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@stuartk  , ah, I misunderstood you, I was thinking you had seen that performance live.  She had a great voice back then (not that she still doesn't, but it has gone through the changes).  After I finally figured out whose voice it was that I was liking so much on those Terry Allen and Steve Earle CDs I referenced, the first Lucinda CD I bought was Happy Woman Blues; I get the feeling that it did not get great critical acclaim, but I loved it then and still do today.  Great writing and imo great vocal work.  I was frontrow at center stage at The Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh for the Poetry Said/Poetry Sung she did with her father.  That was the highlight of my life for a while.

@immatthewj 

Seen her live?   I wish !  

Saw EmmyLou in '76, though, with the original Hot Band. That was special.  

@stuartk , always good to talk to another Lu-natic! (I am not the originator of that term.) EmmyLou in ’76? Not far removed from the look and sound she had on her cameo at The Last Waltz, huh? I bet that was special. I got to see her with Spy Boy during The Wrecking Ball tour at a little 500 seat general admission joint--as always I was right up front and center .That was an older Emmy Lou.

Back in my Junior-Groupy days I had the good fortune to see Lu an even dozen times. The first time was like a religious experience for me--that same 500 seat general admission club (front & center again) that I saw Emmy Lou at--Jim Lauderdale was the opener and then played with Lucinda and the band. The next time was almost as much of a religious experience at a club right next door that held about 1200 standing, and, of course, I was standing front and center leaning against the stage. I was so close I could almost read the folder on the floor that she would flip through with one of her cowboy boots. Patty Griffin opened for her that time and I remember Kenny Vaughan was wearing a Flaming Red tee-shirt.   Man oh man but those were the days and I used to feel good about life.

Oh well, ramble on. . . . Keep on rocking in the free world!

"There are only two kind of men walking this earth, those who are in love with Emmylou and those who have yet to meet her"

"The first time I met Emmylou, she came into sing on Guy Clark’s first album. She gave me half of her cheeseburger. I wasn’t the same for weeks." Steve Earle from the liner notes on Train A Coming.

I love her cover of Steve Earle’s Goodbye from that CD and also her cover of Steve’s Guitar Town that she did on Live At The Ryman (1992).. I was watching youtubes once and found one with him bragging that Emmylou had covered TWO of his songs.

Emmylou and Lucinda have always had the best bands. Rodney Crowell, Ricky Skaggs, Buddy Miller, Albert Lee, James Burton, Glen D. Hardin, Emory Gordy, Herb Pedersen, Bernie Leadon, Ron Tutt, John Ware, Ben Keith, Byron Berline, Amos Garrett, Bill Payne, Richard Greene, Hank DeVito, Mike Auldridge, Tony Brown, and Tony Rice are amongst the great musicians who have provided Emmylou with musical accompaniment!

Just yesterday I found a copy of Emmylou’s Gliding Bird LP, on Emus Records. It was released in 1979, and contains early pre-Reprise Records recordings. Eight bucks. Right next to it in the bin at Music Millennium was the MoFi pressing of her Quarter Moon In A Ten Cent Town album. NM condition, $15. I of course have an original, but for fifteen bucks I’ll gamble that this is one of the "good" MoFi’s. 😉

I started seeing Lucinda live in small joints throughout L.A. around the time she was recording what became her s/t album on Rough Trade Records (I assume that’s the one stuartk referred to as her "white album"), once in a pizza parlour! Just Gurf on Telecaster, Dr. John on upright bass, and drummer Donald Lindley playing a washboard (the stage was too small to accomodate a drumset).

In the mid-80’s I went to see The Long Ryders at Club Lingerie on Sunset Blvd., and saw a guy I knew standing with a lanky blonde chick. I went over to say "Hey", and he replied "This is Lucinda, she writes songs too." I didn’t yet know it, but Lucinda’s then-husband was The Ryders’ drummer (for you drummers in the audience, he was playing a set of vintage white marine pearl Slingerland Radio Kings. Very cool!). I was also unaware of her two albums, Ramblin’ On My Mind and Happy Woman Blues.

But hearing the Rough Trade album and then seeing her in those intimate performances around L.A. was a life-changing experience, and I of course became an instant fan. I separate musical performers into two groups: entertainers, and artists. Nothing wrong with entertainers, but artists are just a different breed. Lucinda, like Emmylou, is an artist.