If legendary singer/songwriter Gram Parson was Emmylou Harris’s first mentor, then Rodney Crowell is her newest purveyor. Harris and Crowell have been friends and collaborators since they first met in 1974. While they always wanted to make an album together, they never got around to it until now.

This 2013 collaboration between two of country music’s most respected artists is a celebration of much-loved songs.  Harris’ first solo album, Pieces of the Sky, was released in 1975 after the death of her singing partner, Gram Parsons. The opening track on the album is a song called Bluebird Wine, by a then-unknown songwriter named Rodney Crowell. She recorded two more of his songs on her next album, got him to join her band in the mid-’70s and now, after an almost 40-year friendship, the two musicians have recorded an album together called Old Yellow Moon.

12-time Grammy Award–winner, Emmylou Harris is admired as much for her eloquently straightforward songwriting as for her exceptionally expressive singing. Few in pop or country music have achieved such honesty or revealed such maturity in their writing. Forty years into her career, Harris shares the hard-earned wisdom that comes with getting older, though she never stops looking ahead.

Crowell is also a Grammy Award-winning musician, known primarily for both the alternative country and the mainstream country music camps. He was married to Rosanne Cash (daughter of Johnny Cash), from 1979 to 1992 and they had an influence on each other’s careers, with Rodney producing most of her albums during that period and her success influencing his songwriting.

Old Yellow Moon features four songs written by Crowell as well as interpretations of songs such as Hank DeVito’s Hanging Up My Heart, Roger Miller’s Invitation to the Blues and Allen Reynolds’ Dreaming My Dreams, among others.
Produced by Brian Ahern (Johnny Cash, George Jones, Roy Orbison), Old Yellow Moon is the first official collaboration from the duo since Crowell joined Harris’ Hot Band as guitarist and harmony singer in 1975. In addition to Harris and Crowell, the album features world-renowned musicians including Stuart Duncan, Vince Gill and Bill Payne, as well as members of the original Hot Band.

by Pamela Hulse Andrews

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