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Hard Bargain (2011)

Where the lyrics of Hard Bargain take you, and where it was really made.

Hard Bargain pushed aside a 1977 album to become Emmylou Harris's most successful solo LP on the Billboard 200.

Key places

Where Hard Bargain was recorded (2011)

Recording site Tragedy/Tragedy, TN — Hard Bargain was recorded at Tragedy/Tragedy, TN. The songs were recorded within four weeks in August 2010, according to Harris. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Hard Bargain: twenty-sixth studio album by American country singer-songwriter Emmylou Harris
• Released April 26, 2011
• Fourth solo recording for Nonesuch Records
• Recorded at Tragedy/Tragedy, TN
• Deluxe release includes a bonus DVD with six music videos

Background

• Songs were recorded within four weeks in August 2010, according to Harris
• Only three people can be heard on the album: Harris, producer Jay Joyce, and Giles Reaves
• Opening track "The Road" is about Gram Parsons, her musical mentor who died in 1973
• "The Road" is the first Harris-penned song to focus directly on Parsons's death since "Boulder to Birmingham" from 1975's Pieces of the Sky
• "Darlin' Kate" is a tribute to Kate McGarrigle, who died of cancer in 2010
• Kate and her sister Anna McGarrigle collaborated with Harris on numerous occasions since the 1970s
• "My Name Is Emmett Till" tells the story of Emmett Till, an African-American boy killed in 1955
• "New Orleans" makes references to Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged the city in 2005

Recording

• Recorded at Tragedy/Tragedy, TN
• Harris on vocals and acoustic guitar
• Jay Joyce on guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, piano, omnichord, ganjo, and mandolin
• Giles Reaves on drums, keyboards, percussion, piano, organ, vibraphone, and marimbula
• Six video clips filmed in December 2010 at Laughing House Studios, Nashville, TN

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Career

• Born April 2, 1947 in Birmingham, Alabama; American singer, songwriter, musician, bandleader and activist.
• Regarded as a leading artist of the country rock genre in the 1970s and of Americana in the 1990s.
• Began in the Greenwich Village folk scene in the late 1960s; first album Gliding Bird (1970) under the name "Emmy Lou Harris".
• Discovered by Gram Parsons in 1971; sang harmony on his GP (1973) and worked with him on Grievous Angel before his death in 1973.
• Breakthrough with Pieces of the Sky (1975); five US country number-one singles by 1980.
• Trio (1987) with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt became her best-selling album; At the Ryman (1992) renewed interest in the Ryman Auditorium.
• Wrecking Ball (1995), produced by Daniel Lanois, is seen as a turning point toward Americana.
• Estimated over 15 million records sold; 13 Grammy Awards; inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
• Founded the dog rescue Bonaparte's Retreat in Nashville; organizes the Concerts for a Landmine-Free World benefit tour since 1999.

Reception

At release

• Hard Bargain was met with "generally favorable" reviews from critics.
• At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 69, based on 19 reviews.
• The album's critical reception was positive overall, with the score drawn from mainstream publications only.

Records

• Sold 17,000 copies in its first week.
• Debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums chart.
• Harris's highest entry on that chart since the bluegrass LP Roses in the Snow in 1980.
• Debuted at number 18 on the Billboard 200.
• Displaced Luxury Liner (1977) as her most successful solo LP ever on that chart.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Six video clips were filmed in December 2010 at Laughing House Studios in Nashville, directed by Jack Spencer, and were released with additional commentary on the deluxe edition's bonus DVD.
• "The Road" is about Gram Parsons, and is the first Harris-penned song to focus directly on his death since "Boulder to Birmingham" in 1975.
• Only three musicians can be heard on the album: Harris, Jay Joyce, and Giles Reaves.
• "Darlin' Kate" honors Kate McGarrigle, who died of cancer in 2010, and her sister Anna McGarrigle had also worked with Harris since the 1970s.
• The album pushed Luxury Liner, a 1977 record, from the top spot of Harris's solo chart history on the Billboard 200.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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