Among artists who manage to sustain a lifelong career, certain albums along the way stand as clear signposts of their longevity. Wrecking Ball is one such record in Emmylou Harris’ oeuvre. Having established herself as Gram Parsons’ shining protege in the 1970s and building herself into a graceful songbird of mainstream country through the ’80s, Harris chose not to rest on her laurels as she got older. For 1995′s Wrecking Ball, she enlisted adventurous producer Daniel Lanois, who imbued the album with his trademark atmospherics. Harris selected material from rock icons (Dylan’s “Every Grain Of Sand,” Hendrix’s “May This Be Love,” the Neil Young title track) to established roots acts (Steve Earle’s “Goodbye,” Lucinda Williams’ “Sweet Old World,” Kate & Anna McGarrigle’s “Going Back To Harlan”) to a couple of then-upstart Americana songwriters (Gillian Welch’s “Orphan Girl,” Julie Miller’s “All My Tears”) to Lanois himself (“Where Will I Be,” “Blackhawk,” and “Deeper Well,” a co-write with Harris and David Olney). It all came together on the strength of the key players’ respective sonic imprints: Lanois’ dramatic echoes, flourishes and swells, and Harris’ incomparable angelic voice. Somehow those elements combined in gloriously ringing harmony, thereby forging an entirely new and contemporary… read more »