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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk review
Emmylou Harris has always had a way with woe. On All I Intended To Be, she seems more maudlin than ever as she sings her way through songs about loss, heartbreak, even the odd funeral. Of course, this is the kind of material Harris has always been comfortable with, but as her career and years advance gracefully, so her gliding soprano seems to breathe ever more refinement and soul into her material. All I Intended To Be has been produced by Brian Ahern, her former husband and the man behind her first 11 albums--another reason the album sounds so comfortable and accomplished. Joined by a virtuoso set of players including keyboardist Glen Hardin and multi-instrumentalist Stuart Duncan, plus vocalists Vince Gill, Buddy Miller, and Dolly Parton, Harris blends a handpicked selection of cover versions with her own material. Tracy Chapman's "All That You Have Is Your Soul" gets a honeyed reworking, as does Merle Haggard's "Kern River" and Mark Germino's "Broken Man's Lament". Billy Joe Shaver's "Old Five" and "Dimers Like Me" both get respectfully and sublimely covered too. But her own songs - in particular "Sailing Round the Room" and "Gold" - stand up well to these evergreens. An eclectic and profound set, All I Intended To Be is also one of Harris’ best in recent years.--Danny McKenna
Review
Belatedly inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame last month, Harris is on fine form for this, her first solo album in five years. It's been a quarter of a century since she last worked with ex-husband Brian Ahern, but according to her, the two get along just fine these days.
Harris's last two albums; the overrated Red Dirt Girl (2000) and the underwhelming Stumble Into Grace (2003), both suffered from an over-reliance on her song-writing skills, but All I Intended To Be finds a comfortable balance. Mixing well chosen covers and original material, Harris includes two pieces co-written with long-term collaborators Kate and Anna McGarrigle.
It's her most consistent effort since Wrecking Ball (1995), but has little in common with that album's rocked-up, grainily atmospheric sound. Instead, Ahern's warm, unaffected production often harks back to classic 1970s
country, albeit far closer to, say, Guy Clark's Old Number One than any string-laden Nashville schlock.
Harris has a wonderful knack for making others' songs sound like they were written for her, and Jack Wesley Routh's anthemic, Celtic-flavoured opener Shores of White Sand is a good example. In the case of Tracey Chapman's All That You Have Is Your Soul and Merle Haggard's drowning ballad Kern River, Harris actually improves on the originals. Billy Joe Shaver's Old Five And Dimers Like Me is done as fine duet with John Starling, with stirling backing vocals and dobro from Mike Auldridge, one of the record's most outstanding supporting musicians. Also worth a mention is Phil Madeira's shimmering accordion on Patti Griffin's lovely Moon Song.
Although there's no obvious filler, the originals can't quite match the high standard of the covers they sit beside. Of the better Harris-penned tracks, Gold features an unmistakeable harmony vocal by Dolly Parton, while How She Could Sing The Wild Wood Flower is gilded by the McGarrigles' sibling harmonies.
At 61, Harris copes admirably with her changing vocal chords by retreating into breathless whispers on some high notes - something of a trademark in recent years - and shows that having a great voice and being a great singer are not the same thing. --Jon Lusk
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exceptional,
By
This review is from: All I Intended to Be (Audio CD)
Rapidly shaping up to be one of the best of 2008, this is probably Emmylou Harris's best record since Spyboy, although stylistically it is closer to Wrecking Ball, and I have to add that there was nothing at all wrong with the intervening works.
