1. Emmylou Harris was born on April 2,1947 and is an American singer, songwriter, musician, bandleader, and activist.
101 Facts About Emmylou Harris
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Emmylou Harris is considered one of the leading music artists behind the country rock genre in the 1970s and the Americana genre in the 1990s.
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Emmylou Harris's music united both country and rock audiences in live performance settings.
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Emmylou Harris was discovered by Gram Parsons, who influenced her country rock direction.
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Emmylou Harris had a continued string of commercially and critically successful albums like Roses in the Snow, Evangeline and Last Date.
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Emmylou Harris's backing group, the Hot Band helped establish a musical foundation for her concerts and albums.
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Emmylou Harris then collaborated with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt on Trio.
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Emmylou Harris was inspired to move in a new musical direction with 1995's Wrecking Ball.
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Emmylou Harris then reunited with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt for Trio II.
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Emmylou Harris found collaborative partnerships, such as with Mark Knopfler on the internationally successful All the Roadrunning.
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Emmylou Harris then collaborated with Rodney Crowell on the critically acclaimed Old Yellow Moon and The Traveling Kind.
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Emmylou Harris became involved in activism during this time, including starting her own dog rescue called Bonaparte's Retreat.
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Emmylou Harris has been estimated to have sold over 15 million records worldwide.
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Emmylou Harris has earned 13 Grammy Awards, placed 27 singles into the top ten of the US country chart, and several of her albums have received gold certifications in the US.
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Emmylou Harris was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2008 and was ranked among Rolling Stone's list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time in 2022.
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Emmylou Harris was one of two children born to Walter Rutland Harris and Eugenia Harris.
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Emmylou Harris's father was a Marine Corps officer who served in both World War II and the Korean War.
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The Emmylou Harris family lived in Birmingham through their daughter's first grade school year.
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Emmylou Harris's father was then transferred to Cherry Point, North Carolina, and later to Quantico, Virginia.
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Emmylou Harris took piano lessons as a child but did not enjoy them.
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Emmylou Harris won the "Miss Woodbridge" beauty pageant during her teen years.
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Emmylou Harris was among many adolescents interested in the American folk music revival of the 1960s.
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Emmylou Harris became fascinated with folk artists of the era such as Joan Baez, Bob Dylan and Buffy Sainte-Marie.
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Emmylou Harris's grandfather gave Harris her first guitar, which she learned to play.
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In 1965, Emmylou Harris graduated from Gar-Field as the class valedictorian.
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Emmylou Harris began taking classes in the fall of 1965.
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Emmylou Harris participated in the school's productions of The Tempest and The Dancing Donkey.
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Emmylou Harris helped form a folk music duo with Mike Williams called the Emerald City.
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Emmylou Harris played coffeehouses as a solo performer, primarily in one known as "The Corner".
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In 1967, Emmylou Harris dropped out of the University of North Carolina.
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Emmylou Harris then enrolled at Boston University but would soon drop out as well.
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Emmylou Harris ultimately chose to pursue a career as a folk singer full-time.
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Emmylou Harris briefly moved to Virginia Beach, where she worked as a waitress and as a folk singer.
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Emmylou Harris then left for New York City's Greenwich Village neighborhood where there was a popular folk music scene.
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In 1969, Emmylou Harris married her first husband Tom Slocum and soon gave birth to her first child.
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Emmylou Harris regularly worked the Greenwich Village music scene and developed friendships with fellow artists Jerry Jeff Walker, Dave Bromberg and Paul Siebel.
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Emmylou Harris worked at several notable Greenwich Village clubs, including The Bitter End.
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Emmylou Harris supported herself by working as a waitress and bookstore cashier.
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Emmylou Harris got her first manager and signed with Jubilee Records in 1969.
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Emmylou Harris attempted to support herself and her daughter by working as a waitress.
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Parsons went to hear Emmylou Harris and was drawn to her singing ability.
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Emmylou Harris toured as a member of Parsons's band in 1973, and performed vocal harmonies and duets with him.
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In 1973, Emmylou Harris returned to the recording studio to make Parsons' next album, titled Grievous Angel.
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Parsons's Grievous Angel was released posthumously in 1974, and three more tracks from his sessions with Emmylou Harris were included on another posthumous Parsons album, Sleepless Nights, in 1976.
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Emmylou Harris decided to carry on the country rock legacy left by Parsons for her own career.
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Emmylou Harris formed her own band and got a weekly job performing at the Red Fox Inn in Bethesda, Maryland.
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Emmylou Harris contacted Canadian-based producer Brian Ahern, who had recent success working alongside Anne Murray.
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Emmylou Harris formed a new backing group for the project called The Hot Band.
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In 1975, Emmylou Harris contributed backing vocals to several tracks on Bob Dylan's album Desire.
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Emmylou Harris gave birth to a second daughter during this period and briefly stopped touring.
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Emmylou Harris collaborated with Roy Orbison during this time for the 1980 single "That Lovin' You Feeling Again".
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Emmylou Harris won the Female Vocalist of the Year award from the Country Music Association.
