Southern Pacific was an American country rock band that ran from 1983 to 1991. They are best known for hits such as "Any Way the Wind Blows" (1989), which was used in the soundtrack for the film Pink Cadillac starring Clint Eastwood and Bernadette Peters, and "New Shade of Blue" (1988, their highest-ranking single on the country charts in November of that year). Southern Pacific was named New Country Group of the Year when they debuted and have been honored by having their name added to the Country Music Association’s Walkway of Stars in Nashville, Tennessee.

History[link]

Formed in 1983 with former Doobie Brothers members Keith Knudsen, John McFee and bassist Jerry Scheff. Additional founding members include, Tim Goodman on vocals and keyboardist Glen Hardin. The group signed with Warner Bros. Records in 1984 to which their debut album, Southern Pacific was released the following year. Scheff left after the debut album and was replaced by Stu Cook of Creedence Clearwater Revival, while Kurt Howell replaced Hardin on keyboards. Cook and Howell would join the others in the release of Killbilly Hill in 1986. This album would feature the cover of Bruce Springsteen's "Pink Cadillac". Tim Goodman left after the second album to pursue a solo career and was replaced by David Jenkins (formerly of Pablo Cruise) in 1987 in time for the production of the group's third album Zuma (1988) where their highest ranking single "New Shade of Blue" was included. Jenkins left after Zuma and the group remained a quartet for the final album County Line (1989) which included the single "Any Way The Wind Blows" that was used in the Pink Cadillac soundtrack and film that same year. The group disbanded and Warner Bros. released their Greatest Hits album in 1991.

After Southern Pacific's breakup, Knudsen and McFee returned to The Doobie Brothers (who had already reunited in 1987). Knudsen died in 2005 while McFee continues to tour with The Doobies. Cook toured with fellow Creedence Clearwater Revival band member Doug Clifford with the group Cosmo's Factory (now Creedence Clearwater Revisited). Tim Goodman continued to tour and record with his solo project, The Tim Goodman Band. Howell formed his own music group, called Burnin' Daylight. This group also included former Exile member Sonny LeMaire and Nashville songwriter Marc Beeson.

Southern Pacific's four studio albums were reissued in 2003 by specialty label Wounded Bird Records in two double-CD packages.

Band members[link]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

Compilation albums[link]

Singles[link]

Album appearances[link]

References[link]

• Goldsmith, Thomas. (1998). "Southern Pacific." In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 497–498.

External links[link]

• Allmusic profile
• CMT.com profile

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Southern Pacific Transportation Company
Logo SP system map (before the 1988 DRGW merger)
Reporting mark	SP
Locale	Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah
Dates of operation	1865–1996
Successor	Union Pacific
Track gauge	4 ft 8 1⁄2 in (1,435 mm) with some 3 feet (910 mm) gauge branches
Headquarters	San Francisco, California

The Southern Pacific Transportation Company (reporting mark SP), earlier Southern Pacific Railroad and Southern Pacific Company, and usually simply called the Southern Pacific or (from the railroad's initials) Espee, was an American railroad.

The railroad was founded as a land holding company in 1865, later acquiring the Central Pacific Railroad by lease. By 1900, the Southern Pacific Company had grown into a major railroad system which incorporated many smaller companies, such as the Texas and New Orleans Railroad and Morgan's Louisiana and Texas Railroad, and which extended from New Orleans through Texas to El Paso, across New Mexico and through Tucson, to Los Angeles, throughout most of California including San Francisco and Sacramento; it also included the Central Pacific Railroad extending eastward across Nevada to Ogden, Utah and had lines reaching north throughout and across Oregon to Portland.

The Southern Pacific had noticeable social impact along its route: some towns prospered because of it and it founded a number of important hospitals in, among other places, San Francisco and Tucson. Southern Pacific's total route mileage has varied significantly over the years. In 1929, the system showed 13,848 miles (22,286 km) (on its own); before the D&RGW merger Southern Pacific's mileage had dropped to 10,423 miles (16,774 km), mainly due to the pruning of branchline mileage. But by combining the mileage of subsidiary, St. Louis Southwestern Railway (Cotton Belt), SP system mileage totaled around 13,508 miles (21,739 km). This was because the Cotton Belt had almost doubled in size to 3,085 miles (4,965 km) with the purchase of the Golden State Route.

The takeover of Southern Pacific by Rio Grande Industries, along with the addition of the SPCSL Corporation route from Chicago to St. Louis, swelled the combined D&RGW/SP/SSW system to 15,959 miles (25,684 km). By the time of the merger with the Union Pacific Railroad, SP's mileage had once again dropped, with the entire SP system comprising 13,715 miles (22,072 km). While the Cotton Belt is the most famous of Southern Pacific's subsidiaries, SP owned many others like the Northwestern Pacific Railroad at 328 miles (528 km), the 1,331 miles (2,142 km) Southern Pacific Railroad of Mexico, and a variety of narrow gauge routes.

