Blue Kentucky Girl

 (32 customer reviews)

Go with the majority of the reviewers on this one folks. This is country the way it was meant to be!! Emmylou's vocals shine pure and true especially on "Beneath Still Waters" and "Save the Last Dance For Me" two of her masterpiece cuts and both #1 hits for her at the time of their release. This CD is Emmylou at her very best and when I found out they had released this treasure on CD I nabbed it immediately because I'd just about worn out my vinyl LP! It still packs a wallop after all these years!!

Emmylou has recorded many brilliant albums throughout her career but the string of albums that she recorded between 1975 and 1980 are ultimately her most important legacy. Everybody has his or her favorite - this is mine, perhaps because traditional country is what I like best, and that's what this album is filled with.The set opens with Sister's coming home, an up-tempo song written by Willie Nelson, on which Tanya Tucker joins Emmylou for an incredible duet. I love Willie's music, but Emmylou and Tanya's version of this song is far superior to Willie's original.Next comes the superb ballad, Beneath still waters, a hitherto obscure George Jones song, which provided Emmylou with a country number one hit. Even better is Save the last dance for me, also a huge country hit for Emmylou. I've heard countless versions of this song including the original Drifters version as well as brilliant covers by Buck Owens and others, but this is the best I've ever heard.Among the other great...Read more

This was the first Emmylou Harris album I ever bought. As many great albums as she has made, it's probably still my favorite. If you're unfamiliar with her work, this is probably the best intro to Emmylou you'll find. As with many Emmylou records, her talent for finding and interpreting songs is matchless. The song cycle here holds together as if the songs were written for one another. Backed by Ricky Skaggs, the Whites, Tanya Tucker, Don Everly, and many others, Emmy shines with her crystaline voice all the way through. Probably at her vocal peak with this record, Emmylou shows rockers, bluegrass pickers and country wannabes all how to do it -- and that she was doing it better decades ago. If you're a fan of new country, O Brother, roots rock or Americana, pick up this disc and listen to a master at work. Emmylou truly set the standard and blazed the trail for all those to come who would blur the lines of genres in the name of creative individuality.