well hello friends and welcome to ask
0:17
Zach today we're going to take a deep
0:19
dive looking at the Emmylou Harris album
0:22
luxury liner this is part of a new
0:25
series I'm going to do on albums you
0:28
should know so this is going to be a fun
0:32
one I'm going to talk about the players
0:34
on it the producer the recording of it
0:38
some significant things as far as the
0:42
the playing and tones and such that are
0:45
used on it and yeah this is just a a
0:48
favorite album of mine and it's one that
0:52
golly has been on regular rotation for
0:55
over 30 years for me so I'm gonna have
0:58
fun here and I hope you do too
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all right let's dive in and uh just
Emmylou Harris Background
2:01
we're gonna do like a really brief
2:04
background we're going to do like the
2:06
nickel version of the Emmylou Harris
2:07
story just to kind of get up to uh to
2:10
this album
2:11
so Emmylou was born in Birmingham
2:14
Alabama she got into folk music she was
2:18
in New York City again this is the fast
2:20
version and she had a record deal with
2:25
Jubilee and she put on an album called
2:28
gliding bird and it was very much a folk
2:32
album with her kind of channeling one of
2:35
her Heroes Joan Baez
2:37
the album did not really go anywhere she
2:40
kind of has disavowed the album
2:43
and uh yeah and she went back to waiting
2:47
tables and she was discovered by Chris
2:51
Hillman of the birds and the Flying
2:53
Burrito Brothers who suggested that
2:55
Graham Parsons use her as a duet partner
2:59
and so Graham flew her out to Los
3:03
Angeles and she recorded two albums with
3:06
graham of course Graham died before the
3:09
second album could be released
3:11
and the management and the label decided
3:15
to move forward with Emmylou as kind of
3:18
an artist and in the same vein and
3:20
Graham had put together a a band for the
3:24
recording that was kind of a All-Stars
3:26
of country rock and they also included
3:28
to uh you know Elvis players James
3:32
Burton and Glendy Hardin and of course
3:35
he also had a bevy of other guys from
3:37
Bernie leddon to uh you know all sorts
3:40
of Buddy Emmons and all sorts of great
3:42
players on those those two gram solo
3:45
records
3:46
so they went forward and they worked
3:48
with a producer named Brian Hearn from
3:52
Canada
3:53
and Brian had had worked with Anne
3:56
Murray and was a great producer and so
Pieces of the Sky
4:00
their first collaboration Emmy and Brian
4:02
was this album pieces of the sky and
4:07
what an amazing first album again
4:09
because she doesn't recognize gliding
4:11
bird has a ton of great Tunes uh some of
4:15
them written by her
4:18
her kind of a singing partner her Graham
4:20
Rodney crowl and of course a bunch of
4:23
great playing by uh James Burton and not
4:28
yet the hot band because you you don't
4:30
have that that aggregation of players
4:33
together yet it's her second album so
4:36
when she's going to tour behind that
4:38
album she puts together the hot band
4:41
and the original hot band was Rodney
4:44
Crowell on rhythm guitar and Harmony
4:47
vocals and also contributing a lot of
4:49
great songs
4:50
you had Hank DeVito on pedal steel
4:53
guitar
4:54
John Ware on drums aka the shuffle king
4:58
of course James Burton on lead guitar
5:01
and you had Glendy Hardin on piano that
5:04
along with Elvis had come from Elvis
5:07
and that were actually touring with
5:09
Elvis and they would work around Elvis's
5:12
schedule and you had Emory Gordy Jr on
5:15
base who had been working with Elvis and
5:18
was famous for his bass part on Burning
5:21
Love
5:23
so that was the original hot band and
5:27
they began touring and they recorded
Elite Hotel
5:30
this album called Elite Hotel
5:33
and this fabulous sophomore effort by
5:36
Emmy with Brian Ahern still producing
5:39
and uh there are some live cuts on here
5:43
including ooh Las Vegas this is another
5:46
fabulous album that you ought to check
5:48
out
5:50
well after this album was released they
5:54
were they were touring and again they
5:58
were having to tour around Elvis's
6:00
schedule because of course they had two
6:03
players that were working in both bands
6:07
well there came a conflict and glendi
6:11
hardened The Pianist he decided to stay
6:14
with Emmylou but James decided to stay
6:17
with Elvis
6:19
and so at that point they they had a
6:23
little bit of time and they started
