Quote of the Day (Emmylou Harris, on Her Debt to Gram Parsons)

“I started out being a fanatical lover of folk music. Country music, even though I was exposed to it, I just thought that I couldn’t be bothered with it. I could not hear the subtlety in it, I couldn’t hear the poetry in it. I was a Joan Baez wannabe. But Gram, he heard something in my voice. He thought I could sing country music. I started as a harmony singer, that was his way to kind of sneakily turn me onto this extraordinary body of music, and in singing country music I really found the place that my voice was supposed to be. It also made me appreciate the joys of working with a band, which meant a drummer, which was anathema to folk singers. I can’t imagine that I would have gotten to the place I am artistically or even vocally, if it hadn’t been for Gram.”— Emmylou Harris quoted in Joan Anderman, “Emmylou Harris: Music, the Road and Her Hair,” The New York Times, March 28, 2013

(The photograph shows Emmylou Harris—who, incidentally, turned 66 yesterday--performing in Ahoy, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, in 2006. Her latest CD, Old Country Moon, a collaboration with Rodney Crowell, came out late in February.)