Luxury Liner [Bonus Tracks]

1	Luxury Liner 3:40
2	Pancho & Lefty 4:50
3	Making Believe 3:35
4	You're Supposed to Be Feeling Good 4:02
5	I'll Be Your San Antone Rose 3:44
6	(You Can Never Tell) C'Est la Vie 3:26
7	When I Stop Dreaming 3:16
8	Hello Stranger / Nicolette Larson 3:59
9	She 3:15
10	Tulsa Queen 4:47
11	Me and Willie previously unreleased / Bonus Track 5:17
12	Night Flyer / Delia Bell previously unreleased / Bonus Track 3:34

Barnes & Noble

Arriving in the wake of her first gold album and Grammy Award (for her second solo release, Elite Hotel), Luxury Liner caught Emmylou Harris, the Hot Band, and producer Brian Ahern at a peak creative moment. Meshing a respect for traditional country music with a contemporary mind-set expressed in high-octane instrumental support, the assembled cast delivered a landmark that at once prefigured and set a template for the next decade's New Traditionalist movement. A starkly rendered version of Kitty Wells's beautiful, haunting ballad "Making Believe" lingers in memory long after the album is over, while Harris's deliberate reading of Townes Van Zandt's enigmatic "Pancho and Lefty," set against a lilting, ominous instrumental backdrop, deepens the narrative's mystery. A soft and tender exploration of the Louvin Brothers' classic heartbreaker "When I Stop Dreaming" gets an added layer of undiluted ache when Harris, Dolly Parton, and Fayssoux Starling harmonize on the choruses and Mickey Raphael interjects eerie, wailing harmonica retorts. The steady-rolling title song is a delightfully retooled obscurity from the Gram Parsons catalogue, and another Parsons song, "She" (co-written with his fellow Flying Burrito Chris Ethridge), is a most memorable moment in Harris's studio work, as it finds her rising to a searing howl in the choruses after rendering the verses in her most reportorial tone. A spunky take on Chuck Berry's "(You Never Can Tell) C'est la Vie," a pair of early Rodney Crowell gems ("You're Supposed to Be Feeling Good" and the moody "Tulsa Queen," a co-write with Harris), and two previously unreleased bonus tracks (most notably the rustic, gospel-inflected ballad "Night Flyer," featuring harmony vocals by Delia Bell) elevate this reissue into the upper echelon of Harris's daunting recorded legacy. David McGee

All Music Guide

Luxury Liner, the third album from Emmylou Harris, is another watermark. Taking the country-rock paradigm created by her former singing partner Gram Parsons with the Flying Burrito Brothers, Harris and her Hot Band made good on the promise that traditional country music could sidle alongside modern rock in the 1970s and make something timeless and true. This is also the place where Harris began recording the works of contemporary outsider songwriters in earnest. While the title track and "She" were written by Parsons, another pair of the album's highlights were the first recorded cover of Townes Van Zandt's "Pancho & Lefty" (which remains a stellar version of the song) and Susanna Clark's stunningly beautiful "I'll Be Your San Antone Rose," as well as Hot Band member Rodney Crowell's "You're Supposed to Be Feeling Good." Harris juxtaposed these new works against country music hallmarks such as A.P. Carter's "Hello Stranger" and the Louvin Brothers' "When I Stop Dreaming," as well as Jimmy Work's classic "Making Believe." Harris also recorded Chuck Berry's "You Can Never Tell," which comes down on the stomping honky tonk side of rock. Berry was blown away by her version. [The 2004 remastered and expanded edition of the album includes a pair of session tracks that didn't make the final cut: Laurie Hyde Smith's "Me and Willie" and a duet version of Johnny Mullins' "Night Flyer." In addition, there is a well-considered liner essay by Rolling Stone contributor Parke Puterbaugh.] Thom Jurek