6:24
looking uh looking for Albert Lee
6:26
because Glendy Hardin had already worked
6:30
with Albert in the Crickets so the uh
6:34
and of course this is we're talking
6:36
about the post Buddy Holly
6:39
crickets that had Sonny Curtis and of
6:43
course the original bass player and
6:45
drummer kind of running that band and so
6:48
Albert had been a part of that and so
6:49
had Glendy Hardin and so uh Albert's
6:53
name quickly came up as a replacement
6:55
for James and before they could really
6:59
have a rehearsal or anything like that
7:01
on one of the shows that they were going
7:02
to do still with James Burton James was
7:05
sick and so Albert was thrown into
7:10
being the guitarist in the hot band and
7:14
uh
7:15
and yeah and they played they played
7:17
shows and before he knew it he was a
7:20
full-time hot band member replacing his
7:23
hero James Burton
7:25
so this was uh this was a tough thing uh
7:29
you know one James Amy Lou has even said
7:33
that James Burton really helped put the
7:36
hot in hot band and that there were
7:38
people that came to their shows to see
7:42
James
7:43
also uh Albert is a huge James Burton
7:48
fan in fact just to kind of bring this
7:51
home
7:51
recently I was emailed by Albert Lee and
7:55
the reason he emailed me was because he
7:57
had seen my episode where I talked about
8:00
James Burton's 52 telecaster and all the
8:02
changes that hit it had gone through
8:04
being
8:05
from its original kind of butterscotch
8:07
color to uh to being you know red with a
8:10
white pick guard as it is now
8:12
and he uh Albert was was kind enough to
8:15
send me an email saying how much he
8:17
enjoyed the episode and also he saw the
8:19
episode that I had done on on on him on
8:21
Albert and uh so there was also the
8:24
pressure of uh here's Albert Lee who is
8:28
replacing one of his biggest you know
8:31
influences and guitar Heroes that's a a
8:34
lot of pressure a lot of pressure from
8:35
also from the other guys in the band
8:37
because they were used to hearing
8:40
James's
8:41
playing in his tone and everything and
8:44
even though Albert plays a Telecaster
8:46
and plays in a similar style I mean he's
8:48
not identical to James and so Albert has
8:52
said that there was some pressure from
8:54
some of the other band members of really
8:55
wanting him to play as closely as
8:59
possible to James's original parts on
9:02
those first two albums
9:04
so it was a huge blessing you know for
9:08
Albert when they recorded the next album
9:11
which is the subject of today's episode
9:14
luxury liner so this was the first one
9:17
to feature Albert on on lead guitar and
9:23
it was a you know kind of a changeover I
9:27
think one of the uh some you know
9:29
reviewers and such have have noted that
9:32
this was the first Emily record that
9:33
didn't have a a Beatles cover on it and
9:36
uh but it it does have some fun covers
9:40
it all you know as as per usual it has
9:42
some gram covers and you know a tune
9:45
that she uh co-wrote with Rodney and
9:47
such but uh yeah let's uh
Luxury Liner
9:51
let's kind of dive in of course Brian
9:52
Ahern
9:54
was again the producer uh he and Emmy
9:59
would end up marrying a year or two
10:00
later
10:02
they recorded it using the enactron
10:05
truck which was this huge mobile truck
10:08
that had a you know a mixing console and
10:12
and recording gear in it and then they
10:13
would rent a house in which they did in
10:17
in Los Angeles and they would run cables
10:21
into the house and they would record in
10:24
different rooms in in the homes that
10:27
they would they would rent and they
10:29
would basically use the houses of
10:31
recording studio and then they would
10:32
have the control room and tape machines
10:35
and such in the enactron truck that was
10:38
outside on the street
10:40
so uh the first tune on the album is
10:43
luxury liner which is a Graham Parsons
10:46
tune that he did with the international
10:48
submarine band
10:50
it's here that we really need to give
10:52
praise to Brian Ahern of course I love
10:55
his production I love the way he mixes I
10:58
love the sounds he gets
11:01
but this tune really shows off some of
11:04
his arranging skills in that he won
11:08
changed the melody partially and the
11:10
chord changes on it so if you hear the
11:13
original version that Graham did
11:15
on the international submarine band
11:18
versus you know the uh the version on
11:21
