Spotlight On Americana-Defining Album
- cutlercomms
- 48 minutes ago
- 6 min read
It could be argued that no album best defines the much-debated Americana music genre than Emmylou Harris’s ground-breaking Wrecking Ball. And finally – 30 years after its release – it has been inducted into the Grammy Hall Of Fame.
Wrecking Ball was among eight albums and five singles honoured by the Recording Academy and Grammy Museum at a special gala in Los Angeles on May 16. The latest inductees take the total to 1,165 recordings currently housed in the Grammy Hall Of Fame.
Among all the puffery espoused by the Academy surrounding the inductions was one crucial sentence: “Spanning generations and genres, the 2025 Grammy Hall of Fame inducted recordings comprise timeless anthems and genre-defining albums that have left an indelible mark on music history.” And, of course, the operative words for Americana music here are “genre-defining albums.”
Harris too contributed to this defining theme at the Beverley Hills gala when she humbly remarked: “I just cherry pick all the great songs that other people have written.” In fact, Harris is among the best interpreters of songs in modern music and, indeed, it is her unique interpretations which found her fame and much-loved status in the industry.
Wrecking Ball is no stranger to Grammys. In 1996, it won Harris her seventh Grammy – she now has 14 – for Best Contemporary Folk Recording. The album was produced by Canadian Daniel Lanois, himself a singer-songwriter and someone regarded as a visionary producer, having worked with Bob Dylan, U2 and Peter Gabriel. Lanois and Harris would go on to perform together over many years and indeed, he joined her onstage at the induction, along with jazz drummer Brian Blade who was among the percussionists on the original recording.
“I don’t know if we knew what we were doing on that album, but Daniel Lanois gave me another 30 years of making the music that I love,” the 78-year-old Harris added at the ceremony.
In fact, back at the beginning of those 30 years, Harris acknowledges she was at something of a crossroads in her distinguished career. After considerable success in the mid-70’s-80’s with her early albums – most produced by former-husband Brian Ahern – sales and country radio air-play had somewhat stagnated. She aptly described it as her “logjam.” By now she had moved from Warner Bros to Elektra Records and when - in the mid-90’s - it was time to deliver another album for Elektra, it was also time for serious thinking.
And how she handled this dilemma – and indeed reinvented her career – is nicely documented in a fascinating interview she gave to GRAMMY.com as a prelude to the Hall of Fame induction. It is probably the best dissection she has delivered on any of her 28 studio albums.
On reflection, she acknowledges that her choice of producer was central to the album’s success and the invigoration it provided for her distinguished musical output. Not to mention the role it played in defining a musical genre - the Americana Music Association being formally launched less than five years later.
“It was all Daniel,” she told GRAMMY.com. “I knew he had something to do with U2. But it was his solo record Acadie that really got my attention.”
And there was someone else who influenced her choice of producer.
“Around the same time, I rediscovered Dylan – not that I ever stopped listening to him – through the album of his that Daniel produced, Oh Mercy,” she added. “When I was given the go-ahead (to record another album for Elektra Records), they asked me who I wanted to work with and I immediately said ‘Daniel Lanois.’ I had no idea at that time what the record was going to be like, but I really loved what he did. So I thought why not?”
“I’ve always been one to put a lot of trust in my producers, so I didn’t really know what kind of record it was going to be until we were in the studio making it. I’ve always basically been an interpreter, so I figured I’d get a bunch of songs and see what we could come up with together.”
And to search for that “bunch of songs” the pair went straight to the top shelf of rock/alt country singer-songwriters. Lanois was naturally insistent there would be a Dylan song, so Bob was top of an eclectic list of some of the biggest names in the music biz - among them Jimi Hendrix, Neil Young, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch.
Just imagine what sort of musical genre one might make from that line-up!