On August 9, 1988, the Interstate Commerce Commission approved the purchase of the Southern Pacific by Rio Grande Industries, the company that controlled the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad. The Rio Grande officially took control of the Southern Pacific on October 13, 1988. After the purchase, the combined railroad kept the Southern Pacific name due to its brand recognition in the railroad industry and with customers of both constituent railroads. The Southern Pacific subsequently was taken over by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1996 following years of financial problems, increasing the UP Railroad substantially. The railroad is also noteworthy for being the defendant in the landmark 1886 United States Supreme Court case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad which is often interpreted as having established certain corporate rights under the Constitution of the United States.

Timeline[link]

This section is in a list format that may be better presented using prose. You can help by converting this section to prose, if appropriate. Editing help is available. (December 2011)

• 1851: The oldest line to become a part of the Southern Pacific system, the Buffalo Bayou, Brazos, and Colorado Railway begins construction between Houston, Texas and Alleyton, Texas.
• 1865: A group of businessmen in San Francisco, California, led by Timothy Phelps, found the Southern Pacific Railroad to build a rail connection between San Francisco and San Diego, California.
• September 25, 1868: A group of men known as the Big Four purchase the Southern Pacific. The Big Four are Charles Crocker, Leland Stanford, Mark Hopkins, Jr. and Collis Potter Huntington.
• 1870: Southern Pacific and Central Pacific operations are merged.
• June 1873: The Southern Pacific builds its first locomotive at the railroad's Sacramento shops as CP's 2nd number 55, a 4-4-0.
• November 8, 1874: Southern Pacific tracks reach Bakersfield, California and work begins on the Tehachapi Loop.
• September 5, 1876: The first through train from San Francisco arrives in Los Angeles, California after traveling over the newly completed Tehachapi Loop.
• 1877: Southern Pacific tracks from Los Angeles cross the Colorado River at Yuma, Arizona. Southern Pacific purchases the Houston and Texas Central Railway.
• 1879: Southern Pacific engineers experiment with the first oil-fired locomotives.
• March 20, 1880: The first Southern Pacific train reaches Tucson, Arizona.
• May 11, 1880: The Mussel Slough Tragedy (a dispute over property rights with SP) takes place in Hanford, California.
• May 19, 1881: Southern Pacific tracks reach El Paso, Texas, beating the rival Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway to El Paso.

The high bridge over the Pecos River.

• December 15, 1881: Southern Pacific (under the GH&SA RR) meets the Texas and Pacific at Sierra Blanca, Texas in Hudspeth County, Texas to complete the nation's second transcontinental railroad.
• January 12, 1883: The Southern section of the second transcontinental railroad line is completed as the Southern Pacific tracks from Los Angeles meet the Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway at the Pecos River. The golden spike is driven by Col. Tom Pierce, the GH&SA president, atop the Pecos River High Bridge. The line now extends to San Antonio and Houston along the Sunset Route.
• March 17, 1884: The Southern Pacific is incorporated in Kentucky.
• February 17, 1885: The Southern Pacific and Central Pacific are combined under a holding company named the Southern Pacific Company.
• April 1, 1885: The Southern Pacific takes over all operation of the Central Pacific. Effectively, the CP no longer exists as a separate company.
• 1886: The first refrigerator cars on the Southern Pacific enter operation; the loading of refrigerator cars with oranges, first performed at Los Angeles, California on February 14, contributed to an economic boom in the famous citrus industry of Southern California, by making deliveries of perishable fruits and vegetables to the eastern United States possible.

The Southern Pacific depot located in Burlingame, California, ca 1900; completed in 1894 and still in use, it was the first permanent Southern Pacific structure to be constructed in the Mission Revival Style.

• 1886: Southern Pacific wins the landmark Supreme Court case Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Railroad which establishes equal rights under the law to corporations.
• 1898: Sunset magazine is founded as a promotional tool of the Southern Pacific.
• 1901: Frank Norris' novel, The Octopus: A California Story, a fictional retelling of the Mussel Slough Tragedy and the events leading up to it, is published.
• 1901: Union Pacific Railroad acquires control of Southern Pacific. In the following years, many SP operating procedures and equipment purchases follow patterns established by Union Pacific.
• 1903: Southern Pacific gains 50% control of the Pacific Electric system in Los Angeles.
• March 8, 1904: SP opens the Lucin Cutoff across the Great Salt Lake, bypassing Promontory, UT for the railroad's mainline.
• March 20, 1904: SP's Coast Line is completed between Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, CA.
• April 18, 1906: The great 1906 San Francisco earthquake strikes, damaging the railroad's headquarters building and destroying the mansions of the now-deceased Big Four.
• 1906: SP and UP jointly form the Pacific Fruit Express (PFE) refrigerator car line.
• May 22, 1907: The Coast Line Limited of the Southern Pacific Railroad is derailed west of Glendale, California. The accident causes several deaths and injuries, and its cause linked to anarchists.

Belmont, California station, about 1907

• 1907: With Santa Fe, Southern Pacific forms Northwestern Pacific, unifying several SP- and Santa Fe-owned subsidiaries into one jointly owned railroad serving northwestern California.
• 1909: The Southern Pacific of Mexico, the railroad's subsidiary south of the U.S. border, is incorporated.
• 1913: The Supreme Court of the United States orders the Union Pacific to sell all of its stock in the Southern Pacific.
  

