Pieces of the Sky [Bonus Tracks]

1	Bluebird Wine 3:18
2	Too Far Gone 4:04
3	If I Could Only Win Your Love / Herb Pedersen 2:38
4	Boulder to Birmingham 3:34
5	Before Believing 4:43
6	Bottle Let Me Down 3:18
7	Sleepless Nights 3:27
8	Coat of Many Colors 3:42
9	For No One 3:42
10	Queen of the Silver Dollar 4:59
11	Hank And Lefty previously unreleased / Bonus Track 3:00
12	California Cottonfields previously unreleased / Bonus Track 2:46

Barnes & Noble

Pieces of the Sky is where Emmylou Harris's solo story begins, and as auspicious a debut as it was when it appeared in 1975, it sounds equally remarkable today in its new incarnation, sweetened by two bonus tracks. These dozen songs here map out the path that has led to one of country music's most important recorded legacies. It also forecasts Harris as a keen listener as much as a singer, as she breathes extraordinary life into songs by such formidable writers as Billy Sherrill ("Too Far Gone," a beautiful country heartbreaker with pop overtones), the Louvin Brothers (the sweet, lilting "If I Could Only Win Your Love," featuring harmonies by Herb Pederson), Merle Haggard (the honky-tonk melodrama of "Bottle Let Me Down"), and Dolly Parton (the autobiographical gem "Coat of Many Colors," rendered with quiet, keening sincerity). Harris gives a stark, ominous reading of "Sleepless Nights," the gut-wrenching tear-jerker from Felice and Boudleaux Bryant that became an Everly Brothers classic, and reimagines Lennon & McCartney's devastating portrait of fading love, "For No One," as a waltz, with a wash of strings rising up in an intimate arrangement suited for a cabaret. Not least of all, however, is the Harris original "Boulder to Birmingham," replete with mystical and spiritual overtones and expressions of unquenchable love. The two bonus tracks were both co-written by Dallas Frazier: "Hank and Lefty," a jaunty two-step reminiscence of days gone by, and "California Cottonfields," another trip down memory lane focused on Dust Bowlers looking westward for a better life. Harris has also always had an ear for instrumental talent, and her band here includes the likes of James Burton on guitar and dobro, Byron Berline on fiddle, Glen D. Hardin on piano, Ronnie Tutt on drums, and young Ricky Skaggs on fiddle. Emmylou has cut better albums than this -- and that's remarkable, considering how closely Pieces of the Sky approaches perfection. David McGee

All Music Guide

Emmylou Harris' Pieces of the Sky is one of the more welcome entries in her catalog. Before the auspicious and provocative Elite Hotel, issued later in 1975, Pieces of the Sky was the kind of record that became Harris' signature style for most of her time at Warner Brothers, and is one of the most auspicious debut recordings in the history of country music. Accompanied by the Hot Band featuring James Burton, Rodney Crowell, Brian Ahern, Rick Cunha, Glen D. Hardin, Linda Ronstadt, Amos Garrett, Mike Auldridge, and a slew of others, Harris offers a palette of songs that range from traditional country music, including her understated yet deeply moving read of Billy Sherrill's "Too Far Gone," Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors," Merle Haggard's "(Tonight) The Bottle Let Me Down," the Louvin Brothers' "If I Could Only Win Your Love," and the Bryants' "Sleepless Nights" (a staple of Harris when she played with the late Gram Parsons). From the then-current crop of country songwriters, she opened the album with Crowell's "Bluebird Wine" and Shel Silverstein's "Queen of the Silver Dollar." There's also another Lennon-McCartney selection included, with "For No One." But the most moving track on the set is "Boulder to Birmingham," a Harris original and her tribute to the memory of Parsons. In her voice one can hear the human heart break, shatter, and then gather itself in order to move on, forever looking back. When she sings, "Well you really got me this time/And the hardest part is knowing I'll survive/I've come to listen for the sound of the trucks as they move down out on 95/And pretending it's the ocean, comin' down to wash me clean/Baby, do you know what I mean?," the entire world opens in the grain of her voice and bathes the listener in grief, longing, and resolve. [On the 2004 remastered and expanded version of the album Rhino added a pair of Dallas Frazier tracks from the same sessions: there's the hard-singing honky tonk of "Hank and Lefty" and the standard "California Cottonfields." While nothing needed be added to this masterpiece, these cuts following Silverstein's (original) closer do not at all detract from it.] Thom Jurek