Arts & Lectures
2005-2006 Performing Arts Season News Release
For Immediate Release

August 23, 2005

Sings Like Hell and UCSB Arts & Lectures present the legendary Emmylou Harris with Buddy Miller in concert at the Arlington Theatre

Summary Facts:

Sings Like Hell and UCSB Arts & Lectures present Emmylou Harris and Buddy Miller in concert at the Arlington Theatre on Tuesday, September 27 at 8 pm. Blessed with an angel’s voice, Emmylou Harris blends folk, country and pop into magical music all her own. From her days with Gram Parsons to her shimmering alt-country classic Wrecking Ball, Harris has enjoyed a legendary career that has earned her Billboard magazine’s prestigious Century Award in 1999. The eleven-time Grammy-winner will be joined by frequent associate guitarist/singer Buddy Miller. The Los Angeles Times claims, “Harris is arguably the most captivating female artist ever in country music,” while the Boston Globe calls Buddy Miler “a potent bridge between country’s deepest roots and today’s more rockin’ country.”

Emmylou Harris has been hailed as a major figure in several of America’s most important musical movements of the past three decades. A steadfast supporter of roots music and a skilled interpreter of compelling songs in many genres, she also has been associated with a diverse array of collaborators, including Bob Dylan, The Chieftains, Johnny Cash, Linda Ronstadt, Beck, Neil Young, Connor Oberst, Sheryl Crow and Bill Monroe. Both critics and fans have lauded Harris’ contributions to country-rock, the bluegrass revival, folk music, and the Americana movement, and in recent years she also has carved out a sound that is uniquely her own. Her 1995 Wrecking Ball was a watershed album, combining several world-music elements with acoustic instruments, driving percussion, impeccable production by Daniel Lanois and a folk/roots flavor. The new style would evolve on a number of Harris’ subsequent releases, including 1998’s Spyboy, 1999’s Western Wall (a collaboration with Linda Ronstadt), and 2000’s Red Dirt Girl, which was praised as a showcase for her songwriting talent. Her most recent releases include, 2003’s Stumble into Grace, again primarily featured songs she wrote herself and 2005’s career retrospective Heartaches and Highways.

In 1971 Chris Hillman of The Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers brought Gram Parsons to hear Harris sing in a small club in the Washington D.C. area. In 1972, she answered the call from Parsons to join him in Los Angeles to work on his first solo album GP. After Parsons died in 1973, Harris went back to the D.C. area and formed a country band, playing with them until her 1975 major label debut Pieces of the Sky. The album electrified the country-music world, becoming the first of her eight consecutive gold or platinum records. Today, Emmylou Harris is regarded as a key figure in a movement that united rock audiences with country traditionalists. She made country music hip and brought it to a vast youth market for the first time.

The albums Elite Hotel, Luxury Liner, and Quarter Moon in a Ten-Cent Town made her an unquestioned country-rock leader. Then she led the way back to neo-traditionalist sounds with 1979’s Blue Kentucky Girl. The following year’s Roses in the Snow paved the road toward the bluegrass revival.

In the 1990s Harris took a leading role in yet another musical revolution—the Americana movement that gave country music its “alternative” wing. Her musical cohort on many of these recordings and tours was Buddy Miller, who Harris calls “one of the best guitar players of all time.” Steve Earle, another former bandmate, pronounces Miller “the best country singer working today.” After time in New York City with a band that featured a young Shawn Colvin, Buddy Miller is currently based in Nashville and often records with his wife, singer/songwriter Julie Miller; the duo’s Buddy and Julie Miller earned a Grammy nomination for best contemporary folk album of 2001. In addition to his stellar solo career and working with Emmylou Harris and Steve Earle, Buddy Miller has produced albums by Julie and Jimmie Dale Gilmore and has penned songs for the Dixie Chicks, Lee Ann Womack, Jim Lauderdale and Hank Williams III. His most recent CD is the spiritually inclined Universal United House of Prayer.

Miller has said about performing with Emmylou Harris, “It’s such an amazing thing for me every night. I’m such a fan, and she’s such a friend. She’s so hungry to hear music, and it’s good to be around someone who’s always open. Besides, just to get that voice in my monitor....”

Emmylou Harris & Buddy Miller are co-presented by Sings Like Hell and UCSB Arts & Lectures and sponsored by the Goleta Valley Voice, Metropolitan Theatres Corporation, Borders and KCBX Public Radio. Arts & Lectures’ Roots Series, of which this concert is a part, is sponsored by Fredric E. Steck and Kelly Le Brock. Concert tickets are $65 and $45 for the general public and $25 for UCSB students who must show valid ID at ticket purchase and the evening of the show. Ticket prices are subject to facility and convenience fees.

For tickets or more information,
call UCSB Arts & Lectures at (805) 893-3535
or the Arlington Ticket Agency at (805) 963-4408.

Editor: For photos, please call
Susan Gwynne at (805) 893-2098.

©2005 UCSB Arts & Lectures, University of California, Santa Barbara