It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Equestrian facility. (Discuss) Proposed since November 2011.

Look up stable in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The interior of a stable built for horses

A horse in a box stall, inside a stable

Stables of the Einsiedeln Abbey in Switzerland

A horse stable, over 100 years old, still in use

Traditional style barn, built 1802, still used as a horse stable

A modest stable with a few stalls

A shed row-style stable at a riding club in Panama.

A stable is a building in which livestock, especially horses, are kept. It most commonly means a building that is divided into separate stalls for individual animals. There are many different types of stables in use today such as the American barn which is a large barn with a door each end and individual stalls inside or free standing stables with the classic top and bottom opening doors. The term "stable" is also used to describe a group of animals kept by one owner, regardless of housing or location.

The exterior design of a stable can vary widely, based on climate, building materials, historical period, and cultural styles of architecture. A wide range of building materials can be used, including masonry (bricks or stone), wood, and steel. Stables can range widely in size, from a small building to house only one or two animals, to facilities used at agricultural shows or at race tracks, which can house hundreds of animals.

History[link]

The stable is typically historically the second oldest building type on the farm. Free-standing stables began to be built from the 16th century. They were well built and placed near the house due to the value that the horses had as draught animals. High-status examples could have plastered ceilings to prevent dust falling through into the horses’ eyes. Complete interiors – with stalls, mangers and feed racks – of the 19th century and earlier are rare.^[1][2]

Historical stables in Great Britain had a hayloft on the first floor and a pitching door at the front. Doors and windows were symmetrically arranged. Interior was divided into stalls - a large stall was for a foaling mare or sick horse. The floors were cobbled, and later of brick, with drainage channels laid across the floors. Outside steps to the first floor were common for farm hands to live in the building.^[3]

Horses[link]

For horses, stables are often part of a larger complex which includes trainers, vets and blacksmiths.

Other uses[link]

Historically, the headquarters of a unit of cavalry, not simply their horses' accommodation, would be called a stable.

Used metaphorically from this origin, a stable is a collection of people (e.g. professional wrestlers or sumotori) working under a single manager.

See also[link]

Media related to stables at Wikimedia Commons

• Barn
• Barns and stables
• Glossary of equestrian terms
• Horse care
• Nativity
• Pen

References[link]

This biographical article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2009)

This article relies on references to primary sources or sources affiliated with the subject, rather than references from independent authors and third-party publications. Please add citations from reliable sources. (February 2008)

Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, and raised in Philadelphia, Isakov later moved to Colorado. ^[1] Isakov's voice and guitar style leave a humble presence that has spawned a burgeoning fan base. He has shared the stage with numerous touring artists such as Ani Difranco, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Alexi Murdoch, Brandi Carlile and Fiona Apple. Isakov has performed throughout North America and Europe; and has appeared at music festivals such as South by Southwest, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival, Rocky Mountain Folks Fest, and Telluride Bluegrass Festival.^[2]In 2011, Isakov's songs were featured in film and television productions, including his track "If I Go, I'm Goin'", which was heard in the fourth season of television show Californication on Showtime; and "Big Black Car", which was featured in McDonald's Christmas commercial in Canada.

Discography[link]

• Rust Colored Stones (2003)
• Songs for October (2005)
• That Sea, The Gambler (2007)
• This Empty Northern Hemisphere (2009)

Awards[link]

• 2007: Best Singer/Songwriter 2007, Westword
• 2007: winner, Telluride Troubador Competition

Notes[link]

1. ^ http://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2009/08/best-of-whats-next-2009-gregory-alan-isakov-musician.html
2. ^ http://www.flaglive.com/flagstafflive_story.cfm?storyID=208132&sid=122

External links[link]

• Official website
• Gregory Alan Isakov on Myspace
• Folk Radio UK Session

Medal record
McLain Ward with Sapphire, 2008 Olympic Games equestrian in Sha Tin, Hongkong
Equestrian
Competitor for the  United States
Olympic Games
Gold	2008 Beijing	Team jumping
Gold	2004 Athens	Team jumping

McLain Ward (born October 17, 1975 in Brewster, New York) is an American show jumping competitor and Olympic champion.

Official website: http://mclainward.com

At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Ward won the gold medal as part of the United States team in Team jumping, together with Peter Wylde, Beezie Madden and Chris Kappler.^[1] He also continued to compete as an Olympian, winning the team gold for show jumping at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics with Laura Kraut (Cedric), Beezie Madden (Authentic), and Will Simpson (Carlson vom Dach) and Mclain's horse, Sapphire.

McLain has been recognized as a dominant competitor on the jumper circuit since his junior days. When he was just 14, he won the United States Equestrian Federation (USEF) Show Jumping Derby as well as the equitation medal finals, becoming the youngest rider in history to win both in one year. As mentioned in the book Unbridled Passion: Show Jumping's Greatest Horses and Riders, McLain proved to be a fierce competitor, even riding with a broken collarbone in the 2005 Samsung Super League. McLain fought through the pain to help the United States team capture the Championship.^[2]

Ward found himself at the center of controversy at the 2010 World Cup Final in Geneva, Switzerland. His mount, Sapphire, was eliminated after the second round of jumping due to hypersensitivity in her left forelimb. She had placed second in both rounds prior to elimination, and was at the top of the overall standings at the time of the disqualification. Mclain challenged the ruling, stating that FEI had sent technicians to flex Sapphire repeatedly throughout the night until she turned up lame. This may be in part to Sapphire dominating competition throughout many FEI events, and FEI no longer wished for the pair to compete in the World Cup. The FEI appointed veterinarian stressed that there was no indication or evidence of any malpractice by McLain Ward or any member of the team.^[3] In July 2010 the FEI and McLain Ward agreed to avoid extensive litigations, that Sapphire was incorrectly eliminated. However, Sapphire’s disqualification from the final round of the World Cup remains in place. The FEI has also decided to develop mandatory guidelines for hypersensitivity tests.^[4][5]

In 2010 Ward was featured in the television series A Rider's Story^[6] along with fellow Olympian Laura Kraut. Mclain is married to Lauren Ward.

