Sweetheart of the Rodeo

I don't like country music.

But...

EmmyLou Harris
Live on the Levee
On the Banks of the Mississippi
St. Louis, MO
Saturday, July 7, 2007
General Admission
free

I don't really consider EmmyLou Harris to be a country artist. She's more of a country/rock/folk crossover. She was right there at the beginning of country rock, singing with Graham Parsons. The first album I heard of hers was a rock covers album released in 1995 called Wrecking Ball. The radio station I used to work at played it a lot, and it sounded gorgeous. Her voice is beautiful.

Some years later, there was a cover story written about her in Goldmine. Roy and I both read it. I put EmmyLou in my "I wouldn't mind seeing her live sometime" group of artists. Roy downloaded a show of hers on-line and said it sounded too twangy.

St. Louis has a free summer concert series called Live on the Levee. The St. Louis Arch and surrounding park is a huge emblem of St. Louis and that's where the festivities are held. The stage is down near the Mississippi River, the street in front of it is blocked off, and on the other side of the street are the steps leading up to the Arch. It's a great view for the performers. The steps form an amphitheater of sorts, good seating for everyone who comes.

This was my first time attending Live on the Levee. We always have some reason not to go - the weather is bad, we're tired, don't want to face the crowds, we used to live too far away, but usually it's just that we're not interested in seeing those bands. We live closer now and I wanted to go. It's free and wouldn't go on too late, and there would be fireworks at the end.

After dinner, we took the Metrolink down. The festival opened at 6, but EmmyLou was going on stage at 8. Plenty of people would already be there. Roy warned me that we wouldn't get "good" seats, but I'd have no problem with people blocking my view sitting on the Arch steps. It's good.

We're making our way down the Arch steps and I found an open spot. But then my hero Roy noticed the area by the stage. Basically, there's thousands of people sitting on the Arch steps. But at the bottom of the steps, there's that closed off road, then the stage. The stage has a barrier in front of it, and two people standing in the makeshift front row. Roy doesn't even like standing for long periods of time, but he pointed it out and asked if I'd rather sit where we were or go down and be in the front row. I love the front row!!!!

We walked down the rest of the steps. I bought a water. Roy wanted to walk around some more, so I went to grab a spot by the stage. A country-fan-looking guy already there gave me a smile, in a "aren't we smart for grabbing this great spot?" way. More people came up front after me. It was still 90+ degrees out, but it didn't feel bad. Low humidity and a good breeze by the riverfront.

EmmyLou came on stage a little early, about 7:50. She played guitar, and had another guitarist, bass player, and percussionist with her. Some college-aged kid with a blue mohawk stood next to me, and he sang along to songs I'd never heard before. I did know a bunch of songs - EmmyLou has recorded a lot of cover songs, or should I call them interpretations so it sounds classier?

Anyway, she did "To Know Him is to Live Him", a Beatles song, Simon and Garfunkel's "The Boxer", Neil Young's "After the Gold Rush". She also did a Sinead O'Connor song that I'm not familiar with. Some people in the audience booed when she mentioned O'Connor. There were some covers of country songs and one of her own songs "Evangeline" that I vaguely knew.

The vocals from EmmyLou and the harmony singers were excellent - at times they all sang into the same microphone. Roy thought the show slowed down too much in the middle. I enjoyed the whole thing; it was mellow and not too exciting, but very nice.

There was some give and take with the audience. One woman near us yelled out that she named her cat after EmmyLou. She responded and is apparently a big animal lover. I swear she got a subtle anti-Bush comment in. She was going to do a couple songs by herself. She said she decided to do it, which led to "I'm the decider". Then, "That was a cheap shot". Either I'm reading into things or people didn't get it, because there was no crowd response. If I'm right, yay, especially for a country person in a setting like this! I like her even better.

After the show, we found a good spot to watch the fireworks. I hadn't seen professional ones for a few years. We usually just sit on our deck and peer through trees to catch some on Independence Day - there's some local show and private displays. There was a huge line for the Metrolink on the way home. Good that people are taking public transportation, but they're so unprepared for big crowds, it makes SEPTA look good.

It was a nice night, but it didn't make me want to check out more of her albums or anything. I don't consider myself a fan, but I do have a greater appreciation now.