Outside the Troubadour Club on Saturday night, Feb. 9, 2013 (Photo: Peter Cooper/The Tennessean)
LOS ANGELES - Emmylou Harris is now a Nashville icon, but 39 years ago she was a Californian making her debut album on Lania Lane in Coldwater Canyon. Released in 1975, that album, "Pieces Of The Sky," featured a then-unknown singer-songwriter named Rodney Crowell, who contributed the kickoff song, "Bluebird Wine."
Saturday night at West Hollywood's storied Troubadour club, three miles from Lania Lane, Harris and Crowell delighted a sold-out crowd with a show that featured myriad guest appearances.
The concert was a pre-release celebration for "Old Yellow Moon," the Harris/Crowell duo album due out Feb. 26, but it was also a celebration of Harris' still-evolving legacy as one of American music's most consequential recording artists.
Accompanied by guitar-slinger Jedd Hughes, Harris and Crowell performed songs from "Old Yellow Moon," including "Hanging Up My Heart," "Invitation To The Blues," "Spanish Dancer," "Dreaming My Dreams," "Chase The Feeling" and a new version of "Bluebird Wine." They also welcomed Bonnie Raitt (who sang a lovely version of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery"), Zac Brown, Joan Osborne, Shannon McNally, Damien Rice, J.D. Souther, Shawn Camp, John Fullbright and Harris' girlhood hero, Joan Baez, to the stage.
"This is my university," said Souther, who cut his performing teeth at The Troubadour in the 1970s. Souther played "Sad Cafe," a song he wrote about the club, and one popularized by Troubadour mainstays the Eagles.
Emmylou Harris (photo: Jack Spencer)
