Roses in the snow

At Roses in the Snow, Harris continued to move toward increasingly more traditional music ^[1] . The album was the artist’s next attempt to prove to critics her viability as a performer of a “genuine” country - without the inherent external genre influences ^[2] . Harris’s past works combined diverse material, from traditional country to Graham Parsons songs and The Beatles hits, and she tried to get away from this formula for the first time in the project Blue Kentucky Girl (1979) ^[3] . However, now the singer went even further by recording a completely acoustic album combining bluegrass and folk songs of the Appalachian region ^[2] . Harris began to get involved in such music back in the early 1970s, when after the death of Graham Parsons, her friend and one of the founders of The Seldom Scene ensemble, John Starling, through whom she also recognized the good-natured Jerry Douglas and multi-instrumentalist Ricky Skaggs, took patronage over her ^[4] . The latter was now a member of her group The Hot Band and helped Harris to a large extent decide to record Roses in the Snow ^[5] . Acoustic things were present on her albums before, and at concerts she specially singled out segments for bluegrass, during which she played numbers like “Angels Rejoiced In Heaven Tonight” and “With the other members of The Hot Band - Albert Lee , Rodney Crowell and Emory Gordy ” Satan's Jewel Crown »duet of The Louvin Brothers ^[2] . With the advent of Ricky Scaggs into the group, these trends intensified, and he became the main driving force of the ensemble ^[6] .

Meanwhile, Warner Bros. Records Records at that time expected something different from Harris - another diverse crossover such as the album Elite Hotel (1975) ^[7] . Representatives of the label dissuaded her from recording Roses in the Snow , predicting her career failure and sunset, but the singer considered it more important to join the traditions of Bill Monroe and her companion Ricky Skaggs ^[6] . From the very beginning, she herself wanted to include in the project some familiar third-party musical influences, in particular, the pop song Millworker by James Taylor and the jazz standard How High The Moon from the repertoire of Ella Fitzgerald ^[2] . However, her husband and producer Brian Ahern convinced the singer that the material should be stylistically homogeneous and should not be compromised in this regard - otherwise the work would not be correctly accepted ^[8] . As a result, the only element that got out of the general picture that she was able to convince him of was the guitar solo performed by Willy Nelson in the song "Green Pastures" ^[2] . The drum parts were completely absent ^[2] . Ahern himself, being a fan of ancient acoustic music, had long dreamed of recording such an album and made for Roses in the Snow arrangements of folk songs, including Wayfaring Stranger ^[9] .

The track list included 10 songs, sounding sent to the past even more distant than the works of George Jones or Hank Williams ^[2] . In addition to folk songs, there were the works of The Carter Family , The Stanley Brothers, The Louvin Brothers and a remake of Paul Simon 's The Boxer , which Harris played as a folk singer in Washington clubs ^[2] . The latter has become one of the most popular tracks on the album ^[10] . The main emphasis in creating the project was made on instrumental mastery and vocal harmonies ^[2] . Soprano Harris sounded in tandem with tenor Ricky Skaggs , who also played the mandolin, guitar, fiddle and banjo ^[2] . In addition to the current and former members of The Hot Band, the recordings featured guests as Skaggs' companion and bluegrass guitarist Tony Rice , the good-natured Jerry Douglas, and the sisters Sharon and Cheryl White of The Whites family trio ^[2] . As before, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt participated in the vocal recording ^[11] . The latter joined Harris and Skaggs in the songs “Green Pastures” and “Gold Watch and Chain”, respectively, and for the composition “Jordan”, Johnny Cash performed the part of the baritone ^[12] . The 2002 reissue of the album included two more songs from those sessions, however more modern in sound - honky tonk “You're Gonna Change” by Hank Williams and the track “Root Like A Rose” in Celtic style, written by Brian Ahern’s sister ^{[13 ]} .

The record reached No. 2 on the Top Country Albums and No. 26 on the Billboard 200 ^[1] . The single “Wayfaring Stranger” rose to number 7 on Hot Country Songs , and “The Boxer” went up to number 13 ^[14] . The release provided the artist with the CMA Awards in the category “Singer of the Year” and became her sixth gold album ^[2] . Despite the gloomy label’s forecasts, sales were good and the release received this certification faster than any of Harris’s previous albums ^[15] . In addition, the work was nominated for a Grammy Award as " Best Female Vocal Country Performance " ^[16] . The album eventually turned out to be one of the most risky and at the same time the most successful enterprises in the career of the singer ^[17] . At the dawn of the urban cowboy mix of country and pop music more than ever, Harris and Roses in the Snow not only successfully returned to the roots of the genre, but became a harbinger of neo-traditionalism that developed by the mid-1980s ^[2] .

Bonus tracks in the 2002 reissue:

1. “You're Gonna Change” ( Hank Williams ) - 2:40
2. Root Like a Rose (Nancy Ahern) - 4:45

• Brian Ahern - Producer, Sound Engineer
• Donivan Cowart - Sound Engineer
• Stuart Taylor - Sound Engineer

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