  

  Southern Pacific equipment used to rebuild Galveston after 1915 Hurricane
• December 28, 1917: The federal government takes control of American railroads in preparation for World War I

Southern Pacific system as of 1918

• 1923: The Interstate Commerce Commission allows the SP's control of the Central Pacific to continue, ruling that the control is in the public's interest.
• 1929: Santa Fe sells its interest in Northwestern Pacific to SP. NWP becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of SP.
• 1932: The SP gains 87% control of the Cotton Belt Railroad.
• May 1939: UP, SP and Santa Fe passenger trains in Los Angeles are united into a single terminal as Los Angeles Union Passenger Terminal is opened.
• 1947: The first road diesel locomotives owned solely by SP (i.e. aside from yard switchers) enter main line operation on the SP.
• 1947: Southern Pacific is reincorporated in Delaware (formerly Kentucky).
• 1951: Southern Pacific subsidiary Southern Pacific of Mexico is sold to the Mexican government.
• 1952: A difficult year for the SP in California opens with the City of San Francisco train marooned for three days in heavy snow on Donner Pass; in July an earthquake hits the Tehachapi pass, closing the route over the Tehachapi Loop until repairs can be made.
• 1953: The first Trailer-On-Flat-Car (TOFC, or "piggyback") equipment enters service on the SP.
• 1955: The last steam locomotives in regular operation on the SP are retired; the railroad is now fully dieselized.
• 1956: The SP railroad is now fully dieselized.
• 1959: The last revenue steam powered freight is operated on the system by narrow gauge #9.
• 1959: Southern Pacific moved more ton-miles of freight than any other US railroad (the Pennsylvania Railroad had been number one for decades).
• 1965: Southern Pacific's bid for control of the Western Pacific is rejected by the ICC.
• 1967: SP opens the longest stretch of new railroad construction in a quarter century as the first trains roll over the Palmdale Cutoff through Cajon Pass.
• May 1, 1971: Amtrak takes over long-distance passenger operations in the United States; the only SP revenue passenger trains thereafter were the commutes between San Francisco and San Jose.
• 1976: SP is awarded Dow Chemical's first annual Rail Safety Achievement Award in recognition of the railroad's handling of Dow products in 1975.^[1]
• 1980: Now owning a 98.34% control of the Cotton Belt, the Southern Pacific extends the Cotton Belt from St. Louis to Santa Rosa, New Mexico through acquisition of part of the former Rock Island Railroad.

SP 8033, a GE Dash 8-39B, leads a westbound train through Eola, Illinois (just east of Aurora), October 6, 1992.

• 1984: Northern portion of subsidiary Northwestern Pacific sold to independent shortline Eureka Southern Railroad which begins operation on November 1.
• 1984: The Southern Pacific Company merges into Santa Fe Industries, parent of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway, to form Santa Fe Southern Pacific Corporation. When the Interstate Commerce Commission refuses permission for the planned merger of the railroad subsidiaries as the Southern Pacific Santa Fe Railroad SPSF shortens its name to Santa Fe Pacific Corporation and puts the SP railroad up for sale while retaining the non-rail assets of the Southern Pacific Company.
• 1985: New Caltrain locomotives and rolling stock replace SP equipment on the Peninsula Commute, marking the end of Southern Pacific passenger service with SP equipment.
• October 13, 1988: Rio Grande Industries, parent of the Rio Grande Railroad, takes control of the Southern Pacific Railroad. The merged company retains the name "Southern Pacific" for all railroad operations.
• 1989: Southern Pacific acquires 223 miles of former Alton trackage between St. Louis and Joliet from the Chicago, Missouri & Western. For the first time the Southern Pacific served the Chicago area on its own rails.
• March 17, 1991: The Southern Pacific changes its corporate image, replacing the century-old Roman Lettering with the Rio Grande-inspired Speed Lettering.
• 1992: Northwestern Pacific is merged into SP, ending NWP's existence as a corporate subsidiary of SP and leaving the Cotton Belt as SP's only remaining major railroad subsidiary. The Northwestern Pacific's south end would eventually be sold off by UP and turned into a "new" Northwestern Pacific.
• 1996: The Union Pacific Railroad finishes the acquisition that was effectively begun almost a century before with the purchase of the Southern Pacific by UP in 1901, until divestiture was ordered in 1913. Ironically, although Union Pacific was the dominant company, taking complete control of SP, its corporate structure was merged into Southern Pacific, which on paper became the "surviving company"; which then changed its name to Union Pacific. The merged company retains the name "Union Pacific" for all railroad operations.

In the tables "SP" does not include NWP, P&SR, SD&AE, PE, Holton Inter-Urban, Visalia Electric (except 1970 includes PE, which merged into SP in 1965; it reported 104 million ton-miles in 1960). "T&NO" total for 1925 includes GH&SA, H&TC, SA&AP and the other roads that folded into T&NO a couple years later. "SSW" includes SSW of Texas.

