Masterful at rock, country, folk, bluegrass, and more, Emmylou Harris is one of the most distinctive and visionary voices in contemporary music. The artist's lucid, achingly gorgeous vocals and a string of celebrated albums-many featuring her acclaimed "Hot Band"-have earned Harris eleven Grammys and made this alt-country/roots-rock innovator a legend in her own time.
Less than two years after the death of her mentor, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris recorded her first album for Reprise. Pieces of the Sky inaugurated a suite of four mid-'70s albums and a surprising number of hits: her sound was clearly traditional, but also tastefully up-to-date with folk-rock and singer/songwriter styles, and her crystalline, febrile vocals took standards such as "Love Hurts" and "If I Could Only Win Your Love" back up the charts. This compilation brings together her biggest hits, and shows why Harris is important and why she continues to make adventurous country music. Through unfailingly tasteful song selection, brilliant occasional songwriting, and her cool, velvety soprano, Harris extended Gram Parsons's vision of "cosmic American music" and made it her own. --Roy Kasten

Customer Rating:
Summary: ipod Music
Comment: I you have an ipod or any MP3 player, you should have The Very Best of Emmylou Harris!

If you haven't heard Emmylou's music, this is a great introduction!

If you listened to the samples on your computer and weren't impressed, put on your headphones and listen again!!!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Music CD review
Comment: This is a great CD for fans of Emmylou Harris. It has many favorite songs that I remember from previous CDs and also some tracks I hadn't heard before. As always, her voice delivers a true clear quality and her cover of "Love Hurts" was a genuine (and great) surprise! I would highly recommend this CD for fans of bluegrass and country rock as there are tracks that will please both audiences.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: country music
Comment: One of my all time favorites. Many great songs - and what a voice ! Not twangy at all. Everyone who hears it loves it. Some great duets, too. Calling My Children Home is a favorite.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: I love Emmylou!
Comment: I love this CD, too! The variety is great, and the songs are all wonderful!

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Emmylou reunited with producer Brian Ahern on new cut
Comment: I am a ravenous music collector and I try to keep complete the discographies of the all the artists I love. Retreading Emmylou's history here would be superflous. We all know how golden her entire discography is. We could all argue which songs should be here and which shouldn't (although personally I'm suprised nothing from the sterling BLUEBIRD made the cut...)

What i noticed missing from all the prior reviews was a little more detail about the real reason all us Emmylou collectors would buy this disc...for the new song.

I purchased this collection soley for "The Connection" -- expecting another cut in the vein of post-Wrecking Ball Emmylou.

I was shocked reading the liner notes and finding out this cut was produced by Emmylou's former producer/husband Brian Ahern. I was further excited to see Fayssoux Starling was credited as the backing vocalist! Ahern was the producer of all the albums from the first phase of her solo career---Pieces of the Sky (1975) through White Shoes (1983). Fayssoux sang harmony on a lot of those early classics!

It was thrilling and interesting to hear Emmylou's older and wiser voice behind a music backdrop recalling the earliest stages of her solo career. Haunting. It was like being back in time but firmly planted in the right now.

Serious Emmylou collectors, "The Connection" is a pivitol moment. Buy this Cd if only for the legendary reunion of Harris/Ahern/Starling. And then once you wade through the beauty of this new cut, rediscover the glofy of the old ones too...

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