Personnel includes: Emmylou Harris (vocals, acoustic & electric guitar); Linda Ronstadt (vocals); Ethan Johns (acoustic, electric, slide, Spanish & baritone guitar, dulcimer, mandocello, synthesizer, bass, drums, percussion, marksaphone, optigon); Bernie Leadon (acoustic, electric & 12-string guitars, gutarron, mandocello, mandolin, synthesizer, 6-string bass, background vocals); Greg Leisz (acoustic, electric & pedal steel guitars, mandocello, mandolin, bass, background vocals); Andy Fairweather Low (electric guitar, bass, background vocals); Paul Kennerley (electric guitar, background vocals); Neil Young (harmonica, background vocals); Kate McGarrigle, Anna McGarrigle (background vocals).
Recorded at the Arizona Inn, Tucson, Arizona.
WESTERN WALL: THE TUCSON SESSIONS was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
Personnel: Linda Ronstadt (vocals, background vocals); Emmylou Harris (vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, background vocals); Ethan Johns (guitar, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, slide guitar, Spanish guitar, dulcimer, mandocello, synthesizer, bass synthesizer, drums, percussion); Bernie Leadon (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electric 12-string guitar, guitarron, mandocello, mandolin, bass synthesizer, bass guitar, 6-string bass); Greg Leisz (acoustic guitar, electric guitar, mandocello, mandola, mandolin, bass guitar, background vocals); Andy Fairweather Low (electric guitar, bass guitar, background vocals); Paul Kennerley (electric guitar, background vocals); Samantha Rowe (cello); Neil Young (harmonica, background vocals); Wix (accordion); Michel Pepin (bass guitar, cymbals); Helen Watson, Kate McGarrigle, Anna McGarrigle (background vocals).
Recording information: Aizona Inn, Tucson, AZ; Arizona Inn, Tucson, AZ; Jim Brady's Studio, Tucson, AZ; Skyline; Studio Frisson, Montreal, Canad.
Photographer: Caroline Greyshock.
Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris have frequently collaborated over the course of their long careers. Their voices are made for each other in a yin-yang meeting of Ronstandt's rich velvet alto and Harris' songbird-sweet soprano. The Tucson Sessions takes their collaborations to new heights. A collection of covers and originals tracing various paths of love and loss, the performances seem to have breathed in the desert where they were recorded. Arrangements airy as the space between desert and sky are grounded by gritty guitars, splashed with color from folk instruments and filled with glorious harmonies. Well known singer/songwriters are covered -- Patty Griffin, Andy Prieboy, Rosanne Cash, Leonard Cohen, and Bruce Springsteen. Traditional presentations of Cohen's "Sisters of Mercy" and Springsteen's "Across the Border" take on new dimensions as sung by women. The spare arrangement and delicate harmonies lend a wonderful wistfulness to Cash's "Western Wall." A surprising cover choice with beautiful results is Sinead O'Connor's "This Is to Mother You." The album's best track, "1917," was written by folk singer David Olney. It's impossible to imagine anyone else singing this haunting tale of soldiers and women in WWI. Fragile and breathtaking, Harris' voice is buoyed by the angelic harmonies of Ronstadt and Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Harris also contributes, along with some collaborators, three tracks to the album, notably the spirited "Raise the Dead." ~ Theresa E. LaVeck
Perhaps inspired by the triumphs of TRIO and TRIO II, which they recorded with Dolly Parton, Linda Rondstadt and Emmylou Harris went into a makeshift studio to record an album as a duo. The results are superb. Rondstadt leaves her slick Hollywood pop sound behind and delivers some of her most unadorned and heartfelt singing since the early '70s. Harris is Harris: her voice is as delicate as a butterfly and as strong as steel.
The songs on WESTERN WALL are varied, each vividly telling a story. "1917" is a chilling chronicle of an affair cast amid the brutality of WW I. "Sweet Spot" is an eerie declaration of devotion, with a spare, Laurie Anderson-like use of electronics, written by Harris and Luscious Jackson's Jill Cunniff. Rondstadt shines on a straightforward, proud version of Jackson Browne's "For a Dancer." Other song choices include Bruce Springsteen's "Across the Border" and Leonard Cohen's "Sisters of Mercy." Excellent. minimize