References[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: McLain Ward

• sports-reference

Joyce Meyer
Meyer teaching at the Hillsong Conference in Kiev on October 4, 2007
Born	Pauline Joyce Hutchison (1943-06-04) June 4, 1943 (age 69) St. Louis, Missouri U.S.
Occupation	Bible teacher, author, speaker
Nationality	American Citizen
Spouse(s)	Dave Meyer
Influences Tommy Barnett John C. Maxwell
www.joycemeyer.org

Joyce Meyer (born Pauline Joyce Hutchison; June 4, 1943) is a Charismatic Christian author and speaker. Meyer and her husband Dave have four grown children, and live outside St. Louis, Missouri. Her ministry is headquartered in the St. Louis suburb of Fenton, Missouri.

Early life[link]

Meyer was born Pauline Joyce Hutchison in south St. Louis in 1943. Her father went into the army to fight in World War II soon after she was born. She has said in interviews that he began sexually abusing her upon his return, and discusses this experience in her meetings.^[1]

A graduate of O'Fallon Technical High School in St. Louis, she married a part-time car salesman shortly after her senior year of high school. The marriage lasted for five years. She maintains that her husband frequently cheated on her and persuaded her to steal payroll checks from her employer. They used the money to go on a vacation to California. She states that she returned the money years later.^[1] After her divorce, Meyer frequented local bars before meeting Dave Meyer, an engineering draftsman. They were married on January 7, 1967.

Meyer also reports that she was praying intensely while driving to work one morning in 1976 when she said she heard God call her name. She had been born-again at age nine, but her unhappiness drove her deeper into her faith. She says that she came home later that day from a beauty appointment "full of liquid love" and was "drunk with the Spirit of God" that night while at the local bowling alley.^[1]

I didn't have any knowledge. I didn't go to church. And I had a lot of problems, and I needed somebody to kind of help me along. And I think sometimes even people who want to serve God, if they have got so many problems that they don't think right and they don't act right and they don't behave right, they almost need somebody to take them by the hand and help lead them through the early years.^[2]

Meyer was briefly a member of Our Savior's Lutheran Church in St. Louis, a congregation of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod.^[1][3] She began leading an early-morning Bible class at a local cafeteria and became active in Life Christian Center, a charismatic church in Fenton. Within a few years, Meyer was the church's associate pastor. The church became one of the leading charismatic churches in the area, largely because of her popularity as a Bible teacher.^[1] She also began airing a daily 15-minute radio broadcast on a St. Louis radio station.

In 1985, Meyer resigned as associate pastor and founded her own ministry, initially called "Life in the Word". She began airing her radio show on six other stations from Chicago to Kansas City.

In 1993, her husband Dave suggested that they start a television ministry.^[1] Initially airing on superstation WGN-TV in Chicago and BET, her program, now called Enjoying Everyday Life, is still on the air today.

In 2004 St. Louis Christian television station KNLC, operated by the Rev. Larry Rice of New Life Evangelistic Center, dropped Meyer's programming. According to Rice, a longstanding Meyer supporter, Meyer's "excessive lifestyle" and her teachings often going "beyond Scripture" were the impetus for canceling the program.^[4]

In 2005, Time magazine's "25 Most Influential Evangelicals in America" ranked Meyer as 17th.^[5]

Ministry[link]

Meyer speaks humorously, sharing with her audience her own shortcomings and taking playful jabs at stereotypical church behavior. A particular crowd favorite is the "robot" routine, in which she goes into a stiff-armed imitation of a robot chanting "What about me? What about me?"^[6]

According to Joyce Meyer Ministries, Meyer earned her doctoral degree from Life Christian University, an unaccredited institution in Tampa, Florida.^[7] Meyer has been given an Honorary Doctorate of Divinity by Oral Roberts University, an accredited institution in Tulsa, Oklahoma.^[7]

Salary and finances[link]

Joyce Meyer used to travel in this Canadair Challenger 600S; seen here in Sydney, Australia, when she was a 'special guest' at the Hillsong Conference in July 2005. It has since been replaced by a Gulfstream IV

Meyer, who owns several homes and travels in a private jet (currently a Gulfstream IV),^[8][9] has been criticized by some of her peers for living an excessive lifestyle. She responded that she doesn't have to defend her spending habits because "there’s no need for us to apologize for being blessed."^[8] Meyer commented, "You can be a businessman here in St. Louis, and people think the more you have, the more wonderful it is...but if you’re a preacher, then all of a sudden it becomes a problem."^[8]

On November 11, 2003, the St. Louis Post Dispatch published a four part series."^[8] exposing Meyer’s "$10 million corporate jet, her husband’s $107,000 silver-gray Mercedes sedan, her then $2 million home and houses worth another $2 million for her four children", her $20 million headquarters, furnished with "$5.7 million worth of furniture, artwork, glassware, and the latest equipment and machinery, including a malachite round table, a marble-topped antique commode, a custom office bookcase, a $7,000 Stations of the Cross in Dresden porcelain, an eagle sculpture on a pedestal, another eagle made of silver, and numerous paintings", among many other expensive items — all paid for by "her ministry". The article prompted Wall Watchers^[10] (a Christian nonprofit watchdog group) to call on the Internal Revenue Service to investigate Meyer and her family.

