Emmylou Harris Album: “Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town [Remaster]”

While the sound on all of the remastered CDs is superb, the producers really outdid themselves on "Burn That Candle," included here.

Of the four most recent reissues, this one has the best bonus tracks; they're fun and have great sound, too.

All the reissues are recommended, but if you buy just one of them, choose either this one or "Blue Kentucky Girl," which has Emmylou's absolute best song ever, "Sorrow In The Wind," as well as some terrific harmonies on other tracks.

This album has much to recommend it and has a similar country rock styling to Emmylou's previous album, Luxury liner. It features three of her own country hits and two other songs that were major country hits for others soon afterwards.

Two more bottles of wine was originally written and recorded by Delbert McClinton, but the song remained obscure for a couple of years. Emmylou made the song her own and topped the country charts with it. In the nineties, Martina McBride covered it and included it on her Wild angels album.

To Daddy was written and recorded by Dolly Parton but plans to release it were dropped when Dolly heard Emmylou's rendition of the song. Dolly's original version is brilliant - it eventually appeared on the compilation Essential volume 1 I will always love you - but despite her exuberance, Dolly is very modest about her own talents and it is entirely in character that she withheld her own version to allow Emmylou to have the first publicly available version of the song. It was another huge country hit for Emmylou, peaking at number three.

Easy from now on, the excellent ballad that opens the set, was another single released from the album, just failing to make the country top ten. Carlene Carter later revived it by including it on her album, I fell in love, one of my favorite albums of all time.

Leaving Louisiana in the broad daylight (a huge country hit for the Oak ridge boys) and I ain't living long like this (a huge country hit for Waylon Jennings) are both outstanding up-tempo songs that could have been Emmylou's own hits - she recorded them first - but you can only release so many singles from an album as a single and it is a tribute to the strength of this album that others could have hits with covers of her album tracks.

Among the other tracks are two excellent Jesse Winchester songs (Defying gravity and My songbird), while Willie Nelson puts in an appearance on One paper kid. Two other excellent songs, Green rolling hills and Burn that candle, round off this masterpiece.

I bought this CD because I wanted a recording of "Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight," but was delighted to discover that all the songs on this album are winners, especially "Easy from Now On," "Ain't Living Long Like This," and "Two More Bottles of Wine." I've been listening to the entire album over & over since I got it. I'd highly recommend it, whether you're an Emmylou Harris fan or not. This album might convert you!

This is another strong album from Emmylou Harris. It opens with the wonderful "Easy From Now On", one of my favorites from the album. Perfect song to introduce the listener to, it fared pretty well as a single as well. I also like her rendition of Dolly Parton's "To Daddy", which was a major hit at #3. The biggest hit came from "Two More Bottles Of Wine", a #1 hit. It's no wonder. My favorite from the set though is the ballad "My Songbird", perfectly sung (what could you expect) by Emmylou. The duet with Willie Nelson "One Paper Kid", is amazing. She rocks on the uptempo "I Ain't Living Long Like This", definately another highlight. Other highlights include "Leaving Louisiana In The Broad Daylight", "Defying Gravity" and "Burn That Candle". This is truly an exceptional album that is still in high rotation in my CD player.

After making many great albums, Emmylou still continues making great music, and makes her best album since "Pieces of the Sky". This is absolutely an amazing album! There's simply no fillers! Every song is great country music. There's three songs I especially like: "To Daddy", "Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight", and "I Ain't Living Long Like This". Sometimes this album sounds even better than "Pieces...". I love this album also because it has all kinds of great songs from slow ones to up-beat ones. Emmylou has an amazing voice, and she is my country star number one!

Stars: Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight, To Daddy, I Ain't Living Long Like This