1971 Moody's shows route-mileage operated as of 31 December 1970: 11615 SP, 1565 SSW, 324 NWP, 136 SD&AE, 44 T&T, 34 VE, 30 P&SR and 10 HI-U. SP operated 18337 miles of track.

Locomotive paint and appearance[link]

Restored SP #9 showing the traditional silver paint on the front of the smokebox.

Like most railroads, the SP painted the majority of its steam locomotive fleet black during the 20th century, but after the 1930s the SP had a policy of painting the front of the locomotive's smokebox light silver (almost white in appearance), with graphite colored sides, for visibility.

As locomotives are being restored, some Pacific type 4-6-2 locomotive boilers are showing signs of having been painted dark green. The soft cover book "Steam Glory 2" by Kalmbach Publications (2007) has an article "Southern Pacific's Painted Ladies" which shows color photos from the 1940s and 1950s revealing that a number of SP 0-6-0 yard engines, usually assigned to passenger terminals were painted in various combinations with red cab roof and cab doors, pale silver smokeboxes and smokebox fronts, dark green boilers, multi colored SP heralds on black cab, green cylinder covers and other details pointed out in color. It is possible that some of the other SP steam passenger locomotives were also painted in these colors or at least had dark green boilers. The article indicates that these paint jobs lasted quite a while and were not special paint for a single event.

Some express passenger steam locomotives bore the Daylight scheme, named after the trains they hauled, most of which had the word Daylight in the train name. This scheme, carried in full on the tender, consisted of a bright, almost vermilion red on the top and bottom thirds, with the center third being a bright orange. The parts were separated with thin white bands. Some of the color continued along the locomotive. The most famous "Daylight" locomotives were the GS-4 steam locomotives. The most famous Daylight-hauled trains were the Coast Daylight and the Sunset Limited.

Well known were the Southern Pacific's unique "cab-forward" steam locomotives. These were essentially 2-8-8-4 locomotives set up to run in reverse, with the tender attached to the smokebox end of the locomotive. Southern Pacific used a number of snow sheds in mountain terrain, and locomotive crews nearly asphyxiated from smoke blowing back to the cab. After a number of engineers began running their engines in reverse (pushing the tender), Southern Pacific asked Baldwin Locomotive Works to produce cab-forward designs. No other North American railroad ordered cab-forward locomotives, which became a distinctive symbol of the Southern Pacific.

During the early days of diesel locomotive use, they were also painted black. Yard switchers had diagonal orange stripes painted on the ends for visibility, earning this scheme the nickname of Tiger Stripe. Road freight units were generally painted in a black scheme with a red band at the bottom of the car body and a silver and orange "winged" nose. The words "SOUTHERN PACIFIC" were borne in a large serif font in white. This paint scheme is called the Black Widow scheme by railfans. A transitory scheme, of all-over black with orange "winged" nose, was called the Halloween scheme. Few locomotives were painted in this scheme and few photos of it exist.

An EMD FP7 leads a Pacific Rail Society Special through Floriston, California in February, 1971.

Most passenger units were painted originally in the Daylight scheme as described above, though some were painted red on top, silver below for use on the Golden State (operated in cooperation with the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad) between Chicago and Los Angeles. Also, silver cars with a narrow red band at the top were used for the Sunset Limited and other trains into Texas. In 1959 SP standardized on a paint scheme of dark grey ("Lark Gray") with a red "winged" nose; this scheme was dubbed Bloody Nose by railfans. Lettering was again in white. During the failed Southern Pacific Santa Fe Railroad merger in the mid 1980s, the "Kodachrome" paint scheme (named for the colors of the Kodak boxes that the film came in) was applied to many Southern Pacific locomotives. When the Southern Pacific Santa Fe merger was denied by the Interstate Commerce Commission, the Kodachrome units were not immediately repainted, some even lasting up to the Southern Pacific's end as an independent company. The Interstate Commerce Commission's decision left Southern Pacific in a decrepit state, the locomotives were not repainted immediately, although some were repainted into the Bloody Nose scheme as they were overhauled after months to years of deferred maintenance. After the 1988 purchase of Southern Pacific by Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad owner Philip Anschutz, the side lettering on repainted locomotives was changed from SP's serif font to the Rio Grande's "speed lettering" style. The Rio Grande did not retain its identity, as Anschutz felt the Southern Pacific name was the more dominant and recognizable.

Southern Pacific road switcher diesels were well known by railfans for several distinct features beyond their paint schemes. The units often featured elaborate lighting clusters, both front and rear, which featured a large red Mars Light for emergency signaling, and often two sets of twin sealed-beam headlamps, one on top of the cab between the number boards, and the other below the Mars Light on the locomotive's nose. The Southern Pacific, starting in the 1970s, employed cab air conditioning on all new locomotives, and the air conditioning unit on top of the locomotive cab is quite visible. Southern Pacific also placed very large snowplows on the pilots of their road switchers, primarily for the heavy winter snowfall encountered on the Donner Pass route. Many Southern Pacific road switchers used a Nathan-AirChime model M3 or M5 air horn, which formed chords which were distinct to Southern Pacific locomotives in the western states.

