Customer Reviews

Luxury Liner

5 star:		(29)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...So go the apt lyrics of a song ("She") on this gorgeous collection of artistic fabulousness. For anyone who hasn't heard the phenomenon that is Emmylou Harris' clear-blue bell-like young voice, this disc will tilt you back like a mountain breeze on a June day. Such wonderfulness! My exultation falls far short of the clarity, purity and sheer musical beauty of the brilliant music recorded here, that you can purchase, amazingly, for a few dollars. What a wonderful world! I have, I think, all of Emmylou's albums, and I will say that this one stands near the top. That's saying a lot for an all-time world-class musician of Emmylou's stature. Whether or not you agree about the superlatives, you can't help but enjoy the soaring lyrical tracks on this disc. It's impossible to dislike this music, and very possibly it will become one of the most-played favorites in your collection, as it is in mine. Enjoy.

I've had a copy of Luxury Liner in one form or another since 1978. It still gets as much play as any recording in my collection because it simply is a timeless set of American music by an ensemble of rising young stars who were on fire with creativity. Luxury Liner was the vehicle that allowed Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band to show the world the amazing complexity -- and greatness of their musical soul. Harris, Lee, Skaggs, Crowell, DeVito, et. al. -- Man, what a crew!

The album itself doesn't have a weak track. But obviously I like some tunes more than others. Here are my personal favorites: Track one, side one, the title track -- and immediately you get hit upside the head with Harris' vocals and Albert Lee's incredible Telecaster licks. I remember reading where Joe Walsh called Lee's playing on this tune "incomprehensible." As in really, really hard to try and duplicate. Try James Burton on speed, playing flawlessly and maybe you might come close to Albert Lee's work on Luxury Liner. The next tune, "Pancho and Lefty," features Emmy's haunting vocals, that give this great song just the right treatment. No other recorded version even comes close to this performance. It's one of the all time great country tunes and it very well might make you cry. When I Stop Dreaming, You're Supposed to be Feeling Good (another highlight tune), and I'll be Your San Antonio Rose round out the first side.

Side two starts out with the Chuck Berry opus, C'est la Vie (You Never Can Tell). It's a rollicking, fun tune that is probably better than Berry's original. Harris vocals are sassy and strong, and the band rocks the tune just right. The next tunes are Making Believe and Hello Stranger, followed by Rodney Crowell's, She, that just might be the sleeper tune on the entire album. It's a ballad, and simply a great performance by Ms. Harris, who paints beautiful word pictures with Crowell's lyrics. The Hot Band provides a spare, tastefully beautiful backing. In point of fact, one of the real strong points on the album is Emmylou Harris credibility with a song. She makes you believe the tunes are autobiographical -- the hallmark of a great vocalist. The album closes with Tulsa Queen -- another haunting tune that for some reason or other always brings to mind hot summer nights at lonely train stations somwhere out on the High Plains. I usually listen to this tune several times because of that lonesome quality that this tune brings out. More great work here from the Hot Band. But what can I say? This was one great group of musicians!

This CD should be owned by any serious collector of American music. It was great when it came out -- it featured some outstanding young musicians who all went on to become stars in their own right -- and it really moved Emmylou Harris into the forefront of country/rock artists. The album came out in the late/mid-seventies -- a period that I call the "cosmic cowboy" era that had alot of movement in country music toward a more rootsy, hip sound. There were alot of young artists, Like Gram Parsons, Chris Hillman and the Flying Burrito Brothers -- combined with the older rebels, like Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker,and Waylon Jennings that were putting out music that was the antithesis of the more lush Nashville "countrypolitan" sound that was dominating country music top-40 in the 70s. Emmylou Harris and the Hot Band were kind of at the vanguard of this movement, and Luxury Liner stands out as one of the great pieces of work of this period.

I think that when people look back on Harris' career, they'll look to Luxury Liner as her breakout album that demonstrated most emphatically that Emmylou Harris was/is an important artist of great depth.

Finally! An audiophile's dream! Every note played on Emmy's Gibson J-200 is as clear and pristine as if the listener were in the studio itself. Listen to her vocals - crisp and clean.
Now, check out the songs. Luxury Liner is what I consider to be the first in Ms. Harris's peak period releases, going through her Ballad of Sally Rose (OK! OK! I know about White Shoes, but that was just a blip. Even so, that album is so much better than what she's been releasing lately!).
My favorite tune on Luxury Liner is Hello Stranger. Giving that classic the Cajun feel was a stroke of genius. And the way the vocalists play off each other throughout the song (especially when she's sung it in concert) is mesmerising. She literally brought an almost forgotten song from the 1930's back to life!
You're Supposed To Be Feeling Good is Emmylou at her prime, with a sort of ethereal sound quality to it. I'll Be Your San Antone Rose is pure country, which Ms. Harris has all but forgotten about in this 21st century.
Every song on this disc is a gem. Listen to Albert Lee's blistering guitar solo in the title tune! And, with loads of help from Ricky Skaggs fiddle playing, she blows away the original Chuck Berry version of (You Never Can Tell) C'est La Vie - no easy task.
At a time when current country music is abysmal at best, thank God these albums are available for us to remember what once was. Yes, I realize she's gained new fans from her more current releases, but her new direction in music leaves me empty. I long for the music that blew away all competition - THIS kind of music!
C'mon, Emmy! Ricky Skaggs (who, for those who don't know, was new to Emmy's group on Luxury Liner), Patty Loveless, Dolly, and numerous others have rediscovered their country roots and have had great success in doing so. This current crop of country cr*p (like Shania, Dixie Chicks, Garth, and a host of others) have done great harm to country music. With albums like Luxury Liner, (and Quarter Moon, Roses, Blue Kentucky Girl) you revitalized it almost single handedly back in the 1980's. Why don't you take up that challenge again?

