THE SPLENDID BOHEMIANS PRESENT: THE SUNNY SIDE OF MY STREET with THE "MIGHTY MEZ" - SONGS TO MAKE YOU FEEL GOOD - EPISODE #38: IF I COULD ONLY WIN YOUR LOVE by Emmylou Harris (Reprise, 1975)

A major part of my sentimental education was connected to the keening, heart-throbbing tone of Emmylou Harris. And, this cut off her Pieces of the Sky album has me literally in tears every time I hear it. I can’t help it. It’s my romantic ideal personified; perfect love - unattainable, yet always worth striving for. I was acquainted with Emmylou’s plangent sound before that, as muse and partner to the late Gram Parsons. I wore the grooves out on Grievous Angel’s Hickory Wind and Love Hurts, but this solo outing was something from another planet. Boulder to Birmingham, which I understand was a tribute to her fallen comrade is also a gorgeous tear jerker, but this cover of Ira and Charlie Louvin’s 1958 classic evocation of yearning destroys me without fail each time my ears and heart encounter it. Her seamless duet with Herb Pedersen, who follows her swoop for swoop, is flawless, and the longing for soul connection that it demonstrates cannot be described adequately with mere words. You just have to hear it. Born in 1947, Emmylou is 76 now, and still lovely. With each new gray hair she’s grown more fetching. Of course, she ascended inevitably to the country music throne to which she was destined. Still, whether singing with a partner, or solo, her signature sound continues to clutch at my heart. Such sweet sadness.