The Southern Pacific, and its subsidiary Cotton Belt, were the only operators of the EMD SD45T-2 "Tunnel Motor" locomotive. This locomotive was necessary because the standard configuration EMD SD45 could not get a sufficient amount of cool air into the diesel locomotive's radiator while working Southern Pacific's extensive snow shed and tunnel system in the Cascades and Donner Pass. These "Tunnel Motors" were essentially EMD SD45-2's with radiator air intakes located at the locomotive car body's walkway level, rather than EMD's typical radiator setup with fans on the locomotive's long hood roof pulling air through radiators mounted at the top/side of the locomotive's body. Inside tunnels and snow sheds, the hot exhaust gases from lead units would accumulate near the top of the tunnel or snow shed, and be drawn into the radiators of trailing EMD (non-tunnel motor) locomotives, leading these locomotives to shut down as their diesel prime mover overheated. The Southern Pacific also operated EMD SD40T-2s, as did the Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad.

A former Southern Pacific GP38-2 locomotive with a "L window" still intact.

One thing Southern Pacific Railroad was historic and recognized for was their "L Windows". These windows were where the engineer would drive and instead of having two pillars, Southern Pacific decided to remove one from the engineers side to give better visibility. Although after the idea of Wide Cabs came to play, most of Southern Pacific's Railroad kept their L windows before being rebuilt or sold to different private railroads after its merger. A lot of railfans consider it odd but at the same time a nice view since Southern Pacific is the only freight railroad to actually carry locomotives with L windows. In later years, due to safety standards coming into effect, the L window was considerably a safe window allowing visibility more distant then with the beam or T joint. Locomotives that were distinct to have L Windows were EMD 645 prime movers such as the EMD SD45, EMD SD45T-2, EMD SD40T-2, and GP locomotives, or General Purpose. Today, most locomotives with cabs that are not Wide Cabs use the 2 beams due to the railroad's decision. Most Railfans now consider finding any locomotive with L windows a nice treat to see because the fact that it gave the locomotive distinction and better looks. Southern Pacific Railroad had about 65% to 80% of their fleet with "L Windows" from the 1960s until its merge with Union Pacific and to this day. Some Southern Pacific locomotives that made it to UPRR are still intact with the "L Windows" but have been patched to UPRR's logo or locomotive number.

Unlike many other railroads, whose locomotive number boards bore the locomotive's number, SP used them for the train number until 1967, when they adopted the other railroads' "standard," except for the SP's San Francisco-San Jose commute trains, which maintained the display of train numbers for the convenience of passengers awaiting their trains. The other major railroad which used locomotive number boards for train numbers into the late 1960s was SP's transcontinental partner, Union Pacific.

Toward the end of the railroad's corporate life, Southern Pacific locomotives were known for being very dirty. Some railfans jokingly observed that the railroad's heavily used locomotives were only washed when it rained.

Union Pacific recently unveiled UP 1996, the sixth and final of its Heritage Series EMD SD70ACe locomotives. Its paint scheme appears to be based on the Daylight and Black Widow schemes.

Passenger train service[link]

Until May 1, 1971 (when Amtrak took over long-distance passenger operations in the United States), the Southern Pacific at various times operated the following named passenger trains. Trains with names in italicized bold text still operate under the Amtrak name:

• 49er
• Argonaut
• Arizona Limited (operated jointly with the Rock Island Railroad)
• Beaver
• Californian
• Cascade (operates today as part of the Coast Starlight train)
• City of San Francisco (operated jointly with the Chicago and North Western Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad; SP portion operates today as part of Amtrak's California Zephyr)
• Coast Daylight (operates today as part of the Coast Starlight train)
• Coast Mail
• Coaster
• Del Monte
• Fast Mail (Overland Mail)
• Golden Rocket (proposed, was to have been operated jointly with the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad)
• Golden State (operated jointly with the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad)
• Grand Canyon
• Hustler
• Imperial
• Klamath
• Lark
• Oregonian
• Overland
• Owl
• Pacific Limited
• Peninsula Commute (operated until 1985, now Caltrain)
• Rogue River
• Sacramento Daylight
• San Francisco Challenger (operated jointly with the Chicago and North Western Railway and the Union Pacific Railroad)
• San Joaquin Daylight
• Senator
• Shasta Daylight
• Shasta Express^[2]
• Shasta Limited
• Shasta Limited De Luxe^[2]
• Starlight
• Sunbeam
• Sunset Limited
• Suntan Special
• Tehachapi
• West Coast

Locomotives Used for Passenger Service

Steam Locomotives

• 2-8-0 Consolidation
• 2-8-2 Mikado
• 4-4-2 Atlantic
• 4-6-2 Pacific - see SP 2472
• 4-8-2 Mountain
• 4-8-4 Golden State/General Service - see SP 4449
• 4-8-8-2 Cab Forward Articulated Mallet

