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- VIEW POINTS, Page 56MUSICSounds of Surprise
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- True confessions from the artist on this ravishing live
- recording: she was once bothered by an overly enthusiastic fan
- named Dick, to whom she dedicates her lake-clear version of John
- Fogerty's lovely, lonesome Lodi, and she is a major admirer of
- Minnie Pearl. Well, land's sake, this album is full of
- surprises. Fans might not expect this strong and graceful singer
- to fall about over the comic antics of the dingbat with the
- price tag dangling off her hat, but if there's one thing EMMYLOU
- HARRIS excels at, it's surprise. And, at the same time,
- consistency. And a restlessness under the conventional
- constraints of country music. On Emmylou Harris and the Nash
- Ramblers at the Ryman (Reprise), her considerable gifts are in
- full flourish. She can sing a Bill Monroe classic with reverence
- and put over Steve Earle's nail-spitting Guitar Town with
- untroubled conviction. She is astute and audacious enough to
- follow up Stephen Foster's Hard Times with Bruce Springsteen's
- spooky and mournful Mansion on the Hill. Just goes to show. When
- Emmylou Harris gets to work on a tune, country music knows no
- bounds.
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- By Jay Cocks.
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