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Emmylou Harris - Spyboy Audio CD

A fair review of the Emmylou Harris "Spyboy" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Emmylou Harris reviews here, or go back to the Emmylou Harris tabs.

Emmylou Harris Band: Emmylou Harris
Title: Spyboy
Rating:
Release Date: 1998-08-11
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: My Songbird 2: Where Will I Be 3: I Ain't Living Long Like This 4: Love Hurts 5: Green Pastures 6: Deeper Well 7: Prayer in Open D 8: Calling My Children Home 9: Tulsa Queen 10: Wheels 11: Born to Run 12: Boulder to Birmingham 13: All My Tears (Be Washed Away) 14: Maker

Soulful and uplifting
Spyboy definitely is that but also much more.
From the tremulous opening notes of the first track, Songbird, I knew this was going to be another Emmylou classic. Every single song on this magnificent album is a treasure, from Songbird to The Maker. The band is perfectly in synch with Harris' voice, and so is the audience. All together these elements create a magical ambience that sticks in the mind.

My favorites on this breathtaking work includes her compelling live version of Green Pastures (with lovely male backing vocal), the most moving Calling My Children Home, done a capella with just male backing vocal (a devotional song of great power), the achingly beautiful Prayer in Open D where she sings solo, Boulder To Birmingham and her almost jazzy version of Daniel Lanois' The Maker with its complex arrangement.

As someone who as a rule do not like live albums, I can assure the prospective listener that Spyboy is a heavenly blend of beautiful songs and atmospherics to which the audience definitely contributes. The applause adds to the mood while her short introductions are just right. This is the closest I'll come to seeing her in concert, and it is a proper consolation. The CD quality and sound clarity are faultless.

I rate this album right up there with Emmylou's very best like Wrecking Ball, Red Dirt Girl, Roses In The Snow and A Cowgirl's Prayer. There is plenty of variety, from bluegrass gospel to the awesome droning rock guitars of Deeper Well and the straight country Tulsa Queen to the jazzy excursion on the Lanois song. I cannot recommend this album highly enough; it has given me hours of listening pleasure and has an uplifting effect on the spirit.
.


shouldn't have been released
Also, because "Wrecking Ball" -- the album that got me interested in current Emmylou -- was recorded for another label, many of those songs could not be released on this album as planned. This was recorded on an off night, and Emmylou's voice is not in peak condition.

Around this time Harris with the Spyboy band were doing really smoking renditions of the Wrecking Ball material. If you can find a copy of her Tonight Show appearance where they did "All My Tears", and compare it with the recording of that same song here, you'll get an idea of what an amazing live album might have been made under more fortunate circumstances. Hopefully better material from this period will be bootlegged. In more recent performances her band has become considerably tamer.

I don't think this album would work for fans of "more traditional" country either, but I wouldn't know about such tastes.

N. B. "Born To Run" is not the Bruce Springsteen song.


Excellent Live Album
It was songs that comprised her WRECKING BALL tour. Emmylou Harris released SPYBOY, a live album, in the summer of 1998. There's a lot of variety here, from the songs from her 1995 WRECKING BALL album, to old favorites. Spyboy is the name of her band. The name is a Mardi Gras term for th person who goes ahead of the parade; a street entertainer, jester, troublemaker, scout. The band is made up of Brady Black, who contributes vocals, drums and percussion; Buddy Miller, who gives his vocals, lead electric, 12-string and mado guitar; Daryl Johnson, vocals, bass, guitar, percussion and djembe. And then of course Emmylou's warm, unique vocals.

Some old favorites she sings here include "My Songbird", "Born To Run", "Boulder To Birmingham", "Tulsa Queen" (my personal favorite), "Love Hurts", "I Ain't Living Long Like This", "Calling My Children Home", and more. Some newer cuts from the WRECKING BALL sessions include "Deeper Well", "Where Will I Be", "All My Tears". The album closes with a stunning cover of Daniel Lanois' "The Maker".

You won't be disapointed with this live recording!.


Stunning
Buddy Miller, Brady Blade and Daryl Johnson incinerate, and Emmy, well, she radiates. An absolutely masterful CD. Brilliant singing and playing. I get goosebumps hearing this recording - "Where Will I Be", "Green Patures", heck, man, EVERY song. Buy the CD and turn it up.


An amplification of the masterpiece album "Wrecking Ball"
" This is amazing music, and I, who have owned (and loved) almost everything Neil Young, Bob Dylan, The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Joni Mitchell, Van Morrison, The Band, Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty have recorded, would rank it among the many masterpieces of this group of artists. From the heart-wrending beauty of the opening "My Songbird" to the brave jazz-like spiritual explorations of "The Maker," Spyboy stands as a masterpiece album, a fitting companion to and, indeed, an amplification of "Wrecking Ball. Sublime music can be found here, from beautiful born-again gospel to pure country to country-rock to out-and-out rock to rock-jazz fusion, all superbly played by the virtuoso band Spyboy, and all graced by Emmylou's heart-breakingly jagged soprano. Emmy can't reach all the high notes now, but the notes she can reach reverberate with a beauty almost beyond our world, and her striving after those now-unreachable highs is its own poignant comment on the aging process and the counteracting wisdom gained thereby. I love Emmylou and her music, and now I have gained a profound respect for the musical abilities of Spyboy: Buddy Miller, Brady Blade and Daryl Johnson.


You can see a complete list of all Emmylou Harris discography, or go back to the Emmylou Harris tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

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