Diesel Locomotives

• ALCO PA
• EMC E2
• EMD E7
• EMD E8
• EMD E9 - see SP 6051
• EMD FP7
• FM H-24-66 "Train Master"
• EMD GP7 - SSW only
• EMD GP9 - see SP 5623
• EMD SD7
• EMD SD9 - see SP 4450
• GE P30CH - leased from Amtrak
• EMD SDP45
• EMD GP40P-2

Notable accidents[link]

• On March 28, 1907, the Southern Pacific Sunset Express, descending the grade out of the San Timoteo Canyon, entered the Colton rail yard traveling about 60 mph, hit an open switch and careened off the track, resulting in twenty-four fatalities. Accounts said all but five of the train's fourteen cars disintegrated as they piled on top of one another, leaving the dead and injured in "a heap of kindling and crumpled metal." Of the dead, eighteen were Italian immigrants traveling to jobs in San Francisco from Genoa, Italy.^[3]
• The Coast Line Limited was heading for Los Angeles, California, on May 22, 1907, when it was derailed just west of Glendale, California. Passenger cars reportedly tumbled down the embankment. At least two were killed and others injured. "The horrible deed was planned with devilish accurateness," the Pasadena Star News reported at the time. It said spikes were removed from the track and hook placed under the end of the rail. The Star's coverage was extensive and its editorial blasted the criminal elements behind the wreck. "Diabolism Incarnate" is how they headlined the editorial. It read: "The man or men who committed this horrible deed near Glendale may not be anarchists, technically speaking. But if they are sane men, moved by motive, they are such stuff as anarchists are made of. If the typical anarchist conceived that a railroad corporation should be terrorized, he would not scruple to wreck a passenger train and send scores and hundreds to instant death."
• In the early hours of June 1, 1907, an attempt to derail a Southern Pacific train near Santa Clara, California, was foiled when a pile of railway ties was discovered on the tracks. A work train crew found that someone had driven a steel plate into a switch near Burbank, California, intending to derail the Santa Barbara local.
• On August 12, 1939, the westbound City of San Francisco derailed from a bridge in Palisade Canyon, between Battle Mountain and Carlin in the Nevada desert. Twenty-four passengers and crew members were killed and many more were injured, and five cars were destroyed. An act of sabotage was determined to be the most likely cause; however, no suspect(s) was ever identified.
• On New Year's Eve 1944 a rear end collision west of Ogden in thick fog killed 48 people.
• On May 12, 1989, a Southern Pacific train carrying fertilizer material derailed in San Bernardino, California, destroying seven homes along Duffy Street and killing two train workers and two residents. Thirteen days later on May 25, 1989, an underground pipeline running along the right-of-way ruptured and caught fire due to damage done to the pipeline during cleanup from the derailment. Eleven more homes were destroyed and two more people were killed.

Preserved locomotives[link]

There are many Southern Pacific locomotives still in revenue service with railroads such as the Union Pacific Railroad, and many older and special locomotives have been donated to parks and museums, or continue operating on scenic or tourist railroads. Most of the engines now in use with Union Pacific have been "patched," where the SP logo on the front is replaced by a Union Pacific shield, and new numbers are applied over the old numbers with a Union Pacific sticker, however some engines remain in Southern Pacific "bloody nose" paint. Among the more notable equipment is:

• Southern Pacific 3100, SP 3100 (former SP6800 Bicentennial) U25B owned and operated by the Orange Empire Railway Museum,^[4] Perris, CA

SP 1518 at IRM, July 2005

• 4294 (AC-12, 4-8-8-2), located at the California State Railroad Museum, Sacramento, California
• 4449 (GS-4, 4-8-4), located at the Brooklyn Roundhouse, Portland, Oregon
• 2479 (P-10, 4-6-2), owned and being restored by the California Trolley and Railroad Corporation, San Jose, California
• 2472 (P-8, 4-6-2), owned and operated by the Golden Gate Railroad Museum, Redwood City, California
• 2467 (P-8, 4-6-2), on loan by the Pacific Locomotive Association, Fremont, California to the California State Railroad Museum
• 3420 (C-19, 2-8-0), owned by El Paso Historic Board, stored at Phelps Dodge copper refinery, El Paso, Texas
• 745 (Mk-5, 2-8-2), owned by the Louisiana Rail Heritage Trust, operated by the Louisiana Steam Train Association, and based in Jefferon (near New Orleans), Louisiana
• 4460 (GS-6, 4-8-4), located at the Museum of Transportation, Kirkwood, Missouri
• 1518 (EMD SD7), located at the Illinois Railway Museum, Union, Illinois
• 4450 (EMD SD9), located at the Western Pacific Railroad Museum, Portola, California - former commute train engine

For a complete list, see: List of preserved Southern Pacific Railroad rolling stock.