Following the adverse publicity about her lifestyle and Ministry Watch's request for an IRS probe, Meyer announced in 2004 plans to take a salary reduction from the $900,000 per year she had been receiving from Joyce Meyer Ministries (in addition to the $450,000 her husband received) ^[11] and instead personally keep more of the royalties from her outside book sales which Meyer had previously donated back to Joyce Meyer Ministries. She now retains royalties on books sold outside the ministry through retail outlets such as Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, and bookstores, while continuing to donate to her ministry royalties from books sold through her conferences, catalogues, website, and television program.^[12] "The net effect of all of this," notes Ministry Watch,^[10] "was most likely a sizable increase in the personal compensation of Joyce Meyer and reduced revenues for JMM." In an article in the St. Louis Business Journal, Meyer's public relations director, Mark Sutherland, confirmed that her new income would be "way above" her previous levels.^[13] Joyce Meyer Ministries says it has made a commitment to maintain transparency in financial dealings,^[14] publish their annual reports,^[15] have a Board majority who are not Meyer relatives^[16] and submit to a voluntary annual audit.^[14][17] Currently this ministry is receiving a "C" rating (81-90) in financial transparency from Ministry Watch.^[18]

Senate investigation[link]

On November 6, 2007, United States senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa announced an investigation of Meyer’s ministry by the United States Senate Committee on Finance.^[19] Grassley asked for the ministry to divulge financial information^[20][21] to the committee to determine if Meyer made any personal profit from financial donations, asking for a detailed accounting for such things as cosmetic surgery and foreign bank accounts and citing such expenses as the $23,000 commode mentioned earlier. He also requested that Meyer's ministry make the information available by December 6, 2007. In her November 29 response to Grassley, Meyer notes that the commode is a chest of drawers. Meyer writes that it was part of a large lot of items totaling $262,000 that were needed to furnish the ministry's 150,000-square-foot (14,000 m²) headquarters purchased in 2001. She said the commode's price tag was an "errant value" assigned by the selling agent and apologized for "not paying close attention to specific 'assigned values' placed on the pieces."^[20] The investigation also aimed to scrutinize five other televangelists: Benny Hinn, Kenneth Copeland, Eddie L. Long, Paula White, and Creflo Dollar.^[19]

Joyce Meyer Ministries responded with a newsletter to its e-mail list subscribers on November 9, 2007. The organization referred to its annual financial reports, asserting that, in 2006, the ministry spent 82 percent of its total expenses "for outreach and program services toward reaching people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as attested by independent accounting firm Stanfield & O'Dell, LLP." The message also quoted an October 10, 2007, letter from the Internal Revenue Service which stated, "We determined that you [Joyce Meyer Ministries] continue to qualify as an organization exempt from federal income tax under IRC section 501(c)(3)." The same information was also posted to the ministry website.

Meyer and Hinn were the only two ministries to comply with the Senate's requests for financial records, and both of them made commitments to future financial transparency. Neither party were found to have done any wrongdoing.^[22]

ECFA accreditation[link]

In 2009, Joyce Meyer Ministries received accreditation from the Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability (ECFA). In an announcement on March 12, 2009, the ECFA said that Joyce Meyer Ministries and Oral Roberts University had met their requirements of "'responsible stewardship', which involves ministries' financial accountability, transparency, board governance and fund-raising practices."^[23]

Works[link]

• Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind. 1993. ISBN 0-446-69109-7. 
• Me and My Big Mouth: Your Answer is Right Under Your Nose. 2002. ISBN 0-446-69107-0. 
• How to Hear from God: Learn to Know His Voice and Make Right Decisions. 2003. ISBN ISBN 0-446-53256-8. 
• The Secret Power of Speaking God's Word. 2004. ISBN 0-446-57736-7. 
• In Pursuit of Peace: 21 Ways to Conquer Anxiety, Fear, and Discontentment. 2004. ISBN 0-446-53195-2. 
• Straight Talk: Overcoming Emotional Battles with the Power of God's Word. 2005. ISBN 0-446-57800-2. 
• Approval Addiction: Overcoming Your Need to Please Everyone. 2005. ISBN 0-446-57772-3. 
• Look Great Feel Great: Joyce shares twelve practical keys that will help you look and feel great. 2006. ISBN 0-446-57946-7. 
• The Everyday Life Bible: The Power of God's Word for Everyday Living. 2006. ISBN 0-446-57827-4. 
• The Confident Woman: Start Today Living Boldly and Without Fear. 2007. ISBN 0-446-53198-7. 
• Woman to Woman: Candid Conversations from Me to You. 2007. ISBN 0-446-58180-1. 
• I Dare You: Embrace Life With Passion. 2007. ISBN 0-446-53197-9. 
• The Power of Simple Prayer: How to Talk with God about Everything. 2007. ISBN 0-446-53196-0. 
• Top 10 Qualities of a Great Leader. 2007. ISBN 1-57794-913-7.  (by Joyce Meyer and Phil Pringle)
• Conflict Free Living. 2008. ISBN 1-59979-062-9. 
• Start Your New Life Today: An Exciting New Beginning with God. 2008. ISBN 0-446-50965-5. 
• The Secret To True Happiness: Enjoy Today, Embrace Tomorrow. 2008. ISBN 0-446-53199-5. 
• Never Give Up!: Relentless Determination to Overcome Life's Challenges. 2009. ISBN 0-446-58035-X. 
• Eat the Cookie--Buy the Shoes: Giving Yourself Permission to Lighten Up. 2010. ISBN 0-446-53864-7. 
• Power Thoughts: 12 Strategies to Win the Battle. 2010. ISBN 0-446-58036-8. 
• Beauty for Ashes. 
• The Penny. 

