Emmylou Harris/Daniel Lanois 27/5/2014

Daniel Lanois deserves equal billing for this gig although Emmylou may be the bigger name, for his contribution to the album that the tour celebrates (Wrecking Ball), and to the gig itself including the support set. His guitar playing was exemplary all evening, nuanced and complex and beautifully judged. There are some guitarists who change from one expensive guitar to another all through a set and you could argue they are perfectionists and craftsmen and I'm not saying it is a bad thing. There are some who just seem to have an old guitar and can make it do anything as if it is directly wired into their central nervous system. Daniel Lanois is in that category (along with Richard Thompson and Jack White to mention a couple that come to mind). He started off the gig with the other two members of the Emmylou Harris band, Steven Nistor on drums and Jim Wilson on bass. Steven was a superb drummer just about as relaxed as it is possible to be and still keep time. Daniel played pedal steel for a couple of tracks before switching to his trusty guitar. On one of his later tracks in the set I could have closed my eyes and thought it was Neil Young playing. That's as good a compliment as I give. After the interval Emmylou came on and they played all the 'Wrecking Ball' tracks in order. This is my favourite Emmylou album for the combination of the sound (thanks in large part to Lanois)and a simply great set of songs which are mainly covers but covers from the likes of Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Anna McCarrigle, Gillian Welch and Steve Earle. In addition there are a couple from the Lanois/Harris axis. It is difficult to pick a favourite from the album but live the version of 'Deeper Well' stood out in particular for some amazing guitar from Lanois. His guitar plunged us deeper into the well with astonishing dexterity and feeling. Bravo. I also particularly enjoyed a beautifully paced version of the exemplary title track with more great guitar and stunning singing, 'Every Grain of Sand' for some powerful vocals from Emmylou and 'Going Back to Harlan' just 'cos it's a great song. At the end of the album they added a couple of tracks that were not included on the original album release, both up to scratch for the top quality of the album; 'Still Waters' and 'The Maker'. There was still more to come however as Emmylou picked out a couple of classics from her even backer catalogue for the encore, 'From Boulder to Birmingham' and the incomparable 'Pancho and Lefty'. Sitting in the front row centre that was perfection. A couple more tracks followed a vocal harmony track about lost children and 'Songbird'. I think I was about done by the end of 'Pancho and Lefty' though.