With her voluminous output, any Emmylou Harris compilation must of necessity be incomplete. There is rarely a dud on any of her many albums so the selection process can never be an easy one.
This album opens with her famous duet with the legendary Gram Parsons and is followed by her own composition and tribute to him, Boulder To Birmingham, a song with beautiful imagery. Then comes the lovely ballad Making Believe which was only of her early great hits.

Hits or not, every track is a gem, like Pancho And Lefty, Beneath Still Waters and the uptempo If I Could Only Win Your Love. Another great duet is the one with Roy Orbison, while To Know Him Is To Love Him is drawn from one of her collaborations with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt.

Her lovely gospel style is represented here by Green Pastures, Orphan Girl and the achingly beautiful Calling My Children Home. The change of direction away from country into atmospheric rock took place in the 1990s with the album Wrecking Ball whence Orphan Girl and subsequently the breathtaking Michelangelo from Red Dirt Girl and Here I Am from Stumble Into Grace.

My personal favourites on an album of masterpieces include Beneath Still Waters, Together Again, Boulder To Birmingham and the aforementioned three songs from her post country period.
Emmylou Harris breathed new life into country from the mid 1970s and has since gone from strength to strength artistically. Hers is the most authentic, heartfelt female voice of the last three decades.

Heartaches and Highways is a superb introduction to this consummate artist that has contributed so much and I highly recommend it to the novice. Her devoted fans will have most of the original albums anyway.

No matter who you are or what your musical inclination may be, you simply have to respect Emmylou Harris. She has been a fixture of American music for more than three decades, and her body of work has become a virtual cornerstone of everything that is "American". More than a dozen solo albums, plus numerous side projects and collaborations leave a body of work that is just too huge to compile on one CD. A true overview would require much more than one disk, but if you are looking for a concise collection that captures the spirit and essence of her life's work, then this is it. "Heartaches and Highways" stretches the full length of Harris' career, from her days of singing harmony with Gram Parsons ("Love Hurts") to a new recording featured exclusively on this disk ("The Connection").
As it should be, the emphasis here is on Emmylou Harris' singing, but the caliber of her backing musicians over the years is second to none. Her choice of material has been equally outstanding, featuring legendary writers such as Townes Van Zandt ("Pancho and Lefty"), Delbert McClinton ("Two More Bottles of Wine"), and Gillian Welch ("Orphan Girl"), not to mention a few classics from her own pen ("Boulder to Birmingham", "Michelangelo"). A few more uptempo songs would have been a welcome addition, but I can understand their absence, since virtually everything included here is indispensable. Spanning over thirty years, it is interesting to hear as she progresses from the crystalline tone and perfect sense of harmony of her early recordings toward the textural and emotive resonance of her latest work. "Heartaches and Highways" might only scratch the surface, but it is enough to prove that Emmylou Harris is a national treasure.
A- Tom Ryan

I have been listening to Emmylou Harris since I first heard her album she seems to forget. That would be 'Gliding Bird", too bad so few have heard it. All the years since have only convinced me that she has become the best there is. She is an important part of American music Not to offend anyone, but she is way beyond Gram Parsons now. I have seen her many times over the past 20 years. She continues to reach for new things and performs with artists that can only be in awe of her voice. For proof of this check her musical history. It will blow you away,