It was a well-placed, curiosity-pricking ad for Spyboy, Harris's 1998 live album, that got me started. Until then I'd only had a vague regard for the "country" genre. After, I was hooked, and was amazed at her ubiquity, finding her making appearances with Lucinda Williams, Nanci Griffith, Rodney Crowell, Sheryl Crow, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt, as well as being the driving force behind the Gram Parsons tribute The Return Of The Grievous Angel (Brilliant. I don't care what the reviewers say). And they return the compliment, with Dolly here joining Harris on Gold, their voices intertwining perfectly. Emmylou Harris is not, of course, just about country. The rhythm section she brought to London in the wake of Spyboy would not, on the evidence of their jamming mid-concert, have looked out of place with Herbie Hancock. Ricky Skaggs, at one time part of Harris's band, remarked rather petulantly of her more recent music that it was "not country", but all of it, country and otherwise, shares a cabinet with Miles Davis, Joni Mitchell and The Clash in my world. The label is everything and nothing. But though country is, I guess, what this latest offering is closer to, what counts is that the songs, music and production add up to an exceptional experience. Songs first. Some great originals; some superb covers. Standouts in the latter category are Merle Haggard's Kern River; Billy Joe Shaver's Old Five And Dimers Like Me; and a totally stunning version of Tracy Chapman's All That You Have Is Your Soul, which comes about closest to a political statement here, and has a trace of Lovin' You Again, from Cowgirl's Prayer, just as the rendition of Crowley and Routh's Beyond The Great Divide has a fade reminiscent of Gone, Long Gone from Trio II. Almost inevitably there is also a song cowritten by Harris with the McGarrigles, How She Could Sing The Wildwood Flower. Also inevitable is that the sisters joined in on the recording. Musically there is a stellar array of contributors, armed with an arsenal of instrumentation from mandolin, through accordion, banjo and fiddle, together with the obligatory guitars, Dobro and steel and some exotica such as mandocello and baritone electric guitar. Musicians include old standbys such as Buddy Miller (the only thing a girl needs, as she described him when they appeared on Jools Holland's show) and John Starling. Finally, the production, and the tribute to that element is that, although this collection has taken several years in gestation it sounds, as Bob Harris observed when Emmylou appeared on his radio programme, of one time. Two closing notes. First, listening this gave me an even greater appetite to listen to Harris's back catalogue. And second, it is very seldom that I will play a record two times in succession: this is one of the exceptions.
62 of 69 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Voice Returns,
By
This review is from: All I Intended to Be (Audio CD)
In 1995 Emmylou Harris cut "Wrecking Ball", the first of four ground breaking albums, that took her into new directions and defined a new musical genre, alternative country. Now, recording with producer (and ex husband) Brian Ahern for the first time in 25 years, Emmylou Harris looks back into the past on her own terms because her phrasing and the swirling sounds of those albums are much in evidence on this largely acoustic set.
Harris and Ahern have assembled a stellar cast of supporting musicians and singers for this production most of whom have recorded with her many times over her career. They include Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Glen D Hardin, Bill Payne and Buddy Miller. The songs follow the themes of sorrow for love lost, death, low self esteem, growing old and, finally, the promise of redemption in "Beyond The Great Divide". There are some real gems in this collection, including "Gold" with Vince Gill and the most traditional country on offer, Patti Smith's exquisite "Moon Song", Billy Joe Shaver's "Old Five And Dimers Like Me" and her own "Sailing Around The Room" where, at the point of death, her spirit flies through the window to join with nature. Then, there is the Harris/McGarrigle song "How She Could Sing The Wildwood Flower" about the love that A P Carter had for his wife Sara - simply beautiful and not a dry eye in the house! The production and musicianship are impeccable but the most memorable thing about this album is Emmylou's voice. Time has been kind to her glorious pipes which have come to define her as an icon of Americana and able to convey depths of emotions that most other artistes find impossible. Just listen to the despair in Gold when she sings "But though I flew on wings of angels/My feet were always made of clay." Thus, with the simplest of materials, she has been able to transform them into carefully woven tapestries of gold and produce an album which ranks among her best.
33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Touching The Sublime,
By
This review is from: All I Intended to Be (Audio CD)
The title : a fanfare, a declaration and a manifesto.
This collection of thirteen new recordings brings us to some kind of pinnacle in Ms Harris's long career. She must know this to be true. The evidence is there for us to hear. After the dry, rasping austerity of 'Red Dirt Girl' (2000); the warm, reassuring classicism of 'Stumble Into Grace' (2003) and the uncomfortably eneven collaboration with Mr Knopfler, 'All The Road Running' (2006); 'All I Intended To Be' is a trancendent epiphany. A true and perfect wonder. Maturity of voice and musical vision; finely honed interpretive insight and the ability to create a sense of intense gravitas from the simplest ingredients are all marks of an artist functioning at the very height of her remarkable powers. A track by track deconstruction would seem somehow ignoble given material of such consummate beauty. Suffice to say that with the song 'All That You Have Is Your Soul' the world seems to turn to face the sun. Music to warm the coldest spirit. Either side of it twelve more wonderful examples of songs to raise your hopes and break your heart. Quintessential. Inimitable. Sublime.
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