Review by Emmylou Harris – Goodbye Spine-Tingling From a 78-Year-Old Country Legend | nation

FOr Emmylou Harris, it’s not a cliche to say that every song is a story. The country music legend has spent 50 years straddling folk, bluegrass, rock ‘n’ roll and Americana, curating her own songbook of deeply human music. On this first leg of her European farewell tour, she says goodbye to Scottish fans as part of the Celtic Connections Festival, presenting a fitting setlist spanning her career accompanied by throwbacks to Gram Parsons, Nancy Griffiths, Bill Monroe, Townes Van Zandt and Willie Nelson, to name a few.

But the show hardly feels like an end. “I’ll be 79 in April, so there!” she exclaims, after the blaring “Two More Bottles of Wine” song makes the East End Sports Hall look like a dive bar. Her voice is still spine-tingling, now with a lived-in dust that only serves to enrich her storytelling: Red Dirt Girl, her great blues tragedy, is more devastating now than ever. It’s solemn to watch her perform three-part harmony of earthy, soulful a cappella music from Bright Morning Stars, and her joy for her band is infectious: “It’s okay to cheer for the boys!” urges, after a mandolin solo from Eamonn McLoughlin. She even delivered a brand new cover of Johnny Cash’s “Jesus Help Him” ​​(“I’ve always been dying to do this”), drilling into her bottom end with genuine swagger.

She plays for nearly two hours, pausing only to take a sip of tea, and ends a raucous rendition of Parsons’s Luxury Liner with her fists in the air: “What fun!” After passionate applause, she can barely tear herself away, and instead presents Boulder to Birmingham, her remarkable account of Parsons’ death. And since there’s rarely a dry eye in the house, she haunts it with Chuck Berry’s “You Can Never Tell” — “just for fun,” she winks. One couple in the crowd jumped from their seats to twist and roll in the aisles, and dozens followed, twirling their arms around. If this is Emmylou’s legacy — a night chronicling life’s lowest lows and spirited highs — then it makes it a little easier to say goodbye.