For as much talent and hard work go into getting ahead in the music industry, luck is just as important an ingredient in the recipe of one’s success. The cliché of being in the right place at the right time is a cliché because it’s true. The number of musical hires based on merit versus those based on proximity and happenstance is unquantifiable but undoubtedly similar. (In fact, one might argue the latter would take the lead.) And the same went for Emmylou Harris.
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Harris was on shaky ground on the fateful day that she—or, more accurately, someone she knew—was in the right place at the right time. The aspiring country singer was fresh from a divorce, bankruptcy, and a failed attempt at breaking into the Greenwich Village folk scene. She was raising her infant daughter alone. As Harris recalled to The Guardian in2026, “In the end, I had to go back to Maryland to my parents. I went home to mama. It was not a happy time.”
Fortunately, Harris had a good support system in Maryland. With the help of her parents and a babysitter named Tina, Harris put together a folk trio and got steady work playing six nights a week in the DMV. And indeed, if it hadn’t been for Tina, Harris might never have graduated from the D.C. coffee house scene.
How Emmylou Harris’ Babysitter Helped Her Get Her Big Break
In the early 1970s, Gram Parsons visited Washington, D.C., to see his former bandmates in The Flying Burrito Brothers perform during their week-long stint in the capital city. As fate would have it, Tina, Emmylou Harris’ babysitter, was at the same bar where Parsons was, and she was able to overhear him talking to Chris Hillman, a Burrito Brothers bandmate. Tina, who worked full-time as a promoter when she wasn’t babysitting for extra cash, interjected and told Parsons about Harris.
Parsons reached out to Harris and invited her to join his touring band, which she accepted, but the plans never came to fruition. Harris brushed it off, returning to her nightclub scene and growing family. Eventually, Parsons called her back with a new plan. “I got a ticket in the mail to Los Angeles,” Harris recalled. “It was a round-trip ticket, so at least I knew I could get back. [These chances] don’t appear that often, so you’ve gotta grab them.”
Her work with Parsons would prove to be the career catalyst she needed. Harris achieved critical acclaim for her deft harmony work on Parsons’ GP and Grievous Angel, placing her name at the top of the call list for duet partners and backing vocalists. From there, Harris’ career continued to blossom as a solo artist, a member of the iconic trio with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt, and more.
Harris’ story is a testament to the fleeting, serendipitous nature of an artist’s “big break.” So many choices, actions, and last-minute change-ups led to Tina being in that bar at that time, overhearing that conversation while babysitting for that artist on the side.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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