All I Intended to Be

Emmylou Harris

Product Details

• Audio CD (June 10, 2008)
• Original Release Date: June 10, 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Nonesuch
• ASIN: B0017I1FNK
• In-Print Editions: Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (107 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #413 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk
Emmylou Harris has always had a way with woe. On All I Intended To Be, she seems more maudlin than ever as she sings her way through songs about loss, heartbreak, even the odd funeral. Of course, this is the kind of material Harris has always been comfortable with, but as her career and years advance gracefully, so her gliding soprano seems to breathe ever more refinement and soul into her material. All I Intended To Be has been produced by Brian Ahern, her former husband and the man behind her first 11 albums--another reason the album sounds so comfortable and accomplished. Joined by a virtuoso set of players including keyboardist Glen Hardin and multi-instrumentalist Stuart Duncan, plus vocalists Vince Gill, Buddy Miller, and Dolly Parton, Harris blends a handpicked selection of cover versions with her own material. Tracy Chapman's "All That You Have Is Your Soul" gets a honeyed reworking, as does Merle Haggard's "Kern River" and Mark Germino's "Broken Man's Lament". Billy Joe Shaver's "Old Five" and "Dimers Like Me" both get respectfully and sublimely covered too. But her own songs--in particular "Sailing Round the Room" and "Gold"--stand up well to these evergreens. An eclectic and profound set, All I Intended To Be is also one of Harris’ best in recent years.--Danny McKenna

Product Description
On her second Nonesuch disc, Emmylou Harris assembles an extraordinary cast of veteran musicians and fellow singers, all of them longtime friends, for a set that indeed showcases this Nashville icon, and 2008 CMA Hall of Fame inductee, as all she has intended to be - a singularly expressive vocalist, a brilliant interpreter of other people's songs, a graceful and confident songwriter. In particular, the album displays Harris's ability to bring new life to songs that may have been overlooked, forgotten or lost along the way. Some of the most affecting material here may be the least well-known - though not for long: John Wesley Routh's celtic/country "Shores Of White Sands" and trucker-poet Mark Germino's heartrending story-song, "Broken Man's Lament." Harris has chosen these songs with conceptual care. Like much of the gently uplifting All I Intended To Be, the stories may be bittersweet, the characters may be downtrodden, but somehow a sense of redemption always vanquishes regret. The shared history of all the artists involved deepens the feeling of hard-won wisdom that informs All I Intended To Be. Producer Brian Ahern was behind the boards for such early Harris classics as Elite Hotel, Pieces of the Sky and Blue Kentucky Girl. The players and guest stars are not only a veritable who's-who from the worlds of country, bluegrass and folk, but they have each intersected with Harris throughout her four-decade career as a recording artist. They include Dolly Parton, singers Pam Rose and Maryann Kennedy, dobro player (and longtime Seldom Scene member) Mike Auldredge, keyboardists Glenn D. Hardin (of Harris's Hot Band and Elvis Presley's legendary TCB combo) and Bill Payne (of Little Feat). Two songs - the June Carter tribute, "How She Could Sing The Wildwood Flower" and the breathtakingly beautiful "Sailing Round the Room" - were co-written by and performed with Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Singer-songwriter Karen Brooks, whose own eighties-era version of "Shores of White Sands" was the inspiration and thematic jumping-off point for this entire album, contributes backing vocals throughout; Randy Sharp, Brooks' singing partner, did the vocal arranging. (Harris won a 2005 Best Country Vocal Performance Grammy for her rendition of Sharp's "The Connection.") Harris's own songs, like the heartache ballad "Gold" and the elegiac "Not Enough," blend seamlessly with work by Patty Griffin ("Moon Song"), Merle Haggard ("Kern River") and Billy Joe Shaver ("Old Five and Dimers," from which the album title is taken). Harris revives what is arguably Tracy Chapman's most eloquent song, "Fast Car" notwithstanding - "All That You Have Is Your Soul," a cautionary tale with a simple but profound prayer of a chorus. Displaying the maturity, elegance and ease that distinguished All The Road Running, her best-selling 2006 collaboration with Mark Knopfler. Harris has created a riveting emotional and spiritual journey. All That I Intended To Be is everything a listener and fan could hope for.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

190 of 202 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars She may be uncommonly modest, but this is her "My Way", June 10, 2008

By	Jesse Kornbluth "Head Butler" (New York) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Until very recently, no one expected something "new" from an artist. He/she did what he/she did, and, over time, with work and talent and increasing mastery, the art got better and better. But it didn't get "different" and there was no expectation of novelty --- no one wrote about "Bleak House" that Dickens had failed to make a stylistic leap over "David Copperfield".

