Emmylou Harris is a musical icon and true inspiration in her own right, but before she could become that, she was a young woman who picked up the guitar because of a different icon and inspiration, one who inspired Harris to move to New York City, kick-starting her entire career. It’s safe to assume that someone with Harris’ talent would’ve found a way, somehow.
Videos by American Songwriter
But this famed singer-songwriter and political activist certainly cleared the path that Harris was able to walk down in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
Emmylou Harris Learned Guitar Because Of Her
Emmylou Harris grew up in various locations around the South, due to her father’s job as a Marine Corps officer. She was a studious child who took piano lessons but only suffered through them. After her family took note of her love of folk records, her grandfather gifted her a $30 Kay 1160 Deco Note from a pawn shop. Suddenly, Harris had the ability to become one of her musical heroes: the incomparable Joan Baez.
Harris watched Baez dominate the folk music and social activism scenes of the mid-1960s with awe. “She is the reason I picked up the guitar, and I think I speak for a lot of other girls my age,” Harris told The Guardian in 2021. “She’s an iconic artist who changed music and the heart of America by giving voice to the civil rights movement.”
Although Harris originally went to college to pursue a theatre degree, she dropped out after a year and a half. “Music did something to me that drama never did because I didn’t have the talent to get into that zone,” she recalled. “I realized that I wasn’t very good. So, instead I went to New York and tried to be Joan Baez.”
The Only Performer To Make Her Nervous
By the mid-1970s, Emmylou Harris was as much of a star in some circles as Joan Baez. However, that didn’t stop Harris from placing Baez on a pedestal. Recalling her perception of the “Diamonds and Rust” singer during that time in a 2014 Rolling Stone interview, Harris said, “I worshipped her. Still do in a way because she just changed my whole focus on music.”
Harris always loved Baez’s take on traditional music and melodies. But something switched when she heard Baez perform socially conscientious songs by Bob Dylan and the like. “You realize that music was not just singing about your heartbreak. But it was about changing people’s hearts and minds. It really is an incredible tool in changing the world, and I think she’s been an amazing example.”
Unsurprisingly, Baez is also one of the only artists to leave Harris starstruck on stage. During her conversation with The Guardian, Harris said, “I’ve been able to sing with a lot of my heroes. But one time, Mary Chapin-Carpenter and I had to sing in front of Joan. It was the first time I’d been nervous since I’d fronted my own band, but she was incredibly gracious. Then, a few years ago, Jackson Browne and I sang with her at a fundraiser in San Jose.”
“We were considered compatriots of the stage,” she continued. “But I still had a goddess complex about Joan.”
Photo by Philip Gould/Corbis via Getty Images
Leave a Reply
Only members can comment. Become a member. Already a member? Log in.