{"id":6305,"date":"2025-10-29T09:18:42","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T09:18:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/emmylou-harris-interviewed-i-was-faced-with-a-conundrum-151886\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T09:18:42","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T09:18:42","slug":"emmylou-harris-interviewed-i-was-faced-with-a-conundrum-151886","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/musictechohio.online\/site\/emmylou-harris-interviewed-i-was-faced-with-a-conundrum-151886\/","title":{"rendered":"Emmylou Harris interviewed: \u201cI was faced with a conundrum\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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With a new, expanded edition of her Spyboy live album due, Emmylou Harris talks to Uncut about the album, her collaborations with Daniel Lanois and Buddy Miller, covering Tom Petty, co-writing with Kate and Anna McGarrigle and what’s next…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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With a new, expanded edition of her Spyboy live album due, Emmylou Harris talks to Uncut about the album, her collaborations with Daniel Lanois and Buddy Miller, covering Tom Petty, co-writing with Kate and Anna McGarrigle and what\u2019s next\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>It was a powerhouse band\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

UNCUT: Why is Spyboy so important to you?<\/strong>
HARRIS:<\/strong> After I did Wrecking Ball [1995], I was faced with a conundrum. It was very different for me in terms of instrumentation and rhythms. So I thought, \u2018How am I going to tour this record?\u2019 Of course, Dan [Lanois, producer of Wrecking Ball] stepped up. He brought in Daryl Johnson [bass], and Brady Blade [drums], who I think he\u2019d played with five years earlier or something. So we put the band Spyboy together and hit the road. But Dan was a temporary thing, he was really just sort of showing me the way. Even when we were recording Wrecking Ball, I was thinking about Buddy Miller. I\u2019d met him when I had my band, The Nash Ramblers, and Buddy had been playing with Jim Lauderdale, who was opening for us. I knew that Buddy and his wife, Julie, had moved to Nashville. So I sort of thought, in the back of my mind, that perhaps, after Dan left, Buddy might be the guy. Of course, he was. I mean, what can I say about Buddy? He\u2019s astonishing.<\/p>\n

What did he bring to the table?<\/strong>
He loves music, and he\u2019s just got this incredible ability and sensitivity in a song. And he just plays the shit out of the guitar. He could play all the old country stuff and all the Wrecking Ball stuff. And of course he\u2019s a fantastic singer. It was just so inspiring. That whole band was inspiring. It was a powerhouse band, but it was Buddy who, on his own, decided to bring along some recording equipment. I didn\u2019t even know we were recording. He said, in his typically self-deprecating manner, that he just wanted to be able to prove that it was actually quite a good band. Of course, when it came time for me to deliver a new album, there were all these shows that we\u2019d recorded and gleaned. So we made a record out of those.<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/strong>I went back to quieter instruments\u201d<\/strong><\/h2>\n

You\u2019ve credited Spyboy with reinvigorating you as a singer\u2026<\/strong>
Actually, I would also say that Wrecking Ball did that. And even before that, with the Ramblers, going back to bluegrass school, as Chris Hillman calls it. I went back to quieter instruments, and I had these great bluegrass superstars. And sort of concentrated on the vocal, so that I could hear myself better. We would have probably continued with that, but, at some point, I just found that I needed to do something new. I think that\u2019s important for an artist. My record company at the time, Warners in Nashville, had new people in charge, and they really felt they could get me and Guy Clark back on the country charts. But it didn\u2019t happen. Radio had kind of shut its doors to me. So they came to me and said, \u201cWe really tried our best here. What do you want to do next?\u201d And because I\u2019d been listening to Daniel\u2019s solo record [1993\u2019s For The Beauty Of Wynona], and the one he produced for Dylan [1989\u2019s Oh Mercy], I said I wanted to work with him. It\u2019s all a progression. You just want to do something that excites you. So that led to Wrecking Ball, which then led to Spyboy.<\/p>\n

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