Boulder to birmingham

Emmylou Harris became a country performer by coincidence. As a teenager, she was fond of the work of artists popular during the American folk rivevel period, such as Bob Dylan and Joan Baez . After moving to New York , in 1969 she recorded her own folk album, Gliding Bird . However, the record failed, and soon the singer’s marriage broke up and she had to return home to her parents in a suburb of Washington , where she began performing in local clubs ^[1] .

At this time, Graham Parsons was looking for a vocalist to perform duets on his first solo album. On the recommendation of Chris Hillman, he came to Washington in 1971 and listened to Harris in one of the bars ^[1] . In 1972, he invited her to Los Angeles and in the end they recorded two albums together ^[2] . The singer also toured with him and his band The Fallen Angels ^[3] . Parsons changed Harris' perceptions of music, opened the country genre to her, becoming her friend and mentor ^{[4] [1]} . In 1973, he died from an overdose of drugs, but the reputation that the singer gained while working with him provided her with her own record contract ^[1] .

The ballad "Boulder to Birmingham" is dedicated to Graham Parsons and reflects the emotional shock of Harris from his death ^[2] . The song became the centerpiece of her successful country debut, Pieces of the Sky , which was featured on Billboard's Top 10 Albums Top Country Chart ^[1] . The singer composed the song with the help of her friend on the Washington folk scene, Bill Danoff , co-author of the song “ Take Me Home, Country Roads ” by John Denver and the future founder of the Starland Vocal Band ^[2] . Danoff helped her complete the song by inventing a melody for the verse ^[5] .

Despite the fact that the song does not contain direct references to the death of Parsons, it has a pronounced character of an ode to a lost (or deceased) lover or close friend. The severity of loss is conveyed in the text of the composition through various allegories , but is most clearly illustrated in the refrain ^[6] :

Mentioned in the refrain, Birmingham is the city in Alabama where Harris was born ^[2] . Boulder - a city in Colorado , where in one of the local clubs held her first performance with Parsons and his band The Fallen Angels ^[7] . This episode especially struck her memory, because of the two or three concerts planned in this institution, they played only one. Further, the administration refused to cooperate with Parsons and his team because of poorly rehearsed material ^[8] . During the composition of the song, the idea to mention Boulder came to her mind due to a good alliteration with Birmingham ^[7] .

Contrary to common misconception, the phrase in the first verse “I was in the wilderness and the canyon was on fire” ^[9] . In fact, this is a reference to forest fires in the vicinity of Los Angeles , where the singer went soon after the death of her mentor. “It was in 1973, during a fire in Topang Canyon , you could stand in the middle of the streets of Los Angeles and everything around looked like it was engulfed in flames. A truly spectacular sight, ”she explained ^[10] .

The composition became the hallmark of Harris and one of its most famous ^{[11] [12]} . Despite the fact that the singer achieved recognition primarily as an extraordinary interpreter of the works of other authors, throughout her career she wrote many of her songs and “Boulder to Birmingham” - one of her most successful works as a writer ^[2] . As the musicologist James Perone notes, although in terms of text and music this song can successfully fit into the repertoire of many other artists, its emotional strength is largely due to the feeling of a kind of detached humility that permeates Harris' vocals ^[6] .

The song in different years was recorded by more than 20 performers, among which ^[13] :

• The Walker Brothers - on No Regrets album (1975)
• Dolly Parton - on the album All I Can Do (1976)
• Joan Baez - on a concert album From Every Stage (1976)
• The Hollies - on the album Write On (1976)
• Starland Vocal Band - on the album Starland Vocal Band (1976)
• Barbara Dixon - on the album The Right Moment (1986)
• Kate Campbell - on Twang on a Wire (2003)
• Magna Carta - on the album In Tomorrow (2006)
• The Fray - on Scars & Stories (2012)
• Jill Johnson and Doug Seigers - on the album In Tandem (2015)
• The Wailin 'Jennys - on Fifteen (2017)
• Jesse Buckley - on Wild Rose Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2019)

• Emmilou Harris - Acoustic Guitar
• Rick Kanha - Acoustic Guitar
• Herb Pedersen - 12-string guitar, backing vocals
• Ray Folman - Bass
• Glen Hardin - electro piano
• Bill Payne - Piano
• Ron Tutt - drums
• James Burton - Electric Guitar
• Ben Keith - Pedal Steel
• Brian Ahern - guitar (Nashville tuning)
• Nick DeCaro - Orchestra Conductor

• Brown, G. Colorado Rocks !: A Half-century of Music in Colorado . - Pruett Publishing, 2004 .-- 194 p. - ISBN 9780871089304 .
• Clark, Rick . Notes on Pieces of the Sky by Emmylou Harris [CD]. Warner bros Records 2004 (8122-78108-2).
• DeYoung, Bill. Emmylou Harris: The Sweetheart of the Rodeo (Eng.) // Goldmine: Journal. - 1996 .-- 2 August ( vol. 22 , iss. 418 , no. 16 ). Archived July 21, 2018.
• Dimery, Robert. 1001 Songs: You Must Hear Before You Die . - Octopus, 2011 .-- P. 960. - 2990 p. - ISBN 9781844037179 .
• Gaillard, Frye; Scheldt, Kathryn. Quilt: And the Poetry of Alabama Music . - NewSouth Books, 2015 .-- 120 p. - ISBN 9781603063906 .
• Perone, James E. The Album: A Guide to Pop Music's Most Provocative, Influential, and Important Creations [4 volumes ]. - ABC-CLIO, 2012 .-- 1539 p. - ISBN 9780313379079 .
• Sullivan, Steve. Encyclopedia of Great Popular Song Recordings . - Rowman & Littlefield, 2017 .-- 830 p. - ISBN 9781442254497 .
• Larson, Michael. Encyclopedia of Classic Rock . - ABC-CLIO, 2017 .-- 464 p. - ISBN 9781440835148 .