this album uh they're they're you know
11:24
they're pretty different the uh you know
11:26
the original Graham version with the
11:28
submarine band sounds like it could have
11:30
been a monkey's tune or something like
11:31
that and uh I mean a cool monkey's tune
11:34
but it doesn't really uh it it doesn't
11:37
have the kind of the power and such that
11:39
uh that Emmy's version of it has a
11:43
couple really important notes is the
11:46
opening guitar that you hear on it the
11:49
diggy diggy diggy part is being played
11:52
by Brian Ahern so he's playing electric
11:54
guitar or an acoustic guitar with a
11:57
electric pickup on it through an
11:58
Echoplex
11:59
and he's playing that line because the
12:03
band was having trouble getting the
12:05
groove that he wanted and so to keep the
12:09
band playing the groove that he wanted
12:11
to stick to he plays that kind of Diggy
12:15
Diggy part throughout the song and
12:17
that's kind of the core and then of
12:20
course you you get the great uh drumming
12:22
by a John Ware the shuffle King and it's
12:27
a really really great song of course you
12:30
know you have Albert's wonderful
12:32
electric guitar parts you hear his kind
12:34
of
12:35
quasi-travis picking on there you hear
12:37
his fast single note lines on the solo
12:39
the uh the solo was made up from a
12:42
couple of passes so you know of course
12:44
they did some this is before Pro Tools
12:46
so they were you know cutting up some
12:48
tape and they put a couple different
12:49
passes together to create the uh the
12:53
solo on there and the tune really became
12:55
Albert's uh showpiece live because of
12:58
course James had the Tune ooh Las Vegas
13:01
off the last album that was kind of his
13:04
song to to show off with and of course
13:07
luxury honor became the vehicle for
13:10
Albert to really stretch out and play
13:13
long solos and uh and really amaze
13:16
crowds with his uh just amazing touch
13:19
melodic sense and tone and uh
13:23
he used his uh 53 tele and uh yeah just
13:28
a fantastic sound
Pancho Lefty
13:30
the uh the next song on the record is
13:34
Pancho and Lefty which of course is tune
13:36
written by Townes of Van Zant to me this
13:39
version of Pancho and Lefty is the
13:41
definitive version I know there are a
13:42
lot of fans of the Willy and Haggard
13:45
version of the tune and I I love it and
13:49
I love Reggie Young's you know gut
13:50
string solo on there where he's kind of
13:52
channeling Willy but uh to me this is
13:56
this is the the best version of the song
13:58
there's ever been and it's just
14:01
beautifully done it has an amazing B
14:04
Bender solo done by Albert Lee has
14:06
wonderful Harmony vocals by Albert and
14:09
Rodney Crowell and uh
14:12
it's just a a really great tune you also
Mickey Rafael
14:17
have
14:19
here you have
14:21
the guesting of Mickey Rafael if you're
14:24
not familiar with Mickey Rafael Mickey
14:27
is the wonderful harmonica player with
14:30
Willie Nelson from the beginning up
14:32
until today and Mickey is one of the
14:36
great guest artists that's on a number
14:39
of the cuts on the luxury liner and he
14:41
really helps take Pancho and Lefty up up
14:45
a notch with his wonderful kind of
14:47
almost string part sounding harmonica
14:49
work
14:51
Albert is not using his his own B Bender
14:55
guitar it was uh his was stolen so he
14:58
had a Dave Evans pull string with a
15:01
butcher block body
15:03
and it was on an equipment truck that
15:06
was stolen and so all the guys in
15:09
Emily's band lost
15:12
lost their gear
15:14
and but a fan was able to eventually
15:18
find the guitar buy it back and give it
15:21
back to to Albert so Albert did get his
15:23
guitar back but none of the other guys
15:25
got their got their gear back
15:27
so that is on that cut that's not that
15:30
guitar it's actually Bob warford's
15:33
Telecaster that he got from Clarence
15:36
white and so Albert borrowed Bob
15:38
warford's Telecaster with a B bender on
15:41
it and they used that for Pancho and
15:43
Lefty
15:44
the next tune of course is making
Making Believe
15:46
believe which is a great cover it's a
15:48
great version of the tune that uh that I
15:52
love and uh one of the besides Albert
15:54
Lee's wonderful solo on there another
15:57
real highlight of the tune is the the
16:00
guest Harmony work of the great herb
16:02
Peterson of course was in the desert
16:04
rose band and John Denver and others and
