Emmylou Harris wrote a song about Gram Parsons for her latest album ‘Hard Bargain’.
Emmylou Harris
In an exclusive interview with Noise11.com, Emmylou explains and the opening song ‘The Road’, about Gram.
“When I started writing this album I didn’t have a clue,” she tells Noise11.com. “I just started with an open-tuned guitar and an old melody I had for a while. That song just sort of fell out. It was almost a stream of consciousness looking back over the years. That’s the way it appears to me. You kind of follow the muse, wherever she takes you”.
On ‘The Road’ she sings:
I can still remember every song you played,
Long ago when we were younger and we rocked the night away.
How could I see a future then, where you would not grow old?,
With such a fire in our bellies, such a hunger in our souls.
She says that after Gram Parsons died, she picked up where he left off. “I think that was a way of saying that,” she says. “I had got so inoculated and impassioned with country music through Gram and I really thought that we were just going to continue to write music together. He was my teacher. I thought we were going to be literally on that road for a while. I really did have to take what I knew at that point and carry on by myself and just learn what I could. I was fortunate to have so many good people around me, to have a great producer and get those great band members, especially like Rodney Crowell who was kind of a soul mate. We both loved country music, we had great musicians and a great record company that really gave me my head. It was putting one chord after another and one foot in front of the other, one show after the other and here I am today”.
The Australian shows will give Emmylou Harris a chance to perform songs from ‘Hard Bargain’ for the first time in Australia. “It keeps things fresh. In a strange way it makes the old songs new again, rubbing up against each other. I think that’s what keeps you going. I will say I have never gotten tired of the old songs but it is always great to have new stuff to put out there. It keeps you in shape”.
Emmylou Harris will tour Australia in November for Lennard Promotions. Check dates and get tickets here.
