''Hard Bargain'' is the twenty-sixth studio album by American country music singer-songwriter

Emmylou Harris Emmylou Harris (born April 2, 1947) is an American singer, songwriter and musician. She has released dozens of albums and singles over the course of her career and has won 14 Grammys, the Polar Music Prize, and numerous other honors, including ...

, released on April 26, 2011, and recorded at Tragedy/Tragedy, TN. The album is her fourth solo recording for Nonesuch Records. With 17,000 copies sold in its first week, the album debuted at number three on the U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums, Harris' highest entry since her bluegrass LP '' Roses in the Snow'' in 1980. At the same time it debuted at number 18 on the Billboard 200, displacing 1977's '' Luxury Liner'' as her most successful solo LP ever on that chart.

Album information

The songs which were to become the "Hard Bargain" album were, according to Emmylou, recorded within four weeks in August 2010. Only three people can be heard on the album, namely Harris herself, producer Jay Joyce, and Giles Reaves. In December 2010 six video clips were filmed at Laughing House Studios, Nashville, TN, directed by Jack Spencer. These videos, with additional commentary, can be found on the bonus DVD of the album's deluxe release. The opening number "The Road" is about the late Gram Parsons, her musical mentor who died in 1973 and is the first Harris-penned song to directly focus on his death since " Boulder to Birmingham", a track from her 1975 release '' Pieces of the Sky''. "My Name Is Emmett Till" tells the story of

Emmett Till Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941August 28, 1955) was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family's grocery ...

, an African-American boy who was killed in 1955. "Darlin' Kate" is a tribute to the late Kate McGarrigle who died of cancer in 2010. Kate, and her sister Anna McGarrigle, collaborated with Harris on numerous occasions since the 1970s. "New Orleans" makes references to

Hurricane Katrina Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...

, which ravaged the city in 2005.

Track listing

Personnel

* Emmylou Harris – vocals, acoustic guitar * Jay Joyce – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, piano, omnichord, ganjo, mandolin * Giles Reaves – drums, keyboards, percussion, piano, organ, vibraphone, marimbula

Charts

References

{{Authority control 2011 albums Emmylou Harris albums Nonesuch Records albums Albums produced by Jay Joyce Country folk albums