Company officers[link]

Presidents of the Southern Pacific Company[link]

• Timothy Guy Phelps (1865–1868)
• Charles Crocker (1868–1885)
• Leland Stanford (1885–1890)
• Collis P. Huntington (1890–1900)
• Charles Melville Hays (1900–1901)
• E. H. Harriman (1901–1909)
• Robert S. Lovett (1909–1911)
• William Sproule (1911–1918)
• Julius Kruttschnitt (1918–1920)
• William Sproule (1920–1928)
• Paul Shoup (1929–1932)
• Angus Daniel McDonald (1932–1941)
• Armand Mercier (1941–1951)
• Donald J. Russell (1952–1964)
• Benjamin F. Biaggini (1964–1976)
• Denman McNear (1976–1979)
• Alan Furth (1979–1982)
• Robert Krebs (1982–1983)
• D. M. "Mike" Mohan (1984–1996)

Chairmen of the Southern Pacific Company Executive Committee[link]

• Leland Stanford (1890–1893)
• (vacant 1893-1909)
• Robert S. Lovett (1909–1913)
• Julius Kruttschnitt (1913–1925)
• Henry deForest (1925–1928)
• Hale Holden (1928–1932)

Chairmen of the Southern Pacific Company Board of Directors[link]

• Henry deForest (1929–1932)
• Hale Holden (1932–1939)
• (position nonexistent 1939-1964)
• Donald J. Russell (1964–1972)
• (vacant 1972-1976)
• Benjamin F. Biaggini (1976–1983)
• Edward L. Moyers (1993–1995) Chairman/C.E.O.

Predecessor and subsidiary railroads[link]

Arizona[link]

• Arizona Eastern Railroad 1910-1955
  • Arizona Eastern Railroad Company of New Mexico 1904-1910
  • Arizona and Colorado Railroad 1902-1910
  • Gila Valley, Globe and Northern Railway 1894-1910 later AZER
  • Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad (of 1907) 1908-1910
    • Maricopa and Phoenix and Salt River Valley Railroad 1895-1908
      • Maricopa and Phoenix Railroad (of 1886) 1887-1895
        • Arizona Central Railroad 1881-1887
      • Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa Railway 1894-1895
  • Arizona and Colorado Railroad Company of New Mexico 1904-1910
• El Paso and Southwestern Railroad
  • Arizona and New Mexico Railway 1883-1935
    • Clifton and Southern Pacific Railway 1883 (Narrow Gauge)
    • Clifton and Lordsburg Railway
  • Arizona and South Eastern Railroad 1888-1902
  • Mexico and Colorado Railroad 1908-1910
  • Southwestern Railroad of Arizona 1900-1901
  • Southwestern Railroad of New Mexico 1901-1902
• New Mexico and Arizona Railroad 1882-1897 ATSF Subsidiary, 1897-1934 Non-operating SP subsidiary
• Phoenix and Eastern Railroad 1903-1934
• Tucson and Nogales Railroad 1910-1934
  • Twin Buttes Railroad 1906-1929; Tucson-Sahuarita line sold to above in 1910. Sahuarita-Twin Buttes line scrapped in 1934.

California[link]

• California Pacific Railroad (Vallejo, California to Sacramento, California)
• Central Pacific Railroad
• Interurban Electric Railway
• Northern Railway
• Northwestern Pacific Railroad
• Oregon and California Railroad
• Pacific Electric Railway
• Sacramento Southern Railroad
• San Diego and Arizona Railway
• San Diego and Arizona Eastern Railway
• San Francisco and San Jose Rail Road
• South Pacific Coast Railroad
• Visalia Electric Railroad
• Western Pacific Railroad (1862-1870) (San Jose, California to Sacramento, California)^[5]
• West Side and Mendocino Railroad (Willows, California to Fruto, California)

New Mexico[link]

• El Paso and Southwestern Railroad
• El Paso and Northeastern Railway

Oregon[link]

• Oregon and California Railroad 1869-1927
  • Oregon Central Railroad 1867-1870
• Portland Traction Company, owned jointly with Union Pacific Railroad and operated independently 1962-1989^[6] Portland, Oregon to Oregon City, Oregon and Boring, Oregon

Texas[link]

• Austin and Northwestern Railroad
• Galveston, Harrisburg and San Antonio Railway
• Houston and Texas Central Railroad
• San Antonio and Aransas Pass Railway
• Texas and New Orleans Railroad
• El Paso and Southwestern Railroad
• El Paso and Northeastern Railway

Mexico[link]

• Southern Pacific of Mexico

Successor railroads[link]

Arizona[link]

• Arizona Eastern Railway (AZER) since 1988 from SP
• San Pedro and Southwestern Railroad (SPSR) 2003-2006 line abandoned
  • San Pedro and Southwestern Railway (SWKR) from SP, 1994-2003

California[link]

• California Northern Railroad
• Eureka Southern Railroad
• Napa Valley Wine Train
• Niles Canyon Railway
• North Coast Railroad
• San Diego and Imperial Valley Railroad
• San Joaquin Valley Railroad

Oregon[link]

• Oregon Pacific Railroad
• Port of Tillamook Bay Railroad

Ferry service[link]

The Southern Pacific Company's Bay City ferry plies the waters of San Francisco Bay in the late 19th century

The Central Pacific Railroad (and later the Southern Pacific) maintained and operated a fleet of ferry boats that connected Oakland with San Francisco by water. For this purpose, a massive pier, the Oakland Long Wharf, was built out into San Francisco Bay in the 1870s which served both local and mainline passengers. Early on, the Central Pacific gained control of the existing ferry lines for the purpose of linking the northern rail lines with those from the south and east; during the late 1860s the company purchased nearly every bayside plot in Oakland, creating what author and historian Oscar Lewis described as a "wall around the waterfront" that put the town’s fate squarely in the hands of the corporation. Competitors for ferry passengers or dock space were ruthlessly run out of business, and not even stage coach lines could escape the group's notice, or wrath.

