Review of Emmylou Harris : Roses in the Snow
Harris's 1980 back-to-the-roots album marks a high point in her career. With stellar support form Tony Rice (acoustic guitar), Albert Lee (mandolin), and Ricky Skaggs (fiddle), Harris wanders comfortably and warmly through traditional-country and bluegrass pastures. Skaggs, Dolly Parton, and the Whites add beautiful harmonies as Harris slides effortlessly from the Carter Family to the Stanley Brothers to the Louvin Brothers to Paul Simon. Among the set's peaks are Flatt and Scruggs's "I'll Go Stepping Too," with Rice, Skaggs, Lee (on superb electric guitar), and dobro master Jerry Douglas turning up the instrumental heat, and the spiritual "Jordan," with Harris, Skaggs, Rice, and Johnny Cash engaging in buoyant four-part harmonies. --Marc Greilsamer

Users's Reviews - Emmylou Harris : Will you marry me? (5 stars)
This album was played to me as a kid (born in 74) and I still love it today. My three year old love the duets and fiddle playin. One of the most beautiful and best loved voices ever to hit a stage, Emmylou has always had a ear for great songs. Put that together with Ricky and you got a winning combo. My mother used to sing these songs to me as the record played and they still sound as good and fresh today as they did when she put it out. I also admit I was a little in love with the beutiful Emmylou way back when! Buy it now and songs like the title track and green pastures will make you fall in love to.

Your latest reviews - Emmylou Harris : Traditional country masterpiece
Blue Kentucky Girl is a real roots country album, both in the sound and the nature imagery of the songs, as is obvious from titles like Beneath Still Waters, Hickory Wind, Sorrow In The Wind and Rough & Rocky.

The rhythmic uptempo number Sister's Coming Home with its great fiddle opens the album, and is followed by the stirring slow ballad Beneath Still Waters. Hickory Wind is the Gram Parsons song, and of course Emmylou makes it her own with a soulful, delicate interpretation. The execution is quite different from her duet with Gram Parsons.

This recording of Save The Last Dance For Me is probably the definite version by now, whilst Sorrow In The Wind is a poignant gentle song full of yearning, where the harmony vocals of Cheryl and Sharon White are almost magical.

Other beautiful voices that contribute to this gem of an album are Don Everly on Everytime You Leave, and Ricky Skaggs and Fayssoux Starling on They'll Never Take His Love From Me. The title track and Even Cowgirls Get The Blues are rhythmic mid-tempo ballads with strong melodies.

The two extra tracks include Cheating Is, an atmospheric ballad with Glen Campbell and the sorrowful I Know An Ending When It Comes, where her voice shines in glory. My favorite sequence on the album is the one from Hickory Wind to Sorrow In The Wind, as Harris takes the listener to places one seldom goes.

Blue Kentucky Girl is amongst her very best work and stands proudly next to Roses In The Snow, Cowgirl's Prayer, Pieces Of The Sky and the more recent classics like Red Dirt Girl and Wrecking Ball. As always, a wise selection of great songs, beautifully interpreted.