See also[link]

• Prosperity Gospel
• Word of Faith

References[link]

Notes

External links[link]

• Official site
• Joyce Meyer at the Internet Movie Database
• Everyday Life Broadcast with Joyce Meyer online

Emmylou Harris
Emmylou Harris at the Greenbelt Harvest Picnic, 2011
Background information
Born	(1947-04-02) April 2, 1947 (age 65) Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Genres	Folk, country rock, country, bluegrass, rock, pop, alt-country
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, musician
Instruments	Voice, guitar
Years active	1970–present
Labels	Jubilee, Reprise, Warner Bros., Elektra, Asylum, Rhino, Nonesuch
Associated acts	Ryan Adams The Band Bright Eyes James Burton Beth Neilsen Chapman Earl Thomas Conley Elvis Costello Rodney Crowell Iris Dement John Denver Dixie Chicks Bob Dylan Steve Earle Vern Gosdin Patty Griffin Arlo Guthrie Mark Knopfler Albert Lee Little Feat Dave Matthews Kate and Anna McGarrigle Willie Nelson Juice Newton Roy Orbison Gram Parsons Dolly Parton John Prine Linda Ronstadt Ricky Skaggs Bruce Springsteen Don Williams Lucinda Williams Neil Young Warren Zevon
Website	www.emmylouharris.com

Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947 in Birmingham, Alabama) is an American singer-songwriter and musician. She has released many chart-topping albums and singles over the course of her career, and has won 12 Grammys and numerous other awards.

In addition to her work as a solo artist and bandleader, both as an interpreter of other composers' works and as a singer-songwriter, she is a sought-after backing vocalist and duet partner, working with numerous other artists including Gram Parsons, The Band, Linda Ronstadt, Roy Orbison, Dolly Parton, Mark Knopfler, Guy Clark, Willie Nelson, Bob Dylan, Rodney Crowell, and Neil Young.

Biography[link]

Early years[link]

Emmylou Harris is the daughter of a career military family, her father, Walter Harris, was a military officer and her mother, Eugenia was a wartime military wife. Her father, a member of the Marine Corps, was reported missing in action in Korea in 1952 and spent ten months as a prisoner of war. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Harris spent her childhood in North Carolina and Woodbridge, Virginia, where she graduated from Gar-Field Senior High School as class valedictorian. In high school she also won a drama scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, where she began to study music seriously, learning to play the songs of Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan and Joan Baez on guitar. Leaving college to pursue her musical aspirations, she moved to New York, working as a waitress to support herself while performing folk songs in Greenwich Village coffeehouses. She married fellow songwriter Tom Slocum in 1969 and recorded her first album, Gliding Bird. Harris and Slocum soon divorced, and Harris and her newborn daughter Hallie moved in with her parents in the Maryland suburbs on the edge of Washington, D.C.^[1]

With Gram Parsons[link]

Harris soon returned to performing as part of a trio with Gerry Mule and Tom Guidera. One night in 1971, members of the country rock group The Flying Burrito Brothers happened to be in the audience. Former Byrds member Chris Hillman, who had taken over the band after the departure of its founder Gram Parsons, was so impressed by Harris that he briefly considered asking her to join the band. Instead, Hillman ended up recommending her to Parsons, who was looking for a female vocalist to work with on his first solo album, GP. Harris toured as a member of Parsons' band, The Fallen Angels, in 1973, and the couple shone during vocal harmonies and duets. Harris was quite pleased, and invested a lot emotionally in their relationship. Later that year, Parsons and Harris worked on a studio album, Grievous Angel. Parsons died in his motel room near what is now Joshua Tree National Park on September 19, 1973, from an accidental overdose of drugs and alcohol. Parsons's Grievous Angel was released posthumously in 1974, and three more tracks from his last sessions with Harris were included on another posthumous Parsons album, Sleepless Nights, in 1976. There was one more album of recorded material from that period of time that was packaged with the name, Live 1973, but was not released until 1982.

The working relationship between Harris and Parsons is of great importance in country and country-rock music history. Parsons offered Harris a study in true country music, introducing her to artists like The Louvin Brothers, and provided her with a musical identity; Harris's harmony and duet vocals, on the other hand, were lauded by those who heard them, and helped inspire Parsons' performances. His death left her devastated at an emotional and musical crossroads. She eventually carried on with her own version of Parsons' musical vision, and was instrumental in bringing attention to his achievements. Harris's earliest signature song, and arguably her most personal one, "Boulder to Birmingham", written shortly after Gram's death, showed the depth of her shock and pain at losing Parsons. It was, according to her best friend Linda Ronstadt, the beginning of a "lifetime effort to process what had happened", and was just the first of many songs written and/or performed by Harris about her life with (and without) Parsons.

I would rock my soul in the bosom of Abraham

I would hold my life in his saving grace.

