Friends Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell finally put out an album

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell had been friends for almost 40 years by the time they got around to making an album together. “Old Yellow Moon,” out today, is a loose-limbed mix of honky-tonk, old-school country and vintage, Topanga Canyon country-rock that draws on their shared past.

Produced by Harris’s ex-husband Brian Ahern, who first brought the two together in the early ’70s, “Moon” is a sepia-toned collection of mostly plaintive covers (of Kris Kristofferson’s addiction lament “Chase the Feeling,” of the Waylon Jennings-popularized “Dreaming My Dreams,” now a duet) and Crowell originals revisited (such as “Here We Are,” which Harris once recorded with George Jones, and an updated version of their first collaboration, “Bluebird Wine”). Harris’s voice retains almost all of its silvery loveliness, Crowell’s writing is as tight and sharp as piano wire and “Moon” just generally sounds as if it was recorded by friends, around a kitchen table, which is partly what happened.

(David McClister) - Rodney Crowell and Emmylou Harris.

Gallery

Spring 2013 Arts Preview: Got the winter blues? See what you can look forward to in music, art, dance and film.

GoingOut Guide

Looking for things to do?

Select one or more criteria to search

Anything Events Bars & Club Events Book Events Exhibits Food Events Miscellaneous Events Music Events Performing Arts Sports Events Movies Locations Bars & Clubs City Services Hotels Miscellaneous Locations Movie Theaters Museums Music Venues Restaurants Sports Locations Stores Theaters Anytime Today This Weekend Next 7 Days Opening Soon Closing Soon Anywhere in D.C. area D.C. U Street The Mall Tenleytown Takoma SW Waterfront Other Southwest Other Southeast Other Northwest Other Northeast Logan Circle Georgetown Foggy Bottom Dupont Circle Downtown Columbia Heights/Mt. Pleasant Cleveland Park/Woodley Park Chinatown Chevy Chase Capitol Hill Brookland Anacostia Adams Morgan Maryland St. Mary's County Prince George's County Montgomery County Howard County Greater Maryland Frederick County Charles County Calvert County Baltimore Anne Arundel County Virginia Prince William County Loudoun County Greater Virginia Fauquier County Fairfax County Arlington County Alexandria

Kid-friendly

Free admission

Get ideas

In semi-separate phone interviews (Crowell, 62, did his alone; Harris, 65, did hers sitting next to Crowell, and occasionally consulting him about half-remembered details, in the Nashville airport), the two old friends talked about their new album and traced the origins of their friendship from its earliest days to today.

In 1974, after the death of her mentor Gram Parsons, Harris, a young single mother, was living with her parents in the Maryland suburbs. Crowell was a struggling songwriter.

Emmylou Harris: I was working the [D.C.] clubs: the Childe Harold, Mr. Henry or Oh Henry’s, whatever, the Assembly, the Red Fox Inn. I was pretty much doing six nights a week. I heard [Rodney] up in Toronto when I was working on material with Brian Ahern. I heard his demo and got very excited, and [Ahern] arranged for us to meet.

Rodney Crowell: She was playing at the Childe Harold, this old folk club. I went to see her, and then we stayed up all night, sitting on the floor. We started a conversation about songs and music, the Louvin Brothers, Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark. And that very conversation that night is a conversation that we’ve sustained over the years, and was really what led to [this album], truthfully.

Harris’s major label debut, “Pieces of the Sky,” was released in early 1975; “Bluebird Wine,” written by Crowell, was the lead track. Crowell and Harris re-recorded the song, with new lyrics by Crowell, for “Old Yellow Moon.”

Crowell: When [“Pieces of the Sky”] came out, I was in California with her. We were in a boutique in Westwood and “Bluebird Wine” came on the radio, and we were like those kids in that Tom Hanks movie “That Thing You Do,” we were jumping up and down. We go up to the cashier, and [Emmylou said], “Listen, do you hear that? That’s me singing.” And I said, “Yeah, and that’s my song.” And the cashier sort of lazily said, “Oh, yeah, sure.” We were like, “No, really. It is!”

Harris: Rodney had never recorded it himself, and it seemed like [a new version would] give everyone a chance to hear what I heard when I heard Rodney sing that song. And I suppose there was a certain sentimentality for me, because it is kind of how we got together.