| Less than two years after her mentor Gram Parson's death, Harris recorded
her first album for Reprise. Pieces of the Sky inaugurated a suite of
four mid-'70s albums and a surprising number of hits: her sound was clearly
traditional, but also tastefully up-to-date with folk-rock and singer/songwriter
styles, and her cyrstalline, febrile vocals took standards such as "Sweet
Dreams" and "If I Could Only Win Your Love" back up the charts. Profile
focuses on these early hits, and if it's too brief to capture all the
best songs from four-star albums such as Elite Hotel, Luxury Liner, and
Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town, it shows why Harris is important and
why she continues to make adventurous country music. Through unfailingly
tasteful song selection, brilliant occasional songwriting, and her cool,
velvety soprano, Harris extended Gram Parsons's vision of "cosmic American
music" and made it her own. |
