PERFORMER: EMMYLOU HARRIS
ALBUM: COWGIRL'S PRAYER
LABEL: ASYLUM
THE BOTTOM LINE: In songs sacred and secular, the conscience of country folk finds God in the strangest places.
Country music is usually city: Nashville, that is. For all its studied plaintiveness, its "real feel," commercial country carries the undertones of car-horn aggressiveness and jackhammer ambition. The Nashville road is paved with compromise, as songwriters search for a marketable hook and singers for the perfect perm.
Emmylou Harris' music is something else: defiantly rural, timeless -- true country. It has the sound of mountain streams, a ride out from the ranch, a chapel...
