Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell shine at Jupiters gig

CONCERT REVIEW: There is a reason Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell have been two of the most durable artists operating across 40 years in the often fickle country market.

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell

THERE is a reason why Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell have been two of the most durable artists operating across 40 years in the often fickle country market.

That’s because they are two of the best - as singers, writers, performers.

Like anyone, their separate careers have had peaks and troughs but they are on a high right now thanks to their two collaboration albums, Grammy-winning Old Yellow Moon and this year’s classic The Traveling Kind.

Here’s how you last: every night they get up on stage and people walk out going, “wow”. In this case, their first tour of Australia together, it was wow and wow again.

They first teamed in Emmylou’s Hot Band in late ’74 and Crowell penned some of her finest early songs. Now Crowell has lifted Harris’s already high standards to another level with the material they have written for The Traveling Kind. Songs like If You Can’t See Why I Didn’t Try and Higher Mountains somehow feel like they have always been around.

The new songs lose nothing in comparison with the familiar pearls in a set that was like a history lesson in the A-grade stuff in the place where pure country meets rock’n’roll. Among them: Gram Parsons’ Return of the Grievous Angel, Townes Van Zandt’s Pancho and Lefty, Roger Miller’s Invitation to the Blues and The Everly Brothers’ Love Hurts.

They traded lead vocals, verses, harmonies, and included some of their finest compositions from their solo careers, like Emmylou’s Red Dirt Girl and Rodney’s The Rock of My Soul.

Harris’s qualities as a singer are known by all, but Crowell’s understated delivery is a perfect foil.

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell are two of the best in the business.

Alas, no Boulder to Birmingham, perhaps Emmylou’s greatest song (and played at some of the other Australian shows), but with a tight band including some hotshot picking from Australian guitarist Jed Hughes and pedal steel player Steve Fishell — and such a generous helping of country-rock classics — we all knew we were witnessing something special.

That was even if the sound was good but not perfect — the electric bass lost some bottom end, for example — but these two soared through it all with grace, humility and large doses of joy. You just had the feeling that they both realised, “How lucky are we to be sharing this right now?”

Harmony James, certainly one of the finest Australian country singers and writers, played an excellent solo set in support and took the stage to sing with the stars on the concluding Even Cowgirls Get The Blues.

When someone shines while singing alongside Emmylou Harris, you know that’s a truly great singer. If you love this kind of music, you really need to check her out.

- Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell played at Jupiter’s Theatre, Gold Coast, on Wednesday

The duo’s latest collaboration, The Traveling Kind.