I would walk all the way from Boulder to Birmingham

If I thought I could see, I could see your face.

  —"Boulder to Birmingham"

  lyrics by Emmylou Harris

The Hot Band[link]

Hot Band member James Burton

Warner Brothers A&R representative Mary Martin introduced Harris to Canadian producer Brian Ahern, who produced her major label debut album, Pieces of the Sky, released in 1975 on Reprise Records. The album was surprisingly eclectic, especially by Nashville standards, including cover versions of The Beatles' "For No One", Merle Haggard's "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down" and The Louvin Brothers' "If I Could Only Win Your Love". It also featured "Bluebird Wine", a composition by young Texas songwriter Rodney Crowell, who was the first in a long line of songwriters whose talents Harris has championed. The record was one of the most expensive country records produced at the time, featuring the talents of James Burton, Glen Hardin, Ron Tutt, Ray Pohlman, and Bill Payne, as well as two tracks ("Before Believing" and "Queen of the Silver Dollar") that were cut with the Angel Band. Two singles were released: "Too Far Gone", which initially charted at #73 (a 1979 reissue hit #13), and Harris's first big hit, "If I Could Only Win Your Love", a duet with Herb Pedersen (later a founding member of The Desert Rose Band), which peaked at #4.

Executives of Warner Bros. Records (Reprise Records's parent company) told Harris they would agree to record her if she would "get a hot band". Harris did so, enlisting guitarist James Burton and pianist Glen Hardin, both of whom had played with Elvis Presley as well as Parsons. Burton was a renowned guitarist, starting in Ricky Nelson's band in the 1950s, and Hardin had been a member of The Crickets. Other Hot Band members were drummer John Ware, pedal steel guitarist Hank DeVito, and bassist Emory Gordy, Jr., with whom Harris had worked while performing with Parsons. Singer-songwriter Crowell was enlisted as a rhythm guitarist and duet partner.^[2] Harris's first tour schedule originally dovetailed around Presley's, owing to Burton and Hardin's continuing commitments to Presley's band. The Hot Band lived up to its name, with most of the members moving on with fresh talent replacing them as they continued on to solo careers of their own.

Elite Hotel, released in December 1975, established that the buzz created by Pieces of the Sky was well-founded. Unusual for country albums at the time, which largely revolved around a hit single, Harris's albums borrowed their approach from the album-oriented rock market. In terms of quality and artistic merit, tracks like "Sin City", "Wheels", and "Till I Gain Control Again", which weren't singles, easily stood against tracks like "Together Again", "Sweet Dreams", and "One of These Days", which were. While Elite Hotel was a #1 country album, the album did sufficiently well as a crossover success with the rock audience. Harris appealed to those who normally disapproved of the country market's pull toward crossover pop singles ("Together Again" and "Sweet Dreams" both topped the country charts). Elite Hotel won a Grammy in 1976 for Best Country Vocal Performance, Female.

Harris' reputation for guest work continued. Aside from contributing to albums by Linda Ronstadt, Guy Clark and Neil Young, Harris was tapped by Bob Dylan to perform on his Desire album, but entirely uncredited. Harris also filmed one of the studio sequences, owing to her touring schedule, in The Band's The Last Waltz, singing "Evangeline".

Burton left the Hot Band in 1976, choosing to remain with Elvis Presley's band, and was replaced by English guitarist Albert Lee. Harris's commercial apex was Luxury Liner, released in 1977, which remains one of her definitive records. On Luxury Liner, Harris's mix of songs from Chuck Berry ("(You Never Can Tell) C'est La Vie"), Gram Parsons (the title track and "She"), The Carter Family ("Hello Stranger") and Kitty Wells ("Making Believe") illustrate a continuity and artistic merit to country music often overlooked at the time. Despite Top Ten singles with "C'est La Vie" and "Making Believe", the album's best known track is the first recorded cover of Townes Van Zandt's classic "Pancho & Lefty", which would be a #1 hit for Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard in 1983. At the end of 1977, Crowell left the Hot Band to pursue a solo career; his replacement was bluegrass multi-instrumentalist and singer Ricky Skaggs.

Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town signaled a slight change of direction from Harris's previous three albums. Rather than mixing classic and contemporary, the album is made up largely of recently written songs, though from a wide variety of writers. "Two More Bottles of Wine", written by Delbert McClinton, became Harris's third #1 single, "To Daddy", written by Dolly Parton, went to #3, and a third single, "Easy From Now On", went Top Twenty. The album included two songs apiece from Crowell ("I Ain't Living Long Like This" and "Leaving Louisiana In The Broad Daylight") and songwriter Jesse Winchester ("Defying Gravity" and "My Songbird"), and Utah Phillips' "Green Rolling Hills".

The Roots Records[link]

In 1977 (January), Harris married Brian Ahern.^[3] Their (Harris' second) daughter, Meghann, was born in 1979. During this time, Harris cut three studio albums that reflected a shift toward traditional country (the industry, on the other hand, was about to embrace Urban Cowboy). The first key to the change in direction was her Grammy Award-winning 1979 album Blue Kentucky Girl. Apart from a cover of The Drifters' "Save The Last Dance For Me", the album was largely made up of classic-styled country material in the vein of Loretta Lynn and Kitty Wells. One of her best-loved albums, the record includes songs ranging from The Louvin Brothers' "Everytime You Leave" to Willie Nelson's "Sister's Coming Home" to Gram Parson's signature "Hickory Wind". Wesley Rose took special interest in Harris' recording of "Beneath Still Waters", which became a #1 smash.

