar, about a fading glamour girl who was promised much but ended up holding court in a smoky bar (possibly selling her favours?) - “Her sceptre is a wineglass, and a bar stool is her throne”.
As with a lot of country music, this album wears its sadness with pride, but manages to avoid becoming too maudlin about it.
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