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Drummer John Ware left Emmylou Harris' backing group, which prompted her to reform the Hot Band with new members.
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William Ruhlmann of AllMusic gave Last Date 2.5 stars, explaining that Emmylou Harris failed to create original styles and arrangements that previously set her apart.
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Emmylou Harris then relocated to Nashville, where she collaborated with new producer Paul Kennerly.
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In 1987, Emmylou Harris collaborated with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt to record the studio album, Trio.
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Around 1991, Emmylou Harris dissolved the Hot Band and formed a new backing group called the Nash Ramblers.
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Emmylou Harris then intended to record a live album of material she had never performed before.
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Emmylou Harris was president of the Country Music Foundation in the early 1990s and became an official member of the Grand Ole Opry in 1992.
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Also in 1998, Emmylou Harris appeared on Willie Nelson's Teatro album, featuring production from Emmylou Harris then-producer Lanois.
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Emmylou Harris parted ways with her record label and management during this period.
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In 2003, Emmylou Harris followed up with her next studio release Stumble into Grace.
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In 2005, Emmylou Harris recorded the song "A Love That Will Never Grow Old", which appeared in the LGBT film Brokeback Mountain.
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Emmylou Harris then toured in support of the album with an ensemble she dubbed the Red Dirt Boys.
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In 2010, Emmylou Harris re-recorded her song "Boulder to Birmingham" with the rock group the Fray and was issued as a single by Epic Records that year.
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In 2011, Nonesuch Records released Emmylou Harris' fourth self-composed album Hard Bargain.
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Emmylou Harris agreed to contribute to the soundtrack of Nick Cave's 2012 film Lawless.
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Emmylou Harris recorded three songs that appeared on the soundtrack.
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Emmylou Harris released an album of duets with Rodney Crowell in 2013 called Old Yellow Moon.
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In 2014, Emmylou Harris announced a book deal with Blue Rider, a Penguin Books publishing imprint.
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In 2021, Emmylou Harris told Clash magazine that she was still writing her memoir.
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In 2021, Emmylou Harris told Clash magazine that she was no longer writing songs because she didn't "feel the need" and have the sense of "urgency".
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Emmylou Harris found her first appreciation for music through the folk genre during the American folk revival.
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Emmylou Harris taught herself to play the guitar, sing and follow along with the radio.
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Emmylou Harris received further exposure to country music and developed an appreciation for it through her collaborations with Gram Parsons.
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Emmylou Harris told The Columbus Dispatch that she had not taken the genre seriously up to that point because she did not see the artistry of it.
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Emmylou Harris hired Rodney Crowell to join her band when she became a solo act.
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Emmylou Harris took the sound of California folk rock and embedded it with traditional country.
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Buzz McClain of The Washington Post said that Emmylou Harris' albums helped "define" the country rock music style.
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Authors Mary A Bufwack and Robert K Oermann concluded that Harris was the "beacon" of the country rock movement during the 1970s and 1980s.
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Emmylou Harris often sought out other musicians to enhance and develop her musical style.
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Emmylou Harris herself explained that her style of country music embedded more rock influences compared to previous interpretations of the genre.
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Emmylou Harris' artistry has been remembered for her collaborations with various artists.
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Emmylou Harris has made appearances on songs recorded by Ryan Adams, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Sheryl Crow, and numerous others.
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Writers have characterized Emmylou Harris's singing voice as that of a soprano, and she is described as being both "delicate" and "crystalline".
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Emmylou Harris has striven to follow a consistent music direction in her career that has helped influence modern contemporary music.
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Bufwack and Oermann explained how Emmylou Harris's music changed the direction of country music decades later.
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In 2009, Linda Ronstadt and Earl Scruggs were present when Emmylou Harris received an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music.
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At the 2012 Academy of Country Music "Honors" ceremony, Emmylou Harris was presented with the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award.
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Emmylou Harris performed at the concert which included her singing "Boulder to Birmingham" with other artists that were part of the program.
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In 1997 and 1998, Emmylou Harris performed in Sarah McLachlan's Lilith Fair concert series, which promoted female music artists.
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Since 1999, Emmylou Harris has organized an annual benefit tour called Concerts for a Landmine-Free World.
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Emmylou Harris became a member of the newly formed Commission in the Humanities and Social Sciences of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011, which started as a way to promote research with the humanities and social sciences.
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Since childhood, Emmylou Harris has enjoyed caring for dogs and fantasized about establishing a dog rescue.
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Emmylou Harris helps raise funds for the program by creating concerts that sponsor the rescue.
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Emmylou Harris has been married and divorced three times and has called herself a "really good ex-wife".
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In 1969, Emmylou Harris met fellow folk artist Tom Slocum while living in New York City's Greenwich Village.
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In 1984, the couple divorced and Emmylou Harris relocated to Nashville, Tennessee.
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In 1985, Emmylou Harris married songwriter and record producer Paul Kennerley.
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Emmylou Harris has a granddaughter who was born in 2009 and a grandson born in 2012.
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Emmylou Harris's father died in 1993 after having an aortic rupture.