All I Intended to Be

I absolutely love this cd... it was worth the wait. Personally think it's her best since Wrecking Ball, but then again I love everything she does. If you love Emmylou you must add this to your collection.

Emmylou Harris may be so good, she is at her penultimate for most of her career. I admit, I enjoy her soulful voice and spare orchestrations so much that I really cannot claim to have a favorite CD from her releases.

This 2008 release was produced by her former husband, Bruce Ahern. You'll hear old friends on this CD, including Dolly Parton (backup on "Gold") and Buddy Miller. The 'songfinder' has snagged some great music, too, from the likes of Tracy Chapman and Kate McGarrigle.

"Broken Man's Lament" talks about not messing with someone else's dreams. When the subject married a bar singer, he asked her not to sing.

"Gold" talks about the human failings in all of us:

"no matter how bright I glitter, baby, I can never be gold"

Probably my favorite song of this collection is "All that you have is your soul" by Tracy Chapman. This song contains some of the best life advice you can get.

In this case, I think a lot of this CD was gold as soon as it was released.

Rebecca Kyle, August 2008

It sure is good to have another album by Emmylou Harris, and this one shows the depth of experience. We're enjoying it!

This album is gorgeous. Emmylou's voice is one-of-a-kind and gives me chills. Her cover of "All That You Have is Your Soul" is my favorite song of the year so far. "Broken Man' Lament" is similarly wonderful. Give this CD a chance and let Emmylou take you away!

When I first heard this CD, I wasn't ready for it. I put it away. But as a 20 year fan of Emmylou Harris -- knowing what she is capable of -- I couldn't just ignore it, and eventually I started playing it again. Now, I CAN'T STOP LISTENING TO THIS ALBUM. On this CD she has returned to her musical roots and the tradition that has founted her songwriting, but in her own unique way. This isn't some backward-looking album; there is a subtle nuancing of the traditional country sound, here. I can hear echoes of "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" but also "Red Dirt Girl." _A beautiful sadness pervades the music; a connecting of themes--esp. loss of love and an awareness of mortality looming. This CD is truly an "album," too, as it's not just an amorphous grouping of random songs. Finally, I would say, her songwriting continues to evolve, as on "How she could sing the wildwood flower." If you know the original song ("Wildwood Flower"), you will hear how she is playing with the melancholy of that song in her own lyric's story. An EXCELLENT album! All I can say is, "Immerse yourself in it!"