Pieces of the Sky [Bonus Tracks] [Remaster] (CD - 1975)

Personnel: Emmylou Harris (vocals, guitar); James Burton (guitar, dobro); Herb Pedersen (guitar, banjo, background vocals); Brian Ahern (guitar, bass); Bernie Leadon, Rick Cunha, Amos Garrett, Bruce Archer, Bernie Leadon (guitar); Ben Keith (pedal steel guitar); Byron Berline (mandolin); Ricky Skaggs (fiddle, viola); Richard Greene (fiddle); Danny Pendelton, Bill Payne, Glen D. Hardin (piano); Ray Pohlman, Tom Guidera, Duke Bardwell (bass); Ron Tutt, Mark Cuff (drums); Linda Ronstadt, Fayssoux Starling (background vocals).

Recorded at the Enactron Truck, Beverly Hills, California. Originally released on Reprise (2213).

Personnel: Emmylou Harris (vocals, acoustic guitar); Brian Ahern (guitar, acoustic guitar); James Burton (guitar, electric guitar, dobro); Herb Pedersen (acoustic guitar, 12-string guitar, banjo, background vocals); Bernie Leadon (acoustic guitar, dobro, banjo, background vocals); Bruce Archer, Rick Cunha (acoustic guitar); Amos Garrett (electric guitar); Byron Berline (mandolin, fiddle); Ricky Skaggs (fiddle, viola); Richard Greene & Beryl Marriott (fiddle); Glen D. Hardin (piano, electric piano); Bill Payne (piano); Markus Cuff, Ron Tutt (drums); Fayssoux Starling, Linda Ronstadt (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Chris Skene; Paul Skene; Stuart Taylor; Brian Ahern.

Liner Note Author: Rick Clark.

Recording information: The Enactron Truck, Beverly Hills, CA (1975); Track Recorders, Silver Spring, MD (1975).

Photographer: Tom Wilkes.

Arranger: Brian Ahern.

Emmylou Harris' major-label solo debut quickly establishes the pattern that the vast majority of her subsequent work would follow: Pieces of the Sky is bravely eclectic, impeccably performed, and achingly beautiful. Amid a collection of songs that ranks among her most well-chosen -- ranging from the catalogs of the Beatles ("For No One") to Boudleaux and Felice Bryant ("Sleepless Nights") and the Louvin Brothers (the hit "If I Could Only Win Your Love") -- the record's centerpiece is one of Harris' rare original compositions, "Boulder to Birmingham," her stirring tribute to fallen mentor Gram Parsons. ~ Jason Ankeny

Although Emmylou Harris recorded the GLIDING BIRD album in 1969 for the small Jubilee label, PIECES OF THE SKY is considered her "debut." Harris's pure soprano and excellent taste in material and backing musicians (over the years she has employed James Burton, Ricky Skaggs, Rodney Crowell and Albert Lee) have earned her tremendous respect in the country music world, and many top country hits.

Recovering from the shock of the 1973 death of Gram Parsons, her partner and mentor, Emmylou Harris formed her own band. PIECES OF THE SKY, released in 1975, had a top-10 country hit in her remake of the Louvin Brothers' "If I Could Only Win Your Love." It also contains a tribute to Parsons ("Boulder To Birmingham") and a version of the Beatles' "For No One."

Emmylou Harris' Pieces of the Sky is one of the more welcome entries in her catalog. Before the auspicious and provocative Elite Hotel, issued later in 1975, Pieces of the Sky was the kind of record that became Harris' signature style for most of her time at Warner Brothers, and is one of the most auspicious debut recordings in the history of country music. Accompanied by the Hot Band featuring James Burton, Rodney Crowell, Brian Ahern, Rick Cunha, Glen D. Hardin, Linda Ronstadt, Amos Garrett, Mike Auldridge, and a slew of others, Harris offers a palette of songs that range from traditional country music, including her understated yet deeply moving read of Billy Sherrill's "Too Far Gone," Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors," Merle Haggard's "(Tonight) The Bottle Let Me Down," the Louvin Brothers' "If I Could Only Win Your Love," and the Bryants' "Sleepless Nights" (a staple of Harris when she played with the late Gram Parsons). From the then-current crop of country songwriters, she opened the album with Crowell's "Bluebird Wine" and Shel Silverstein's "Queen of the Silver Dollar." There's also another Lennon-McCartney selection included, with "For No One." But the most moving track on the set is "Boulder to Birmingham," a Harris original and her tribute to the memory of Parsons. In her voice one can hear the human heart break, shatter, and then gather itself in order to move on, forever looking back. When she sings, "Well you really got me this time/And the hardest part is knowing I'll survive/I've come to listen for the sound of the trucks as they move down out on 95/And pretending it's the ocean, comin' down to wash me clean/Baby, do you know what I mean?," the entire world opens in the grain of her voice and bathes the listener in grief, longing, and resolve. [On the 2004 remastered and expanded version of the album Rhino added a pair of Dallas Frazier tracks from the same sessions: there's the hard-singing honky tonk of "Hank and Lefty" and the standard "California Cottonfields." While nothing needed be added to this masterpiece, these cuts following Silverstein's (original) closer do not at all detract from it.] ~ Thom Jurek minimize