Emmylou Harris Songbird: Rare Tracks & Forgotten Gems CD

This 4 CD/DVD boxed set spotlights career-spanning rarities and favorites from the legendary artist, who personally selected every track. Included are previously unreleased material, duets with a host of stars, live cuts, demos, videos, and more. The DVD includes 2 videos with the Hot Band from BBC's Old Grey Whistle Test, plus choice clips including selections from a 1978 edition of PBS's Soundstage and a duet with Elvis Costello recorded at the Grand Ole Opry. Other performers include James Burton, Albert Lee, and Spyboy. Performers on the CDs include Gram Parsons & The Fallen Angels, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Vince Gill Gail

Additional personnel: The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Dolly Parton, Dolores Keane, Dr. John, Gail Davies, George Jones, Gram Parsons, Gram Parsons & the Fallen Angels, Guy Clark, Iris DeMent, John Starling, Johnny Cash, Kate McGarrigle, Mark Knopfler, Mary Black, Patty Griffin, Randy Scruggs, Steve Earle, The Pretenders, The Seldom Scene , Vince Gill, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Beck, Sheryl Crow, Linda Ronstadt, Carl Jackson.
This four-disc set of rarities by the godmother of alt-country is a grab-bag/treasure trove of esoterica that will be manna from heaven for hardcore Emmylou Harris fans, if not the ideal entry point for the uninitiated. It combines previously unreleased tracks with obscure items from dimly lit corners of Harris's catalog. This encompasses collaborations with everyone from Mark Knopfler to Sheryl Crow, cuts from tribute albums, and more. Whether she's breathing new life into Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors," Hank Williams's "Alone and Forsaken," or Townes Van Zandt's "Snowin' on Raton," Emmylou's heartfelt delivery and gorgeous, birdlike timbre stand as a testament to her status as eminence grise in the Americana music scene, a country/folk queen whose musical odds and ends are fully as engaging as her most celebrated works.
It's difficult to write about Emmylou Harris without lapsing into a long train of superlatives -- she really does have one of the most beautiful voices of her generation, and her taste in material and skill in using her instrument is nearly faultless. However, as good as Harris is and as consistently strong as her body of work has been, one could make a convincing argument that she's been frequently underrated through much of her career -- more than just a lovely woman with a pure, clear voice and a fine ear, she's championed a number of gifted songwriters before they went on to have distinguished careers of their own (from Rodney Crowell to Gillian Welch), matured into a first-rate tunesmith herself, collaborated with a remarkable array of artists, and has never been afraid to take her talents into unexpected directions, from purist bluegrass to the experimental atmospherics of her work with Daniel Lanois. Songbird: Rare Tracks & Forgotten Gems is a hefty four-CD box set (with a bonus DVD) compiled by Harris in collaboration with James Austin that does justice to the scope of a career that's spanned five decades thus far, and unlike most multi-disc collections it isn't merely a super-sized "greatest-hits" collection. Harris and Austin have purposefully avoided her most recognizable work on Songbird, instead charting an alternate path through her back catalog. The first two discs of Songbird represent a roughly chronological overview of Harris' discography, beginning with an outtake from her little heard 1970 debut album, Gliding Bird (an album she's all but disowned in the past), rolling up to speed with two examples of her work with Gram Parsons, and then diving into her solo work from 1975's Pieces of the Sky to 2003's Stumble Into Grace, focusing on Harris' personal favorites rather than radio hits (which were in short supply from the 1990s on anyway). Discs three and four are devoted to collaborations and unreleased material, including several demos that have never before seen the light of day, highlightsUncut (p.104) - 3 stars out of 5 -- "[The album] brings the full measure of Harris' artistry into focus....Van Zandt's road weary 'Snowing On Raton', given a typically graceful, stately Harris vocal, is just about worth the price of admission by itself."
No Depression (p.83) - "SONGBIRD is too ambitious to take in and appreciate quickly. It flows by beautifully....Harris is as good a judge of her own work as she was of the songs when they were still raw material."