All I Intended to Be

All I Intended to Be See Latest Price & Discount EAN: 0075597992854 Editorial Reviews: Product Description The album displays Emmylou's ability to bring new life to songs that may have been overlooked, forgotten or lost along the way. Emmylou Harris assembles an extraordinary cast of longtime friends who are veteran musicians and fellow singers for a set that indeed showcases as all she has intended to be - a singularly expressive vocalist, a brilliant interpreter of other people's songs, a graceful and confident songwriter. Some of the most affecting material is the least well-known such as John Wesley Routh's Celtic/Country "Shores Of White Sands" and trucker-poet Michael Germino's heartrending story-song, "Broken Man's Lament." Harris has chosen these songs with conceptual care. 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