EMMYLOU HARRIS
    & RODNEY CROWELL
Old Yellow Moon
Nonesuch 534285

www.nonesuch.com
 

Wonderfully produced by Nashville veteran Brian Ahern (George Jones, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison), who also adds guitar throughout, Old Yellow Moon is the first official collaboration by the pair since Crowell originally joined Harris’ Hot Band as guitarist and harmony singer in 1975. The 12-track project includes four songs written by Crowell (the nostalgic, Leonard Cohen-like “Open Season On My Heart” and the high-flying “Bluebird Wine” are highlights on a first listen) as well as consistently stunning covers of material by the likes of Matraca Berg (a bittersweetly reflective “Back When We Were Beautiful”), E-Street Band singer/guitarist Patti Scialfa (her memory-laden, yearning “Spanish Dancer” and Roger “King Of The Road” Miller – with a retro, honky-tonking cover of his “Invitation To The Blues,” a jukebox smash for 1950s country superstar Ray Price. Other head-turning interpretations, often featuring gleaming accompaniment from various Hot Band members along with guests such as guitarist James Burton and singer/guitarist Vince Gill (who both add luster to Hank DeVito’s bunkhouse tale “Hanging Up My Heart”), fiddler Stuart Duncan and pianist Glen D. Hardin (putting the accents in all the right places on Allen Reynolds’ wistful confessional “Dreaming My Dreams” – the title song of a 1975 Waylon Jennings album) and Little Feat keyboardist Billy Payne – who joins in on Hot Band member DeVito’s clever ode to coffee called “Black Caffeine.” Also noted is the quietly philosophical title song (yet another DeVito composition), that quite aptly closes the set, along with Crowell’s own romping saga of a “Bull Rider,” that his former father-in-law Johnny Cash had recorded back in 1979. Emmylou’s singing is as dimensional as ever. Gram Parsons is smiling somewhere.

— Gary von Tersch