A Christmas album, Light of the Stable, was released in 1979; its title track featured backing vocals by Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Neil Young, all three of whom Harris had been working with sporadically since the mid-1970s, and would continue to collaborate with through the 2000s. (Harris, Parton and Ronstadt began working on a planned trio album during this time, though it would remain unfinished for nearly a decade; a few of the tracks recorded for the project surfaced on the women's respective solo albums in the interim.) The album is largely acoustic, featuring readings of traditional fare such as "Silent Night", "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "The First Noel".

In the 1980s, Harris pursued country music's history even further with the bluegrass-oriented recording of Roses in the Snow, featuring Ricky Skaggs, Tony Rice, Albert Lee, Emory Gordy Jr. and Jerry Douglas. Harris's versions of the traditional "Wayfaring Stranger" and Paul Simon's "The Boxer" were strong singles.

In 1980, Harris recorded "That Lovin' You Feelin' Again" with Roy Orbison. The duet was a Top 10 hit on both the Country and Adult Contemporary charts. They would win the Grammy Award for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group. She would also be featured on Paul Kennerley's concept album The Legend of Jesse James, which also featured Levon Helm of The Band and Johnny Cash.

Pop-chart success, songwriting[link]

In 1981, Harris reached the Top 40 on the Billboard pop chart with a cover of "Mister Sandman"—again Top 10 Country as well as Adult Contemporary—from her Evangeline album. (The album version of the song was a track from the ill-fated Trio sessions with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt, but neither Parton's nor Ronstadt's record companies would allow their artists' vocals to be used on the single, so Harris re-recorded the song, singing all three parts.)

Harris moved to Nashville in 1982. White Shoes in 1983 included an eclectic pairing of the rockish reading of "Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend" with a remake of the Donna Summer hit "On the Radio", as well as tracks from a diverse group of songwriters such as Hot Band member Crowell, Sandy Denny and T-Bone Burnett and was her last album produced by Brian Ahern until All I Intended to Be in 2008.

Harris's major-label releases thus far had included few self-penned songs, but in 1985 her songwriting skills were much in evidence with the release of a concept album The Ballad of Sally Rose, for which she co-wrote all of the songs. The album was semi-autobiographical in theme, based loosely on her relationship with Parsons. Harris described it as a "country opera", and a "huge commercial disaster".^[4] Her co-writer and producer on the album was English songwriter and musician Paul Kennerley, writer of the hit singles "Born to Run" (on Harris's 1981 Cimarron album) and "In My Dreams" (on White Shoes). Kennerley also produced her next album, Thirteen. They were married in 1985 and divorced in 1993.

In 1987, nearly a full decade after they'd first attempted to do so, Harris teamed up with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt for their long-promised and much-anticipated Trio disc. The album was the biggest commercial success of Harris's career, spending five weeks at #1 on Billboard's Country Albums chart (also quickly reaching the Top 10 on the Pop Albums chart), sold several million copies and produced four Top 10 Country hits, including "To Know Him Is To Love Him", which hit #1. The disc was nominated for the coveted Album Of The Year Grammy award (given to U2 that year for The Joshua Tree) and the three women won the statuette for Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal; the album's Linda Thompson-penned track "Telling Me Lies" reached #3 Country, #25 Adult Contemporary, and was also nominated for a Grammy as 1987's Best Country Song.

Harris also found time in 1987 to release a solo album, Angel Band, featuring traditional gospel songs, on which she worked with, among others, rising country star Vince Gill.

In 1989, she recorded two songs with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band on their album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Volume II. In a snippet of studio chatter included on one of the tracks, she talked during the recording session about her beginnings and how music had changed:

Years ago I had the experience of sitting around in a living room with a bunch of people and singing and playing, and it was like a spiritual experience, it was wonderful. And I decided then that was what I was going to do with my life was play music, do music. In the making of records, I think over the years we've all gotten a little too technical, a little too hung up on getting things perfect. We've lost the living room. The living room has gone out of the music, but today I feel like we got it back.

Around 1991, she dissolved The Hot Band and formed a new band of acoustic musicians—Sam Bush on fiddle, mandolin and vocals, Roy Huskey, Jr. on bass and vocals, Larry Atamanuik on drums, Al Perkins on banjo, guitar, Dobro guitar and vocals, and Jon Randall on guitar, mandolin and vocals—which she named The Nash Ramblers. They recorded a Grammy Award-winning live album in 1992 at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, which led to the $8 million restoration of the facility into a premium concert and event venue. It was her last album with Reprise Records.

New directions[link]

By the 1990s, Harris started receiving less airplay as mainstream country stations began shifting their focus to the youth-oriented "new country" format. Harris's albums Bluebird and Brand New Dance (1989 and 1990, respectively) received ample critical acclaim and sold reasonably well, yet her chart success was on the wane. 1993's Cowgirl's Prayer—the first album since her switch to Elektra Records—was critically praised but received very little airplay,^[5] and its lead single, "High Powered Love" charted very low, peaking at #63, prompting her to shift her career in a new direction.