Whatever she does, it is impossible for Emmylou Harris to disappoint. Nothing beats her beautiful voice or her exquisite taste in songs. This album, first released in 1976, has been enhanced by the addition of Me And Willie and Night Flyer.

She does a stunning cover of the Towns van Zandt song Pancho And Lefty plus stirring versions of the old country classics Making Believe and When I Stop Dreaming. The title track and She are Gram Parsons compositions, lovingly interpreted by Harris.

My other favorites include the moving country ballad I'll Be Your San Antone Rose, her cover of Chuck Berry's (You Never Can Tell) C'est La Vie, Hello Stranger, the duet with Nicolette Larson, and the lilting Tulsa Queen, a song about a train which equals Arlo Guthrie's City Of New Orleans any day.

Both the previously unissued tracks are great. Me And Willie is a melancholy song about life in a travelling country band, whilst Night Flyer with Delia Bell is a powerful ballad with breathtaking harmony vocals, and moody mandolin.

The CD booklet contains 2 full colour and 5 black & white pics of the graceful songbird, plus extensive liner notes on her career and background on all the songs up to Tulsa Queen. All the lyrics are included, including the two new songs.

Although I like Pieces Of the Sky, Roses In The Snow, Cowgirl's Prayer, Wrecking Ball and Red Dirt Girl a little bit more, this album still deserves five stars! Emmylou's music enriches the mind and emotions in many ways and is always spiritually uplifting.

Just like Linda Ronstadt's HEART LIKE A WHEEL is a requirement to be a Linda Ronstadt or 1970s music fan; Emmylou Harris' LUXURY LINER is a prerequisite to be any Emmylou Harris fan or music fan period. This is Emmylou Harris' greatest interpretive album, and one of my all-time favorites. LUXURY LINER is also the best-selling Emmylou Harris solo record. It isn't difficult to understand why. First the incomparable Hot Band, is in its peak form. There's extraordinary song selection ranging from Chuck Berry to the Louvin Brothers. Harris' singing is, as always, sensational. Harris brought Gram Parsons' earliest masterpiece "Luxury Liner" to public view. Obviously the title track to her third release, but the song has an explosive vocal track with rearranged structure making it one of the album's best. A new mood is created on "Pancho & Lefty" written by Townes Van Zandt. The sparse but gorgeous arrangements, make it one of the many highlights on this great CD. "Making Believe" is a Country classic, Harris' version, which charted at #6, is the best. Rodney Crowell's "You're Supposed To Be Feeling Good" is a terrific song. Harris transports the listener to the West on Susanna Clark's "I'll Be Your San Antone Rose". Instead of a Beatles cover, Harris makes Chuck Berry's "C'est La Vie" a crowing moment on the album. The song, which reached #8, is the ultimate listen, proving Harris could cover Rock classics with the same ease as she did Country classics. Speaking of Country classics "When I Stop Dreaming" is performed marvelously in harmony with Fayssoux Starling and Dolly Parton. "Hello Strangers" another remarkable song on this outstanding collection. Parsons' "She" is performed with a passion. The Harris/Crowell collaboration "Tulsa Queen" is an awesome closing to this majestic CD. I wore my cassette copy to the point of disintergration. When I decided it was time to move my Emmylou Harris collection from cassette to CD, this was the album I started with. If you're new to the enchanting music of Emmylou Harris, LUXURY LINER is the best place to start (also highly recommended BLUE KENTUCKY GIRL and THE BALLAD OF SALLY ROSE). Words can't describe how stunning LUXURY LINER is nor how incredible Emmylou Harris' artistry is. Don't miss this one, its without a doubt one of the most innovative, fantastic, and satisfying albums in the exceptional Emmylou Harris catalog.

Like many of Emmylou's early albums, covers dominate. Emmylou's superb singing backed by some top-notch musicians ensures that the album is brilliant.

The album yielded two top ten country hits. Making believe is a country classic, which had been a huge country hit for Kitty Wells in the fifties. You never can tell (C'Est la vie) is a cover of a Chuck Berry song. Much though I enjoy Chuck's music, I think Emmylou's version of this song is superior to the original.