16:06
just
16:07
listening to his high Harmony on making
16:11
believe is just uh wow it's uh it's
16:14
fantastic
16:15
uh next up is uh you're supposed to be
16:18
feeling good which is a Rodney crowl
16:20
tune and here we have James coming back
16:24
and playing on so James plays on two
16:26
cuts on the record and so this is one of
16:29
them this is the first one and uh this
16:32
is another one that features some really
16:34
great playing by Mickey Rafael on the
16:38
harmonica uh James Burton plays some
16:40
wonderful guitar fills and such using a
16:45
phaser so it's probably either a phase
16:47
90 or a small Stone phaser and Rodney
16:50
crowl is playing really good rhythm
16:52
guitar part also going through a phaser
16:55
also uh I have to Spotlight Glendy
16:59
Hardin Glendy hardin's playing Fender
17:00
Rhodes on there and playing some uh his
17:04
part is really kind of gluing everything
17:06
together it's a it's a wonderful track
17:10
to finish out side two is I'll be your
17:13
San Antonio Rose which is a tune written
17:15
by Susanna Clark who of course at the
17:18
time was married to uh Guy Clark and
17:21
Suzanne was a wonderful songwriter in in
17:25
her own right and I'll be your San
17:27
Antonio Rose is a wonderful vehicle for
17:31
uh you know the great Honky Tonk piano
17:33
playing of Glenn D Hardin Albert Lee
17:35
kind of playing his uh kind of like his
17:39
own version of of James Burton Honky
17:41
Tonk stuff and again he's not copying
17:43
James in any way but kind of doing his
17:44
own thing and Ricky Skaggs is playing uh
17:48
you know fantastic fiddle work on there
17:50
it's a great tune and uh Albert and Hank
17:53
Devito play a wonderful twin you know
17:56
turnaround that's uh that's really nice
17:58
in it
17:59
side two kicks off with you never can
18:03
tell c'est la vie by Chuck Berry
18:06
of course most of you are probably
18:08
familiar with the song from uh you know
18:10
if you're not a Chuck Berry fan then you
18:12
probably uh saw it and heard it in Pulp
18:17
Fiction where John Travolta and Uma
18:19
Thurman are are dancing in the uh the
18:22
dance contest so great tune it's a great
18:25
arrangement of the song and uh
18:28
yeah and of course
When I Stopped Dreaming
18:30
uh the reason
18:34
you know the reason I became a big fan
18:36
of the the Bender work on there you know
18:38
of course Albert's using a b bender on
18:40
this tune is because he basically played
18:43
the whole solo on his starlex video that
18:45
he did in the early 1980s and I learned
18:48
that solo note for note and my college
18:51
roommates can still hum the cello even
18:54
though they don't even play guitar
18:57
uh next tune is uh when I stopped
19:01
dreaming which is great Louvin Brothers
19:03
tune and here we get wonderful Harmony
19:05
vocals by Dolly Parton and if you just
19:08
would have added in Linda ronstad sounds
19:10
like it could have been you know on a
19:12
trio album and who knows this might have
19:14
been a track from their uh you know the
19:18
the trio album that was never released
19:19
and they removed Linda's vocal and got
19:22
feyu you know Starling on there but uh
19:25
it's wonderful especially Mike
19:27
Aldridge's dobro work is wonderful and
19:30
then a uh of course another Mickey
19:33
Raphael harmonica solo that really takes
19:36
the tune up a notch uh then you have the
19:40
AP Carter tune hello stranger which uh
19:45
you know features Albert playing
19:46
mandolin and this is one of the reasons
19:48
why I and you know a lot of guys got
19:50
interested in mandolin from seeing
19:53
Albert Lee play mandolin because you
19:55
know it was like oh wait here's this
19:57
whole other color and that they can
19:58
bring to a band and uh you know you
20:02
don't have to be playing electric guitar
20:03
all the time and so yeah again great old
20:06
AP Carter tune hello stranger
She
20:10
uh uh next up is another Gram Parsons
20:13
tune this one co-written with Chris
20:15
Etheridge called she
20:17
and this has Albert playing a wonderful
20:21
lyrical guitar parts and he also gets
20:24
some nice Hank DeVito steel work uh to
20:29
me one of the the things that really
20:30
struck me in kind of listening to this
20:33
critically was that this is probably one
20:36
of the few Emmylou Tunes to not have any
20:38
Harmony vocals on it so they're just her
20:40
lead vocals and that's it
20:42
and it's a wonderful tune and it's also
