Pieces of the Sky

Pieces of the Sky
Studio album by Emmylou Harris
Released	February 1975
Genre	Country
Length	38:40 (1975 release)
Label	Reprise
Producer	Brian Ahern
Emmylou Harris chronology
Gliding Bird (1969)Gliding Bird1969 Pieces of the Sky (1975) Elite Hotel (1975)Elite Hotel1975

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Pieces of the Sky is the second studio album by American country music artist Emmylou Harris, released in February 1975 through Reprise.

Although she had released the obscure folk-styled Gliding Bird five years earlier, Pieces of the Sky became the album that launched Harris' career and is widely considered to be her début. In those intervening years she had forged a musical relationship with Gram Parsons that would alter the musical direction that her career would take. The album includes Harris' first high-charting Billboard country hit, the #4 "If I Could Only Win Your Love", and the relatively low-charting #73 "Too Far Gone" (originally a 1967 hit for Tammy Wynette). The overall song selection was varied and showed early on how eclectic Harris' musical tastes were. In addition to her own "Boulder to Birmingham" (written for former singing partner Parsons, who had died the previous year), she included the Merle Haggard classic "The Bottle Let Me Down", the Beatles' "For No One", and Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors". (Parton, in turn, covered "Boulder to Birmingham" on her 1976 album All I Can Do.) On Shel Silverstein's "Queen Of The Silver Dollar", her friend and occasional collaborator Linda Ronstadt sings harmony.

The album rose as far as the #7 spot in the Billboard country albums chart.

The album was included in Robert Dimery's 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.

Track listing

1. "Bluebird Wine" (Rodney Crowell) – 3:18
2. "Too Far Gone" (Billy Sherrill) – 4:05
3. "If I Could Only Win Your Love" (Charlie Louvin, Ira Louvin) – 2:36
4. "Boulder to Birmingham" (Emmylou Harris, Bill Danoff) – 3:33
5. "Before Believing" (Danny Flowers) – 4:44
6. "The Bottle Let Me Down" (Merle Haggard) – 3:16
7. "Sleepless Nights" (Felice and Boudleaux Bryant) – 3:25
8. "Coat of Many Colors" (Dolly Parton) – 3:42
9. "For No One" (Lennon–McCartney) – 3:40
10. "Queen of the Silver Dollar" (Shel Silverstein) – 5:14

Bonus tracks

A 2004 CD reissue added two previously unissued bonus tracks:

1. "Hank and Lefty" (Dallas Frazier, Doodle Owens) – 2:50
2. "California Cottonfields" (Dallas Frazier, Earl Montgomery) – 2:47

Personnel

• Brian Ahern: Acoustic Guitar, High-Strung Guitar, Super 400 Acoustic Guitar, Bass
• Bruce Archer: Acoustic Guitar
• Duke Bardwell: Bass
• Byron Berline: Fiddle, Mandolin
• James Burton: Electric Guitar, Gut-String Guitar, Dobro
• Mark Cuff: Drums
• Rick Cunha: Acoustic Guitar, High-Strung Guitar
• Nick DeCaro: String Arrangements
• Amos Garrett: Electric Guitar
• Richard Greene: Fiddle
• Tom Guidera: Bass
• Glen D. Hardin: Piano, Electric Piano, String Arrangements
• Emmylou Harris: Vocals, Acoustic Guitar
• Ben Keith: Pedal Steel
• Bernie Leadon: Acoustic Guitar, Bass, Banjo, Dobro, Backing Vocals
• Bill Payne: Piano
• Herb Pedersen: Acoustic Guitar, 12-String Guitar, Banjo, Backing Vocals
• Danny Pendleton: Pedal Steel
• Ray Pohlman: Bass
• Linda Ronstadt: Backing Vocals
• Ricky Skaggs: Fiddle, Viola
• Fayssoux Starling: Backing Vocals
• Ron Tutt: Drums

Technical Personnel

• Brian Ahern: Producer, Engineer
• Chris Skene: Engineer
• Paul Skene: Engineer
• Fran Tate: Engineer
• Stuart Taylor: Engineer

External links

• Pieces of the Sky (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)