In 1995, Harris released one of the most critically acclaimed albums of the decade, Wrecking Ball, produced by Daniel Lanois, best known for his work with U2, Peter Gabriel and Bob Dylan. An experimental album for Harris, the record included Harris's rendition of the Neil Young-penned title track (Young himself provided guest vocals on two of the album's songs), Steve Earle's "Goodbye", Julie Miller's "All My Tears", Jimi Hendrix's "May This Be Love", Kate and Anna McGarrigle's "Goin' Back to Harlan" and Gillian Welch's "Orphan Girl". U2's Larry Mullen, Jr. showed up to play drums for the project. The album received virtually no country airplay whatsoever, but did bring Harris to the attention of alternative rock listeners, many of whom had never listened to her music before.

Harris then took her Wrecking Ball material on the road, releasing the live Spyboy in 1998, backed with a power trio comprising Nashville producer, songwriter and guitarist Buddy Miller and New Orleans musicians, drummer Brady Blade and bassist-vocalist-percussionist Daryl Johnson. In addition to performing songs from Wrecking Ball, the album updated many of Harris's career hits, including "Boulder to Birmingham".

Also in 1998, she appeared prominently on Willie Nelson's moody, instrumentally sparse Teatro album, produced by Wrecking Ball producer Lanois.^[6]

During the summer of 1997 and 1998, Harris joined Sarah McLachlan's all-woman musical touring festival, the Lilith Fair, where new artists like Patty Griffin could share new experiences and ideas with seasoned musicians like Harris and Bonnie Raitt.

In January 1999, Harris released Trio 2 with Parton and Ronstadt. Much of the album had actually been recorded in 1994, but remained unreleased for nearly five years because of record label and personnel disputes, conflicting schedules, and career priorities of the three artists. Trio 2 was much more contemporary-sounding than its predecessor and was certified Gold. It included their version of Neil Young's classic "After The Gold Rush", which became a popular music video and won another Grammy—this one for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. Harris and Ronstadt then released a duet album, Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, later the same year. The two superstars toured together during the fall months in support of the disc. Both albums made the Top 10 of Billboard's Country Albums chart and did well on the pop side as well.

Also in 1999, Harris paid tribute to her former singing partner Gram Parsons by co-executive producing Return of the Grievous Angel: A Tribute to Gram Parsons, an album that gathered together more than a dozen artists. Harris performed duets with Beck, Sheryl Crow and The Pretenders on this album's tracks.

In 2000, Harris released her solo follow-up to Wrecking Ball, Red Dirt Girl, produced by Lanois protégé Malcolm Burn. For the first time since The Ballad of Sally Rose, the album contained a number of Harris's own compositions. Like Wrecking Ball, the album's sound leaned more toward alternative rock than country. Nevertheless it reached #5 on Billboard's Country Albums chart as well as a healthy #54 on the pop side. It also won Harris another of her 12 Grammy awards, in the category of Best Contemporary Folk Album.

Harris also accompanied on alternative country singer Ryan Adams' solo debut Heartbreaker and on Tracy Chapman's fifth album Telling Stories.

Also in 2000, Harris joined an all-star group of traditional country, folk and blues artists for the T-Bone Burnett-produced soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? The soundtrack won multiple CMA, ACM and Grammy awards. A documentary/concert film, Down from the Mountain, featured the artists performing music from the film and other songs at the Ryman Auditorium. Harris and many of the same artists took their show on the road for the Down from the Mountain Tour in 2002. In 2003, Harris supplied the finishing touches in harmonizing with the Dixie Chicks on a song they were recording in the studio, "Godspeed".

Recent work[link]

Harris released Stumble into Grace, her follow-up to Red Dirt Girl, in 2003. Like its predecessor, it contained mostly self-penned material. In 2004, Harris led the Sweet Harmony Traveling Revue tour with Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Buddy Miller and Patty Griffin. They performed singly and together and swapped instruments.

On September 9, 2005, Harris participated in "Shelter from the Storm: A Concert for the Gulf Coast", a series of concerts simulcast by most American television stations to raise money for victims of Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. She performed with Beth Neilsen Chapman and the Dixie Chicks, harmonizing on Patty Griffin's song, "Mary".

Harris playing in Rotterdam, Netherlands (2006)

In 2005, Harris worked with Conor Oberst on Bright Eyes' release, I'm Wide Awake, It's Morning, performing backup vocals on three tracks. In July, she joined Elvis Costello on several dates of his US tour, performing alongside Costello and his band on several numbers each night. Harris and Costello recorded a version of Costello's song, "The Scarlet Tide", from the soundtrack of the movie Cold Mountain. July also saw the release of The Very Best of Emmylou Harris: Heartaches & Highways, a single-disc retrospective of Harris's career, on the Rhino Entertainment label. This same year, Harris appeared as a guest vocalist on Neil Young's widely acclaimed Prairie Wind. She also appeared in the Jonathan Demme documentary-concert film Neil Young: Heart of Gold, released in 2006.

Harris performing in the Netherlands with Mark Knopfler

All the Roadrunning, an album of collaborations with former Dire Straits frontman Mark Knopfler, was released in April 2006 and supported by a tour of Europe and the US. The album was a commercial success, reaching #8 in the UK and #17 in the US. Selections recorded during the All the Roadrunning tour performance at the Gibson Amphitheatre were released as a CD/DVD package titled Real Live Roadrunning in November 2006. In addition to several of the compositions that Harris and Knopfler recorded together in the studio, Real Live Roadrunning features solo hits from both members of the duo, as well as a few classic tracks from Knopfler's days with Dire Straits.

Harris is featured on A Tribute To Joni Mitchell, released on April 24, 2007. Harris covered the song "The Magdalene Laundries" (originally on Mitchell's 1994 album, Turbulent Indigo). She sang "Another Pot O' Tea" with Anne Murray on Murray's album Anne Murray Duets: Friends and Legends, released November 13, 2007, in Canada and January 15, 2008, in the U.S.