But it was not all covers. As might be expected, Lanois brought with him two original compositions – the album opener “Where Will I Be” and “Blackhawk.” Harris contributed too. She and Daniel took a co-writer’s credit with David Olney when they added verses on the acclaimed songwriter’s “Deeper Well.” And Harris roped in her career-long collaborator Rodney Crowell to co-write what would be the closer “Waltz Across Texas Tonight.”
Once the pair had agreed on song-preferences, it was time for Lanois to do his thing. Not being satisfied with legs-up on the control desk, he joined Harris and the various session-players on the studio floor. With him, he brought mandolin, electric and acoustic guitars, bass and even percussion and bass pedals. And he duets with Harris on two tracks.
Just to anoint the sheer mastery of all this, some of the big-name singer-songwriters turned up, either to fine-tune their own compositions or generally add musical lustre to other tracks. Neil Young had the distinction of landing the album title track on which he added backing vocals. Steve Earle played acoustic guitar on three numbers, including his beautiful “Goodbye,” off the acclaimed 1995 acoustic release Train A Comin’. And Lucinda Williams added soft harmony vocals on her beautiful composition “Sweet Old World,” which is aided and abetted by Young’s harmonica.
But above this big-name backing - and Daniel’s innovative musical mastery - hovers Harris. Her vocal discipline throughout the 12 tracks is simply sensational. And her ability to hit and hold notes to fully interpret a song has to be heard to be believed.
Perhaps the finest example is on “Orphan Girl,” a song written by Gillian Welch and one that has been a regular on Harris’s setlist over the years. Welch, in fact, did not release the song until a year after Wrecking Ball when it was the opening track on her debut album Revival.
“I remember her giving me a cassette of that song early on, probably at Telluride in the early 90’s,” Harris told GRAMMY.com. “I loved it then, but really loved what Daniel wound up doing with it on Wrecking Ball. He was able to turn it into something else while holding onto what made it so special to begin – he took it to another place.”
Harris’s interpretation of songs by the legends – Dylan and Hendrix – in this esteemed list of songwriters probably does the most to clearly establish the new direction she was taking -while not completely forsaking her country roots.
Bob’s contribution was “Every Grain of Sand,” the highlight of his 1981 release Shot of Love. “Daniel was really adamant about doing a Dylan song, so he came up with ‘Every Grain of Sand” and turned it into a waltz in 6/8 time compared to the ¾ when Dylan first wrote it.”
Harris credits Lanois for finding a country element on “May This be Love,” the Hendrix number: “He could see into it – almost like X-ray vision – and noticed that doing it as a duet like that would bring out a romantic side of the song by further emphasizing the lyrics,” she said. “The production was beautiful as well; we basically recorded it live right off the floor. We didn’t even cut it with a bass, as far as I can remember. In a sense, the production was really simple, but the sound that Daniel got always gave so many layers to what we were doing.”
But, for many, it was the sound which Harris achieved on one of Daniel’s songs - “Blackhawk” – which truly personifies the unique appeal of both this album and Harris’s ability to make a song truly her own. She was obviously helped by the fact this this is probably Daniel’s finest composition, an intriguing love lament about the bookstore clerk and the blue-collar steelworker – And at the punch clock he remembers/Blackhawk and the white-winged dove.
Harris just nails it. In fact, the emotive vocal range she demonstrates across three chords in the final refrain should be part of any singer-teacher’s syllabus.
And, indeed, any budding musician should read her GRAMMY.com* recollections of how an album evolves. But not only is there a musical takeaway from the interview, it also reflects the humility of Harris and her constant references to how others contribute to her enormous success which, of course, has led to her being defined the Queen of Americana.
And most of all is her passion for music and the commitment to her fans: “It’s so important to keep yourself excited about the music. Don’t worry about sales or if you’re being played on the radio, worry about what excites you. You can’t excite an audience if you aren’t into doing what you’re doing – I just don’t think that is something you can fake.”
Paul Cutler
Editor Crossroads – Americana Music Appreciation