If I could only listen to one artist...

If they passed a law that said that I could only listen to one recording artist for the rest of my life and that I had to choose that person on the spot - I would answer "Emmylou Harris" without even thinking.

I enjoy so many other singer/songwriters but none appeals to me more broadly than Emmylou. I always have one of her Cd's in the car and several of her albums on my i-Pod. I almost always include at least one of her tunes on every play list I create.

I have seen her in concert a few times and each performance has been mesmerizing.

Emmylou Harris is one of the leading figures in the Americana music (old timey, bluegrass, roots) movement beginning in the 1990's and continuing through today in the recent independent music explosion.

Her ethereal voice and her poingant lyrics combined - can bring about tears and heartfelt relief in the same song.

One of my favorites songs of hers is Prayer in Open D

There's a valley of sorrow in my soul

Where every night I hear the thunder roll

Like the sound of a distant gun

Over all the damage I have done

And the shadows filling up this land

Are the ones I built with my own hand

There is no comfort from the cold

Of this valley of sorrow in my soul

There's a river of darkness in my blood

And through every vein I feel the flood

I can find no bridge for me to cross

No way to bring back what is lost

Into the night it soon will sweep

Down where all my grievances I keep

But it won't wash away the years

Or one single hard and bitter tear

And the Rock of Ages I have known

Is a weariness down in the bone

I use to ride it like a rolling stone

Now just carry it alone

There's a highway risin' from my dreams

Deep in the heart I know it gleams

For I have seen it stretching wide

Clear across to the other side

Beyond the river and the flood

And the valley where for so long I've stood

With the Rock of Ages in my bones

Someday I know it will lead me home