Song 19: Boulder to Birmingham

Boulder to Birmingham - Emmylou Harris

Emmylou Harris can be found in a lot of different places in the history of rock'n'roll. Recently, she can be found in the title of a song by precocious Swedish sister country-rockers First Aid Kit where they sing "I'll be your Emmylou and I'll be your June and I'll be your Gram and your Johnny too". June and Johnny being Carter and Cash, Gram being Parsons.

Not a romantic pairing (I don't think) like Carter and Cash, nevertheless the musical pairing of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris is one of the most influential in modern American music. On his two solo albums (he'd previously been in the Byrds and the Flying Burrito Brothers), 'GP' and 'Grievous Angel', they sang duets (or she sang backing vocals) which displayed a rare and astonishing chemistry.

In a way, Gram Parsons was not a great singer - he could sound fragile, shaky and weedy, but, boy, he sounded like he meant it, and, boy, his voice gelled with Emmylou Harris'.

'Grievous Angel' was a particularly wonderful album - I'd highly recommend the songs 'Return of the Grievous Angel', 'Brass Buttons', 'Love Hurts' (for the sheer harmonies) and particularly '$1000 Wedding' a heartbreaking story song -all the more hearbreaking at the time, I imagine, because by the time the album was released, Gram Parsons was dead at 26.

Drugs. Booze. Bad things. A legend arises. Devastatation for Emmylou Harris. Apparently she becomes determined to preserve and cultivate Parsons' legacy. And she writes a song about Gram Parsons which, ironically, may just outstrip anything he ever wrote himself (I'm sure plenty of people would argue with me about that).

'Boulder to Birmingham' is Emmylou Harris's signature song, the most famous song she wrote and still the song most associated with her.

Since those duets with Parsons, she's been one of the most sought after voices in all music, and her list of collaborators is endless and eclectic, from Bob Dylan to Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Bright Eyes, Tracy Chapman, Neil Young, Mark Knopfler and Ryan Adams. If you need an amazing singer to make your song sound better, get Emmylou Harris. Her presence on Adams'Oh My Sweet Carolina' on his debut solo album 'Heartbreaker' felt like a seal of approval for a new king of country rock.

She's also released quite a few acclaimed solo albums and has a pretty good songwriting record, but I think it's true to say that 'Boulder to Birmingham' is her one main shot at songwriting immortality.

Interestingly, the same could be said of another phenomenal singer and elder stateswoman of American song, Joan Baez - also in the mid-70s she summoned her very best songwriting for a number about an old singing partner, though not one who was deceased, Bob Dylan - I'd listen to Baez's 'Diamonds and Rust' right next to 'Boulder to Birmingham'.

I actually came to it quite late though I'd been aware of its existence for years before I heard it. I bought the Gram Parsons albums in 1999 and 'Heartbreaker' in 2000, I'd heard plenty of Emmylou Harris's singing on Bob Dylan's 'Desire' and also bought her 2001 solo album 'Red Dirt Girl', but yet 'Boulder to Birmingham itself evaded me until the last few years.

I knew enough about it to expect it to be good. And it's so so good. Just listen to it really. What I like best about it is the sense of anger with Gram Parsons for dying, the resentment at her situation. In Nick Hornby's 'High Fidelity', the protagonist suggests that popular music fails by not often expressing loss and grief very well.  I certainly don't set such limits on it - there are actually a pretty large number of fine songs about death and mourning, but this may be the very best of them.