Emmylou Harris: Spyboy

Unlike his buddy Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson has had a hard time demonstrating his contemporary relevance, IRS troubles aside. Granted, the man was vital to country's crossover success. His album Red Headed Stranger in particular made Nelson a household name and initiated country's pop-chart presence. But Nelson's distinctive singing voice has yet to find a musical voice that matters. Following in the recent footsteps of such luminaries as Bob Dylan and Emmylou Harris, Nelson enlisted Daniel Lanois to produce his new album, Teatro. As on Time Out Of Mind and Wrecking Ball, Lanois' input is palpable, but Nelson is a bit too passive to carry it off as well as his peers have. With hushed backup vocals by Harris and atmospheric playing by Lanois, Nelson seems to be trying to replicate the artistic success of Harris' Wrecking Ball. Unfortunately, Nelson has plenty of personality but little spirit, and Lanois' dark New Orleans rhythms frequently threaten to cancel out his presence entirely. Case in point: The inferior rendition of Lanois' beautiful song "The Maker" is nearly indistinguishable from the one found on Lanois' debut album Acadie. While "These Lonely Nights," "I've Just Destroyed The World," and "My Own Peculiar Way" are pretty, you can still get the impression that Nelson may have been better off on his own. Though Emmylou Harris carries slightly less cultural weight than Nelson, she's no less a legend. In fact, she closes her new live album Spyboy (named after the talented touring band with which she's played for the past two years) with her own slower, sadder, and superior rendition of "The Maker." But whereas Nelson sticks closely to Lanois' template, Harris reinvents the song entirely. Harris has long been respected for her skills as an interpreter, but Spyboy also reveals her skills as a bandleader. Midway through "The Maker," drummer Brady Blade breaks the beat up as bassist Daryl Johnson joins in on percussion until phenomenal guitarist Buddy Miller gradually fades into the song's coda. Similarly, another Lanois original, "Where Will I Be," is given a tougher arrangement than the haunting version found on Wrecking Ball, and elsewhere, Harris revisits familiar songs like "Love Hurts" and "Boulder To Birmingham" with her artfully weary vocals, so different now from in her days singing behind the late, great Gram Parsons. Whereas Nelson continues to struggle with a modern identity, Harris just keeps getting better.