20:46
fun to compare this with the original
20:48
version that Graham recorded that has
20:51
James Burton so it's it's fun to kind of
20:53
compare the kind of fills that Albert
20:56
did that are very lyrical and of course
20:59
the the stuff that James did which
21:02
yeah some people have said it sounds
21:04
like kind of a country soul so uh both
21:07
really great versions of the song
21:09
and the album ends with Tulsa Queen
Tulsa Queen
21:13
and this is a tuna co-written by Emmy
21:15
and Rodney Crowell and it's a train song
21:19
and uh
21:21
I really love it and one of the reasons
21:23
I love it is because of the bass and so
21:26
I found out that Emery Gordy Jr of
21:28
course the bass player with the hot band
21:30
and on this entire album
21:32
he used an interesting method to get a
21:35
doubled bass sound so what he was trying
21:37
to reproduce was the sound of a bass and
21:40
a Tic-Tac plane together but he didn't
21:42
want to play it twice
21:44
so what he did was he had a hagstrum
21:47
eight string bass now I know what you're
21:49
thinking no but he took off for the
21:52
strings so he just used you know four of
21:54
the strings not all eight of them and he
21:57
ran it through an EQ and he put all the
22:00
lows going to a direct box and that was
22:04
like the bass sound and then all the
22:06
highs were run to a fender basement amp
22:09
with some echo on it and with the treble
22:11
turned all the way up and that's the Tic
22:14
Tac sound so in that way you get this
22:17
really really great bass sound that has
22:20
really low lows and then it has this
22:22
this Tic Tac which I mean he also I
22:24
think he played it with a pick
22:26
and you get this really great doubled
22:29
bass sound and I don't think Emory Gordy
22:32
Jr gets enough love for his wonderful
22:35
base work whether it's burning love with
22:37
Elvis or on Albert's version of country
22:40
boy or you know all these you know
22:43
different tunes that Emery played on and
22:45
of course Emery uh you know would
22:48
produce Patty Loveless and of course
22:50
they were they're still married to this
22:52
day and uh so yeah yeah such a such an
Emmylou Harris
22:57
amazing uh album and uh like I said I
23:02
listen to it all the time and it was a
23:05
huge influence on me this is the album
23:07
that got me into both country music and
23:09
the Telecaster
23:11
so uh I uh I'd been on a a trip with my
23:16
family
23:17
and I was driving back home with just my
23:19
dad
23:20
and we stopped in San Antonio Texas at a
23:23
record store called Apple music that was
23:25
on San Pedro and of course the store is
23:27
no longer there
23:29
and I'd heard that Albert had played
23:32
with this you know
23:34
singer named Emmylou Harris I'd never
23:36
heard her before in my life
23:38
and again this was in 1990 and
23:43
I went through and I found this album
23:46
this is it this is the one uh in the
23:49
record shop and I saw Albert's name on
23:51
the back on the liner notes and I bought
23:55
it and it was about a three hour drive
23:58
back home and
24:01
I was just looking at it looking at the
24:03
liner notes seeing that James Burton was
24:05
also on two cuts and looking at the this
24:08
collage by Dan reader the photographer
24:11
and there's this wonderful you know
24:14
little photo of Albert Lee holding his
24:17
53 telecaster and all the guys in the
24:19
band and all the guests on it and yeah I
24:24
was just blown away and this got me into
24:27
you know Ricky Skaggs and Merle Haggard
24:30
and Buck Owens and everything else this
24:32
this album was my gateway to country
24:34
music and again to the Telecaster and uh
24:39
course
Telecaster
24:40
my first Telecaster you know because
24:42
this was this was 1990 uh my first
24:45
Telecaster was the James Burton
24:47
signature model so I was a black and
24:49
gold Paisley and I think I have a photo
24:51
here that I'll show of myself as uh
24:56
I guess I'm
24:58
you know you know 19 20 years old
25:01
something like that in college and uh
25:04
you know with my
25:06
Zack strap-on and with my
25:10
James Burton Paisley Telecaster so yeah
25:14
very important album uh go out and
25:17
listen to it and enjoy it and thank you
25:20
for watching and again I need to thank
25:23
guitar effectspedals.com and Ryan Nixon
25:25
for sponsoring this episode go see him
25:28
for all your pedals and accessory needs
25:31
thanks guys bye-bye