Emmylou included two contrasting Gram Parsons, the title track (an up-tempo rocker) and She (a sad ballad). Rodney Crowell, then a member of Emmylou's band, wrote the catchy You're supposed to be feeling good. He also co-wrote Tulsa queen with Emmylou. Pancho and Lefty became better known after Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard recorded it in the early eighties but I prefer Emmylou's version of this Townes Van Zandt classic. I'll be your San Antone rose had been a country hit for Dottsy, a singer who (sadly) has long since faded into obscurity. When I stop dreaming is a Louvin Brothers song, which feature Dolly Parton lending vocal support. Hello stranger is a great cover of a Carter family song.

This is one of the finest albums in Emmylou's long and distinguished career.

This is Emmy's third album. In my mind Luxury Liner is the best collection for quality and diversity.
Once in a great while we get an album with one blinder after another. This is one of them.
The title track is a fleet-fingered potboiler that gets your attention from the opening note. Great covers abound in this album. Hello Stranger is luminous, When I Stop Dreaming absolutely soars, Making Believe is a classic, etc.,etc. You get the picture. Nothing even approaches filler material here.
The musicians, led by Albert Lee and Ricky Skaggs, are brilliant. Brian Ahern's production is first rate and the remastered sound is great. Today's modern country "stars" should listen to this album for eight hours straight in hopes that they might find a particle of soul. Do yourself a favor and buy this disc.

I've come to Emmy's music via WRECKING BALL, RED DIRT GIRL and SPYBOY. It was SPYBOY that made me realize the amazingness of Emmylou. I then set out to acquire all her recordings. I've heard (and now own) most of them; of these, I deem her masterpieces to be LUXURY LINER, ROSES IN THE SNOW, WRECKING BALL, and SPYBOY.

LUXURY LINER is magnificent. There's not a weak song or a misguided performance here. The best song (I believe) is the last, Emmy's gorgeous and heartbreaking "Tulsa Queen," co-written with Rodney Crowell. I confess (this is difficult, being the man that I am) to crying many times (only when I'm alone, of course) at the beauty of this song. I'm a total believer in the genius of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Van Morrison, Neil Young, and Joni Mitchell, but I doubt that all of them together have written more than a handful of songs better than this about a train that doesn't care that someone beloved is gone. Sadly, by the end of the song the Tulsa Queen itself is gone, and maybe that's part of the answer to the question Emmy asks in her song: "tell me how a train from Tulsa has got a right to know."

The song preceding "Tulsa Queen" is the beautiful, bluesy, and lyrically surprising "She", written by Gram Parsons and Chris Ethridge; I'm sure the song ordering is no accident.

There are too many perfect performances here to do justice to them all. But no review of this album could ignore Townes Van Zandt's story in song, "Poncho and Lefty". I treasure the performance recorded here because nowhere else (except on "Tulsa Queen" and "Boulder to Birmingham") have I heard the angelic beauty of Emmylou Harris' young voice better displayed. Every note is perfectly sung, perfectly phrased, and perfectly true. Her soprano here is pure and untouched by age--not to say that it's more beautiful than some of her performances on albums like WRECKING BALL and RED DIRT GIRL--but it's a different voice, and beautiful in a different way, and LUXURY LINER is the album that, in my view, best displays that voice.

Lastly, the album cover pictures the young Emmylou at a point in time when her outer beauty (she'll always be at least that beautiful inside) was perfect. In a strange way, the beautiful face depicted there totally corresponds to the georgous voice recorded on this album; there never was and never will be anything artificial about Emmy: LUXURY LINER is honest music at its very best.

I was just reviewing Amazon's "essential" listings of Emmylou's recordings and this extraordinary effort was somehow placed in the "best of the rest" section. Whoever was doing the placements missed the boat. This is the best of Emmy and I've been one of her biggest fans for 25 years.

This is the Albert Lee, Ricky Skaggs, Brian Ahern, Rodney Crowell version of the Hot Band backing up Emmylou on classics such as Luxury Liner, Tulsa Queen, Hello Stranger(beautiful harmonies provided by the late Nicolette Larson), She, Pancho & Lefty, and C'est La Vie. It just doesn't get any better than this!

This is the beginning of her prime. The voice is pure, powerful, and angelic. If you haven't yet heard Emmylou Harris, this is the place to start.

This is truly one of Emmylou Harris' best albums. She has always made good albums, I've never been disapointed, but there are moments where she has set the bar high and met those expectations, and turned albums into classics. This is one of those moments. "Tulsa Queen" is the best song on the album for me, definately a career highlight. Buy it for that song if nothing else, but there is not one bad choice in terms of song on this album. Another inspired number is her cover of Gram Parsons' "She". Another cover is of Chuck Berry's "C'est La Vie (You Can Never Tell)", which is well presented. Other goodies include "Pancho and Lefty", "Making Believe", "I'll Never Be Your San Antone Rose", and more. The whole album really. This is a good jumping place to start your Emmylou collection, don't miss it!