By 1930, the Southern Pacific owned the world's largest ferry fleet (which was subsidized by other railroad activities), carrying 40 million passengers and 60 million vehicles annually aboard 43 vessels. However, the opening of the San Francisco – Oakland Bay Bridge in 1936 initiated the slow decline in demand for ferry service, and by 1951 only 6 ships remained active. SP ferry service was discontinued altogether in 1958.

Notable employees[link]

• Carl Ingold Jacobson, Los Angeles, California, City Council member, 1925–33

See also[link]

Railways portal

• California and the railroads
• Historic Southern Pacific Depots
• Pacific Fruit Express
• Southern Pacific Santa Fe Railroad
• St. Louis Southwestern Railway

References[link]

• Beebe,, Lucius (1963). The Central Pacific and The Southern Pacific Railroads. Berkeley, California: Howell-North Books. ISBN 0-8310-7034-X. 
• Cooper, Bruce C. (2005). Riding the Transcontinental Rails: Overland Travel on the Pacific Railroad 1865-1881. Philadelphia: Polyglot Press. ISBN 1-4115-9993-4. http://cprr.org/Museum/Riding_the_Rails_Intro.html. 
• Cooper, Bruce Clement, ed. (2010). The Classic Western American Railroad Routes. New York: Chartwell Books/Worth Press. ISBN 978-0-7858-2573-9. BINC: 3099794. 
• Darton, D. H. (1933). Guidebook of the Western United States; Part F. The Southern Pacific Lines, New Orleans to Los Angeles.. Geological Survey Bulletin 845. Washington (D.C.): Government Printing Office. http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/geology/publications/bul/845/index.htm. 
• Darton, D.H. Guidebook of the Western United States; Part F. The Southern Pacific Lines, New Orleans to Los Angeles. Geological Survey Bulletin 845. Washington (D.C.): Government Printing Office, 1933.
• Diebert, Timothy S. & Strapac, Joseph A. (1987). Southern Pacific Company steam locomotive compendium. Huntington Beach, California: Shade Tree Books. ISBN 0-930742-12-5. OCLC 18401969. 
• Lewis, Daniel (2007). Iron Horse Imperialism: The Southern Pacific of Mexico, 1880-1951. Tucson, Arizona: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 0-8165-2604-4. OCLC 238833401. 
• Lewis, Oscar (1938). The Big Four. New York, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.. 
• Orsi, Richard J. (2005). Sunset Limited: The Southern Pacific Railroad and the Development of the American West 1850-1930. Berkeley, California: University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-20019-5. OCLC 55055386. 
• Thompson, Anthony W. (1992). Pacific Fruit Express. Wilton, California: Signature Press. ISBN 1-930013-03-5. OCLC 48551573. 
• Yenne, Bill (1985). The History of the Southern Pacific. New York, New York: Bonanza,. ISBN 0-517-46084-X. OCLC 11812708. 

Notes[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Southern Pacific Transportation Company

• Southern Pacific Historical and Technical Society
• Southern Pacific Passenger Train Consists
• Union Pacific History maintained by the Union Pacific.
• David Coscia's Southern Pacific Site
• Across the Great Salt Lake The Lucin Cutoff - Article from 1937
• Los Angeles River Railroads
• History of the Santa Ana and Newport Railroad on Abandoned Rails.com.

v t e Caltrain History Peninsula Commute San Francisco and San Jose Railroad Southern Pacific Transportation Company Management Peninsula Corridor Joint Powers Board City and County of San Francisco San Mateo County Transit District Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority Amtrak TransitAmerica Services, Inc. Stations 22nd Street Atherton Bayshore Belmont Blossom Hill Broadway Burlingame California Avenue Capitol College Park Gilroy Hayward Park Hillsdale Lawrence Menlo Park Millbrae Morgan Hill Mountain View Palo Alto Redwood City San Antonio San Bruno San Carlos San Jose Diridon San Martin San Mateo San Francisco 4th & King Street Santa Clara South San Francisco Stanford Sunnyvale Tamien Former Bay Meadows Castro Paul Avenue Connecting services San Francisco Municipal Railway Bay Area Rapid Transit SamTrans VTA Altamont Commuter Express AC Transit Amtrak Thruway Motorcoach Monterey-Salinas Transit San Benito Transit Santa Cruz Metro California Shuttle Bus Dumbarton Express Highway 17 Express SMART Other Caltrain Centralized Equipment Maintenance and Operations Facility Clipper

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