Emmylou Harris

Spyboy – Reissue

 New West

It’s hard to believe that Emmylou Harris’s landmark Wrecking Ball is now 30 years old. The live Spyboy, with accompanying video, performed with a slimmed-down band, followed three years later. Yours truly was fortunate to see a couple of those performances, Emmylou backed by the trio of guitarist Buddy Miller, bassist Daryl Johnson, and drummer Brady Blade.  While Wrecking Ball’s sound is largely spacey and ethereal, filled with tons of reverb and effects, Spyboy has a harder edge. Harris had to push her voice to match the rhythmic power of Johnson and Blade. The set list was relatively the same, but the band played the songs differently each time, akin to a jazz trio,free to improvise in the moment. Miller captured about 25 shows on tape. Thus, in this expanded version, we have five previously unreleased tracks. Two of those, Dylan’s “Every Grain of Sand” and Lucinda Williams’s “Sweet Old World,” did appear on Wrecking Ball.  Keep in mind also that Wrecking Ball was reissued in 2014.

Beyond those two, we have the searing rocker,  Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers’ “Thing About You,” a duet between Miller and Harris, featuring Miller’s tremolo-soaked guitar and the thunder of Johnson and Blade. It’s doubtful that Emmylou has ever rocked harder. By contrast, Kate and Anna McGarrigle’s “All I Left Behind” reveals Harris’s folk side.  It first appeared on Harris’s duo album with Linda Ronstadt, 1997’s Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions. Similarly, Dylan’s “Every Grain of Sand” just floats gently, imbued by Miller’s astute chord choices and Blade’s cymbal flourishes. Miller is a much different guitarist than Daniel Lanois, whose guitar graced Wrecking Ball.  Miller is both twangy and soulful, and less spacey, arguably a better fit for Emmylou’s sensibilities. The band revs up for Bill Monroe’s “Get Up John,” ironically issued the same year as Wrecking Ball, and performed by her bluegrass band, The Nash Ramblers. Miller’s solo is stunning, as if he combines the original guitar, mandolin, and fiddle parts into one monstrous take. “Sweet Old World” closes, a faithful rendering of the Wrecking Ball version.

If you’ve never heard the original Spyboy, you are in for a treat. It has held up well. Highlights are “Love Hurts,” a duet between Harris and Miller, “David Olney’s ‘Deeper Well,” the chestnut “Boulder to Birmingham,” Julie Miller’s “All My Tears,” and Harris’s “Where Will I Be” and “The Maker.”

The liner notes contain remembrances from Harris and Miller. Miller knew about 90% of Harris’s music but didn’t think he had much of a chance of replacing Lanois on the tour. Obviously, he won the audition. This quote is a great summation of the vibe.  “There are all kinds of bandleaders. Emmylou steers the ship with a gentle hand and follows the music, enabling a freedom–and there was so much freedom. We didn’t focus on arrangements, parts, and solos from her previous records, as is typical of Nashville gigs. It was about grabbing a feeling. I had not played with anyone like Brady Blade or Daryl Johnson. (Blade’s brother, Brian, played on one track of Wrecking Ball while Johnson played on most of it). Daryl was a monster musician who could play anything. He’d simultaneously play djembe with his hands and Taurs bass pedals with his feet while singing the high harmony above Emmy. Brady added an otherworldly energy to the music, but played with beautiful, dynamic sophistication, creating unbelievable grooves my guitar could dance around–all supporting the most beautiful voice in the world. Nice gig!

 If those words do not encourage the uninitiated to listen to the original or this remastered reissue, then nothing will.

• Jim Hynes

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