Harris wrote a song called "In Rodanthe" for the 2008 film Nights In Rodanthe.

A solo album, All I Intended to Be, was released on June 10, 2008, to critical acclaim. Contributors include Buddy Miller, the McGarrigle sisters, Vince Gill, Phil Madeira, and Dolly Parton. She toured with an ensemble she dubbed the Red Dirt Boys, featuring Phil Madeira on accordion, guitar, and keyboards, Colin Linden on guitar and banjo, Rickie Simpkins on mandolin and fiddle, Chris Donohue on bass, and Bryan Owings on drums.^[7] It did not include Miller, who was touring with Robert Plant, Alison Krauss and T Bone Burnett at the time. In 2009, Harris toured with Patty Griffin, Shawn Colvin, and Miller as "Three Girls and Their Buddy". Madeira, Simpkins, and Donohue performed with her in late 2008, and in 2009, appearing on "A Prairie Home Companion" and at MerleFest and the Telluride Bluegrass Festival. In September 2009, Owings rejoined the Red Dirt Boys with Miller for the remainder of 2009.

In April 2009 Harris became a grandmother. Her daughter gave birth to a daughter, Prudence.^[8]

In 2010, Harris regrouped with the latest version of the Red Dirt Boys—Madeira, Owings, Donohue, and Simpkins—for Lilith Fair summer dates and a scheduled US autumn tour.

According to an interview with Bonnie Tyler by Digital Spy, Emmylou Harris will be teaming up with her on Tyler's upcoming album. Harris will do backing vocals on a song, written and produced by Wayne Warner. A new solo album, Hard Bargain, was released on the Nonesuch label on April 26, 2011.

PBS host Tavis Smiley interviewed Harris in a program that aired on April 20, 2011. In the interview Harris spoke of being a straight-A student in high school, which led her to being selected as valedictorian, and recounted learning to play guitar by memorizing three chords.^{[citation needed]}

The 2012 single "Emmylou" by Swedish folk duo First Aid Kit on their album The Lion's Roar is, in part, a tribute to Harris, with its lyrics referring to her relationship to Gram Parsons.

Activism[link]

In 1997 and 1998, Harris performed in Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair, promoting feminism in music. Since 1999, Harris has been organizing an annual benefit tour called Concerts for a Landmine Free World. All proceeds from the tours support the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation's (VVAF) efforts to assist innocent victims of conflicts around the world. The tour also benefits the VVAF's work to raise America's awareness of the global landmine problem. Artists that have joined Harris on the road for these dates include Mary Chapin Carpenter, Bruce Cockburn, Sheryl Crow, Steve Earle, Joan Baez, Patty Griffin, Nanci Griffith, Willie Nelson, and Lucinda Williams. Harris is a supporter of animal rights and an active member of PETA.^[9] She founded, and in her spare time assists at, an animal shelter in Nashville.^[10]

She became a member of the newly formed Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011.^[11][12]

Awards and other honors[link]

Grammy Awards[link]

2005 Best Female Country Vocal Performance ("The Connection")

2001 Album of the Year (O Brother, Where Art Thou?)

2000 Best Contemporary Folk Album (Red Dirt Girl)

1999 Best Country Collaboration with Vocals ("After The Gold Rush", with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt)

1998 Best Country Collaboration with Vocals ("Same Old Train", with Alison Krauss, Clint Black, Dwight Yoakam, Earl Scruggs, Joe Diffie, Marty Stuart, Merle Haggard, Pam Tillis, Patty Loveless, Randy Travis, Ricky Skaggs & Travis Tritt)

1995 Best Contemporary Folk Album (Wrecking Ball)

1992 Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers At the Ryman, as Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers)

1987 Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal (Trio, with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt)

1984 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female ("In My Dreams")

1980 Best Country Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group ("That Lovin' You Feelin' Again", with Roy Orbison)

1979 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female (Blue Kentucky Girl)

1976 Best Country Vocal Performance, Female (Elite Hotel)^[13]

Country Music Association Awards[link]

2001 Album of the Year (O Brother, Where Art Thou?)

1980 Female Vocalist Of The Year

1988 Vocal Event of the Year (Trio, with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt)^[14]

Other honors[link]

• VH1's 100 Most Influential Women in Rock and Roll (1998) - Number 22 out of 100
• Billboard's Century Award recipient (1999)^[15] - inducted by Sarah McLachlan
• CMT's 40 Greatest Women of Country Music - #5 ranking (2002)
• Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on February 12, 2008^[16]
• Inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2009.
• Awarded an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music in 2009.^[17]

Discography[link]

Collaborations and other appearances[link]

References[link]

Sources[link]

• In the Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music, Nicholas Dawidoff, Vintage Books, 1998. ISBN 0-679-41567-X
• Emmylou Harris: Angel in Disguise, Jim Brown, Fox Music Books, 2004. ISBN 1-894997-03-4
• Fong-Torres, Ben. (1998). "Emmylou Harris". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 230.

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Emmylou Harris

• Official Site (requires Flash player)
• Emmylou Harris Comprehensive former official site
• Emmylou Harris at Allmusic
• Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
• Emmylou Harris Questionnaire (June 2008)
• Pitchfork article
• Gibson interview
• Interview
• Emmylou Harris on Charlie Rose
• Emmylou Harris at the Internet Movie Database