Emmylou Harris

Item: Stumble Into Grace
Author: Josh Hurst

Stumble Into Grace

(2003)

Reviewed by Josh Hurst

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Label Nonesuch RecordsThe Rebel Base2003

alternative country americana folk rock

You've been making music for over three decades. Critics and fans agree that you have one of the most achingly beautiful voices to ever be recorded. You're a certified Legend of country music. You've left your mark on popular music, and it will never be erased or forgotten. What, then, is left for you to do?

Why, record one of the finest albums of your career, of course. And that's just what Emmylou Harris has done with Stumble Into Grace. Produced by Malcolm Burn, this is a beautiful, poetic album that rights all the wrongs that made Red Dirt Girl such a flawed, mixed-bag of an album. Gone are the overlong, brooding, tiresome songs that made that album so difficult to listen to; in fact, "Little Bird" and "Jupiter Rising" are two of the most whimsical, lighthearted, and enjoyable pop songs Ms. Harris has ever recorded. The production is much better this time around, as well; on Stumble Into Grace, Burn gives Emmylou and her first-rate band a chance to rock on a couple of tracks; he keeps things light and uncluttered on the pop numbers; and he gives a reverent, holy-moment feel to tracks like "Strong Hand" that would make Daniel Lanois proud.

Forget Red Dirt Girl; this album is the real sequel to Wrecking Ball, Emmylou's masterpiece.

The songs here are rife with echoes of the Gospel. The opening song, "Here I Am," is a yearning love song written from the perspective of the Almighty, desperate to be reunited with His beloved: "I am searching through the canyon/ it is your name that I am calling/ Though you're so far away/ I know you hear my plea/ Why won't you answer me?"

A similar tale of unrequited love is told in "I Will Dream," a heartbreaking ballad of relentless grace: "And though you say you do not love me/ And your dreams are never of me/ I will dream my dream of you."

Emmylou laments the world's decay in "Time in Babylon," begging for a savior to "lead us to a higher and a holy ground." A similar social awareness fuels "Lost Unto This World," the album's darkest, edgiest number, co-written with the great Daniel Lanois. In it, Emmylou recounts a great act of injustice and violence, then wonders why nothing was done to stop it: "Was God the only one there watching/ and weeping as I fell?"

The real showstopper, though, and a candidate for the Best Song of the Year, is the heartbreaking, hymnlike "Strong Hand," a glorious tribute to the long-lasting marriage of Johnny and June Carter Cash. The chorus will bring a tear to the eye of the most hardened cynic: "And it's a miracle/ how one soul finds another/ Just one miracle/ is all it took my brother/ For I have seen them/ As they walk this world together/ And I believe, I believe." Play this song for a group of friends; there won't be a dry eye in the whole room.

Burn doesn't ever bring to the album the kind of energy and brilliant musicianship that made Wrecking Ball such an unforgettable recording; still, you'll be hard pressed to find an album with more talented personnel. With alt-country favorite Buddy Miller on guitar, Brady Blade and Daryl Johnson on drums, and backing vocalists that include Gillian Welch, Julie Miller, and Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris may have the best backing band this side of Bob Dylan.

The title of this record is very apropos; the first time you hear Emmylou Harris sing, you'll likely feel as though you yourself have just stumbled into grace. And this album is a fine example of how much grace this woman really has, both as a singer and a songwriter. Add to that some of Malcolm Burn's most beautiful work as a producer and you've got a piece of music that is as profound and enriching as it is enjoyable and joyful. Stumble Into Grace is a knockout.