Emmylou Harris is an Old School musician in many ways, but especially in this --- she's plowed the same field for almost all her career. There have been modest detours, but nothing requiring her to change her hair or buy a drum machine. She just sings American Roots music, straight ahead and unadorned.

American Roots music isn't country, pop or rock, though it's not ashamed to borrow from those styles. It's not bluegrass, gospel, folk or Cajun, though there are elements. To its practitioners, it's the authentic heart of the heartland, songs that could only come from here, sounds that remind us who we are. Soul music, if you will.

Emmylou Harris is the high priestess of this music, and on her 21st release she does it as well as anyone ever will. To those who do not worship at her shrine or listen only casually to her music, it may sound like just another Emmylou Harris record: that exquisite voice, evocative lyrics, flawless instrumentation and angelic harmonies. Yes, it is, and "Great Expectations" is just another Dickens novel.

In today's lost and destructive music business, it takes ferocious courage and massive self-assurance to put out a record of quiet beauty and then to put a title like "All I Intended to Be" on it. That's a statement, a stake in the ground --- Emmylou Harris may seem uncommonly modest and self-effacing, but this is her "My Way".

These songs were recorded over four years. The producer was Brian Ahern, her former husband and collaborator on her first 11 albums. The musicians may be well-known to music fans --- the singers include Dolly Parton, Vince Gill, Buddy Miller and the McGarrigle Sisters --- but there are an equal number of lesser-known singers and musicians who appear simply because they're dear to Emmylou. And the songs? "I've always seen myself as a relentless song-finder, a singer of other people's work whom I admire greatly, and an occasional songwriter," she says, putting herself last and least, as is her custom.

The songwriters are at once venerable and esoteric: Billy Joe Shaver, Merle Haggard, Patty Griffin, Mark Germino, Jack Wesley Routh. The song you probably know is by Tracy Chapman: "All That You Have Is Your Soul." That could easily have been the title of this CD. It is certainly the theme.

28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars hunger only for a world of truth, August 26, 2008

By	Oz Wizard (Palo Alto, CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Once again I feel compelled to comment on Emmylou's music. When I first saw this disk I read various reviews here whining that this album is a "downer" and the like. I smiled to myself and bought it without a second thought. I would have bought it no matter what the reviews said. Yes, Emmylou sings about pain, but she also sings about redemption and perseverance, the dawn that follows the darkness. Anyway, what price do you put on music that brings tears to your eyes?

But I am writing just to comment on one track from this disk. "All That You Have Is Your Soul", a song that did not grab me when I heard the author's version two decades ago, is rescued here and made Emmylou's own. The song includes the lines: "hunger only for a taste of justice, hunger only for a world of truth." The depth of longing in the "hunger only", the slight hush of reverence in "justice" and "truth". Those lines, at this time, in that voice... Whatever I might think of the tracks on this album, and my opinion varies, those few seconds are worth the price of the album to me, and I would not be without it.

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unashamed unadulterated roots music, August 4, 2008

By	R. Kyle (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Emmylou Harris may be so good, she is at her penultimate for most of her career. I admit, I enjoy her soulful voice and spare orchestrations so much that I really cannot claim to have a favorite CD from her releases.

This 2008 release was produced by her former husband, Bruce Ahern. You'll hear old friends on this CD, including Dolly Parton (backup on "Gold") and Buddy Miller. The 'songfinder' has snagged some great music, too, from the likes of Tracy Chapman and Kate McGarrigle.

"Broken Man's Lament" talks about not messing with someone else's dreams. When the subject married a bar singer, he asked her not to sing.

"Gold" talks about the human failings in all of us:

"no matter how bright I glitter, baby, I can never be gold"

Probably my favorite song of this collection is "All that you have is your soul" by Tracy Chapman. This song contains some of the best life advice you can get.

In this case, I think a lot of this CD was gold as soon as it was released.

Rebecca Kyle, August 2008