Track Listing

1. Pearl - Malcolm Burn, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Johns, Darryl Johnson, Buddy Miller
2. Michelangelo - Malcolm Burn, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Johns
3. I Don't Wanna Talk About It Now - Malcolm Burn, Jill Cunniff, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Johns, Darryl Johnson, Julie Miller
4. Tragedy - Emmylou Harris
5. Red Dirt Girl - Malcolm Burn, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Johns, Darryl Johnson, Buddy Miller
6. My Baby Needs a Shepherd - Malcolm Burn, Rene Coman, Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Johns, Darryl Johnson
7. Bang the Drum Slowly - Malcolm Burn, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Johns, Darryl Johnson
8. J'Ai Fait Tout - Malcolm Burn, Jill Cunniff, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Johns, Darryl Johnson, Kate McGarrigle, Jim Watts
9. One Big Love - Malcolm Burn, , John Deaderick, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Johns, Buddy Miller, Julie Miller,
10. Hour of Gold - Malcolm Burn, Patty Griffin, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Johns, Darryl Johnson
11. My Antonia - Malcolm Burn, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Johns, Darryl Johnson, Dave Matthews, Buddy Miller
12. Boy From Tupelo - Malcolm Burn, Emmylou Harris, Ethan Johns, Kate McGarrigle, Julie Miller

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #51674 in Music
• Released on: 2003-01-13
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Dimensions: .25 pounds

Amazon.co.uk Review
Consider this, Emmylou Harris's emancipation proclamation--an album that confirms that 1995's adventurously atmospheric Wrecking Ball wasn't an aberration, but a preview of more radical changes to come. Long the godmother of alternative-country's traditionalist wing, Harris here writes songs with Luscious Jackson's Jill Cunniff, sings a duet with Dave Matthews ("My Antonia") and recruits Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa to provide harmonies on the album's most compelling ballad ("Tragedy"). The production by Malcolm Burn applies sonic treatments of drum machines, shimmering guitars and echoed vocals to a song cycle by Harris that is largely original and deeply personal, filled with dream imagery and evocations of a spiritual quest. While material such as "Michaelangelo" and "Bang the Drum Slowly" suffers from an arty ponderousness, it's doubtful that Harris has ever recorded an album that means more to her than Red Dirt Girl. --Don McLeese

Customer Reviews

Harris as she's meant to be
Harris has always had a brilliant voice and surrounded herself with the songs and instrumentalists to make it sound even better. Her choice of songs is very canny and displays impeccable taste - never falling into the trap of cliche and sentimentality. Her previous albums - with the exception of 'The Ballad of Sally Rose' 'Wrecking Ball' is really the cut off point here - have tended to sound clinical however. The listener feels that she's holding back somehow, refusing to get emotionally involved with the music. 'Red Dirt Girl,' a self-penned album that seems to be the destination of where she was starting to go on 'Wrecking Ball,' finally acomplishes that.

It's interesting that both 'Wrecking Ball,' and 'Red Dirt Girl' won Grammys but for best contemporary folk album rather than best country. There's certainly a country edge visible in 'Red Dirt Girl,' mostly in the lyrical, ballad-like quality of some of the songs and the cultural references used, for example in 'The Boy From Tupelo' and 'Red Dirt Girl.' I wouldn't call this a country or a folk album however. It transcends boundaries. The production (although I don't know much about such matters) is a warm cocophony of instrumentation and vocal backing which, in combination with Harris' voice, seems to wrap the listener in an embryonic cloud of warmth, nostalgia and sorrow.

The noicable change in Harris' voice in 'Wrecking Ball,' and 'Spyboy' is that it had lost it's clear cut perfection and become raw with emotion. The voice sounds as if it's loved, lost and keeps going and the songs say the same. Personal thoughts such as the deep spiritual yearning of 'The Pearl,' the sorrow and guilt at the death of her father in 'Band the Drum Slowly,' and the regret at her actions in a mother in 'My Baby Needs a Shepherd,' are offset by more general considerations such as the end of an era in 'The Boy from Tupelo,' and the experimental greatness of 'Michaelangelo.' Ironically enough the most cheerful note comes from the only cover on the album - 'One Big Love,' by Patty Griffin. I have to admit I found myself preferring the reserved wistfulness and joy of Harris to Griffin's original!

Without a doubt this is the best album I own. I listened to it solidly for about three months after I bought it - I just couldn't get it out of my head! It's wistful, it's sorrowful, it's lyrical, it's beautiful and it's real. The songs seem like something that you've always heard, they become part of your world. If you've ever listened to Harris and wondered what would happen if she just let rip this is the album for you.

Atmospheric masterpiece
I consider Red Dirt Girl a touch above her masterpiece Wrecking Ball. I always skip some tracks on that one, but this immaculate album is so consistently beautiful that one can safely ignore the one less than classic song (J'ai fait tout). Her music is infused with a deep spirituality finding expression in trenchant poetic lyrics, inspiring melodies and expert instrumentation.

The combination of vivid imagery and sweeping melody on Michelangelo is absolutely breathtaking, and is followed by the powerful moody rock of I Don't Wanna Talk About It Now. The next one, Tragedy, is a traditional country weepie but of course of the highest quality in both lyrics and execution, while the title track is country storytelling at its best.

The mournful My Baby Needs A Shepherd is followed by the equally sorrowful elegy to her father, Bang The Drum Slowly. The mood lifts with One Big Love that echoes the sensual ballads like Blackhawk and Waltz Across Texas on her Wrecking Ball album. Hour of Gold contains some of her most moving romantic lyrics.

My Antonia, the beautiful duet with Dave Matthews, reminds me a bit of another song that Emmylou covered long ago, Spanish Is The Loving Tongue (Mi Amor, Mi Corazon), whilst the sad but transcendent The Pearl reminds me of The Garden Hides The Jewel by Angels Of Light.

Red Dirt Girl is an absolutely outstanding achievement and, together with Nick Lowe's The Impossible Bird and her own Wrecking Ball, make up my three best-loved albums of the last ten years in the country tradition.

Not enough stars
....to praise this album.

Read this in a kind of Bruce Springsteen intro type voice...

We were on the way to a pantomime, I was the driver, so had access to the stereo controls on the steering column. Made my selection somewhat deftly, and Emmylou sang in the background. Michael Angelo and the volume went up a little.

My Father in Law asked who the artist was - I replied and added a little more volume. He asked "how would you classify this album" y'know, like rock, pop, etc.. I said I wouldn't classify it - it's too good to put in a box.

If you like singer songwriters, songs where you can not only hear the words but they mean something - this album is for you. We saw Emmylou recently, and she explained what the songs meant to her - and that's added another dimension. But don't be put off by Emmylou tags like "queen of alternative country". A truly great album.