Emmylou Harris Stumble Into Grace
Released: September 23, 2003 Origination Year: 2003 Time: 45:16 Tracks: 11 Produced by: Malcolm Burn Style: Studio Format: CD Enhancement: None Label: Nonesuch Records Website: www.emmylou.net
Track Listing Here I Am I Will Dream Little Bird Time in Babylon Can You Hear Me Now Strong Hand Jupiter Rising O Evangeline Plaisir d' Amour Lost Unto This World Cup of Kindness
Emmylou Harris

Wrecking Ball, the album that jolted Emmylou Harris from cult country star to adult alternative favorite, was an unexpected, fresh, and daring career move. While that album certainly invigorated her creatively, it has since proved a monolith, casting a large shadow hard to shake, rather than a launching pad. Stumble into Grace does indeed stagger, but unfortunate, the fall here is backwards into a slumbering past rather than forward into a graceful new awakening.

Daniel Lanois did not produce this new album as he did Wrecking Ball, but his sound still soaks through the entire work. Unfortunately, that echoing, delicate soundscape has grown dense and tedious with time. Where before the light impressionistic streaks provided a haunting background for songs to soar against, now the thick atmosphere swallows songs whole and floats into the atmosphere. To worsen the situation, the songs on Stumble are frankly just not the massive compositions that populated Wrecking Ball. Harris is writing or co-writing nearly all her material now, and her growing skills are simply no match against the talents of the likes of Steve Earle, Neil Young, Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Dylan, whose tunes populated Wrecking Ball. There is less weight in these clichéd lines, and these lighter works enable the overpowering production to carry the album away, out of mind and memory.

Fans will no doubt still adore this album; it certainly provides enough Emmylou to give any addict a fix. Still, after several spins, even they may start to wonder why "I Will Dream", with its ponderous guitars ringing like The Joshua Tree on sedatives and its pseudo-mystical beat, doesn’t nestle into the brain the way much of Harris’ past works do. They may notice that several songs strain so hard to fit classic folk templates, such as the protest tune "Time in Babylon" or the hard-life-of-a-lass tale of "O Evangeline", that they achieve little more than cobbling together well-worn lyrics and musical cues. Most tragically, even die-hard devotees may be bothered by the strangely bloodless tribute to Johnny and June Cash, "Strong Hand".

Again, most of the converted will love this album on first listen, and many will continue to embrace it even as creeping suspicions of its flawed nature settle. The cold truth, however, is while this album tries to recreate Wrecking Ball’s brilliance, it is severely hampered by insensitive, dated, and heavy-handed production coupled with songwriting much too weak to press into the memory.

The tastes of Ireland flavoring "Little Bird" hint at a possible avenue of growth, however, and the while the easy pot-shots of "Time in Babylon" lack excitement, the subtly menacing music provide the best sounds here. "Jupiter Rising" blossoms with unexpected flourishes of light World music, and the opening "Here I Am"’s longing craving, with Harris’ voice enveloping the song with a strained aching seldom heard here again, stays much longer than most of the album. With a little luck, this might end up the beginning of yet another exciting transition for one of our greatest artists rather than the simply solid, rather dull holding pattern it plays as at the moment.

One truth any critic has absorbed by now is that nobody should ever count Emmylou Harris out of the race. She has pulled ahead of the pack too many times past, and she might well be threatening to do so again, but she certainly does not break into the lead with the wheel-spinning Stumble Into Grace.