Emmylou Harris has always been a musical enigma, from the moment she first picked up the $30 pawn shop guitar her grandfather bought for her when she was a teen. She would later say the nightly folk hour she heard on her local radio station as a child was her “church,” but she shied away from its acoustic counterpart, country, for a long time. In a 1975 interview with Let It Rock, she admitted to “looking down” on country music, despite growing up in the South and later becoming synonymous, at least partially, with this particular sect of Americana.
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But just because Harris knew she didn’t like country music didn’t mean the other kinds of music came naturally. While she pored over the folk records she heard on the radio, she started to have a crisis of conscience when she looked around at her relatively stable, well-to-do life and wondered the question every musician ponders at least once: “Am I a phony?” Hungry for an answer, Harris decided to write a letter to one of the pioneering forces of folk music himself: Pete Seeger.
Seeger could have ignored what we’re sure was one of countless letters he received from aspiring musicians. Instead, he replied to Harris’ letter in earnest, answering her question without condescension, helping push the blossoming singer-songwriter along on her musical journey.
What Emmylou Harris Asked Pete Seeger, and What Pete Said Back
Emmylou Harris moved around a lot as a child, thanks to her father’s position as a Marine Corps officer. But aside from the constant moving and the stress of her father being captured as a POW in the Korean War when Harris was only a toddler, she lived a comfortable life. Her family had the means to give her piano lessons, she was a cheerleader and a beauty queen, and she got straight A’s in school. In short, she was a far cry from the rough-and-tumble figures that often pervade the folk music canon. When Harris wrote Pete Seeger, she asked the musical icon if she could still sing those songs even though she didn’t live those experiences.
Harris hand-wrote her letter on three pages, front and back, obviously eager for any sort of guidance or caution Seeger could provide. In a 2013 interview with NPR, Harris recalled what he had to say. “I wish I still had that letter,” she began. “But basically, he said, ‘Don’t worry about suffering.’ You know, in his own very sweet way. Life will happen to you, and in the meantime, you know, read the books of Woody Guthrie. I mean, that just meant so much to me. That’s Pete.”
With Seeger’s blessing, Harris continued her musical studies, eventually making a name for herself for her crystalline voice and ability to interpret other people’s songs so carefully and accurately. In a full circle moment for both Harris and Seeger, the “Two More Bottles of Wine” singer performed for Seeger at his 90th birthday celebration at Madison Square Garden. If only the kid scribbling out six pages of questions could have known what was in store for her.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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