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Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell: Old Yellow Moon

Nonesuch

“Hanging Up My Heart,” the first track on Old Yellow Moon, may be a cover of a Hank DeVito song, but it seems to be the perfect starting point for the new album by Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell. Soaring steel guitar and the duo’s still-guileless, bright vocals, on that track and others, bring to mind the earliest work of these much-lauded artists. A host of Nashville A-list artists back them, including Vince Gill, keyboard master Bill Payne (Little Feat) and fiddle great Stuart Duncan (who recently worked with Richard Thompson on his new release Electric). Clearly Crowell and Harris have each significantly polished their musical chops since 1975 when Crowell joined Harris’ Hot Band. But the songs on this album—from Crowell’s “Here We Are” to Matraca
Berg’s “Back When We Were Beautiful” and beyond—show that what Crowell calls “the Southern California blend of country music and rock and roll” is still sacred to these two masters.