Emmylou Harris: All I Intended To Be

By Steve Morley

Not too many country-based performers could get away with the kind of stylistic experimentation that has characterized the career of Emmylou Harris. Since her major label debut in 1975, she’s been fusing timeless country fare with eclectic pop and rock drawn from both established and cutting-edge artists, winning respect for her chosen genre outside its typical fan base. In 1995, Harris amazed listeners with the decidedly left-field Wrecking Ball, an album of otherworldly textures that was as far removed from Nashville as she’d ever veered. But for Harris, one of country’s most progressive artists, it ultimately proved a diversion, however significant, that would bring the singer back to her home base with renewed creative vigor. Her latest release, All I Intended To Be, retains her unique and forward-looking vision but once again embraces straightforward country sensibilities and instrumentation.

All I Intended is one of Harris’ most mournful and monochromatic efforts, with nary an uptempo tune in the batch. Singing in an affecting tremor pulsing with pathos, Harris explores loss, regret and resignation with exquisite depth and subtlety, occasionally offering encouragement in tracks like “Hold On,” an affirmation of the blood ties binding even a broken family. The collection deals heavily with romantic issues, but from a variety of intriguing perspectives that sidestep maudlin country clichés. The Harris-penned “Gold” evokes vintage Dolly Parton, whose fluttering harmony on this track brings Harris’s scarred-sounding delivery into sharp relief as she laments the inability to meet a lover’s high expectations. (“You looked so high and long for heaven/ I tried so hard to show the way/ But though I flew on wings of angels/ My feet were always made of clay/ I could come trailing clouds of glory/ But you saw nothing to behold/ No matter how bright I glittered, baby/ I could never be gold.”) Just as “Gold” acknowledges that even the best intentions cannot redeem another’s life, “All That You Have Is Your Soul” warns against seeking completion through the attempt to possess another.

Her cover of Merle Haggard’s “Kern River” numbly relates a death by drowning, while the deeply aching “Not Enough” finds as much reason to grieve a companion’s passing as the loneliness it leaves behind. (“Oh my friend, what could I do/ I just came home to bury you/ The road is long, the road is rough/ You’re in my heart/ That’s not close enough.”) “Take That Ride” inverts the story, sung from the view of a dying person ready to be released from a loved one’s unrelenting hold.

“Beyond the Great Divide” provides a welcome balm at the album’s close. The song presents a pastoral, almost childlike picture of the afterlife with its warm cowboy harmonies, loping Texas border rhythm and simple, wishful lyric. (“Pools of clear blue water/ Starlight in the sky/ You’ll be mine forever, my darlin’/ Far beyond the great divide.”) The song’s focus on a glorified restoration of earthly love after death bridges the album’s parallel themes of relational and mortal separation as deftly as Harris herself links country music’s past and future. The culmination of her rule-breaking career’s various phases on All I Intended To Be is proof, if anyone doubted it, that Harris’s vision remains every bit as sharp as her roots are deep.

Audio Clips

"Shores of White Sand"

"Hold On"

"Moon Song"

"Broken Man's Lament"