Her newest album, the just-released Stumble Into Grace, continues the trend of self-penned albums and employing an ever-broadening instrumental palette, and includes collaborations with artists ranging from long-time friends Linda Ronstadt, Kate and Anna McGarrigle and Buddy and Julie Miller, to contemporary artists such as Luscious Jackson's Jill Cuniff and Jane Siberry. Never one to rest on her laurels, Harris recently acted as curator for a series of concerts for her record label, Nonesuch Records, at Carnegie Hall, featuring performances by Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Kate and Anna McGarrigle and Buddy and Julie Miller, capped by a performance by Harris herself.

Just prior to the Carnegie Hall shows, during a series of tour dates with old friend Neil Young, Harris spoke to StarPolish editorial director James K. Willcox about her long career, the new album, and her emergence as songwriter of some distinction.

Industry Changes

STARPOLISH: Stumble into Grace is your 26th album...

EMMYLOU HARRIS: Is it? That's good — I've been looking for that number!

STARPOLISH:Glad to be of help. Given the amount of time you've been doing this, what do you think has changed more over that period of time — you or the music industry?

HARRIS: That's a good question. It's hard to be objective about one's own self. I'm sure that there have been a lot of changes, but you feel like you're pretty much the same. I think the industry has changed a lot. For one thing, there are just so many more artists, and if I were starting out today, I don't think I'd have a shot. Definitely I would not be on a major label when I started out. I think one good thing is the proliferation of small, independent labels — I think that's good and healthy, because record companies have become so big... It used to be that [the people] at the record companies could smell something that was unusual and different, and let an artist develop; you didn't have to have a mega-hit the first time out. The strange thing is that you see somebody who's original and not like anybody else, and [a label] signs them and then immediately tries to make them into something that's already a proven success. Every once in a while somebody breaks on through, but then it takes a while before people believe that's going to happen again. But that's the industry.

STARPOLISH: It seems as if some established artists, such as Joni Mitchell, have become very bitter about the industry — not music per se, but the music industry. But I get a sense that your outlook is different — that you've remained a bit more optimistic about the possibility of having a career as you get older and evolve.

HARRIS: Well, you know that I've never had that huge chart-topping success and then had to go back — I've always been riding along. Certainly there have been peaks and valleys, of course, but for the most part I'm like a trench soldier, I've been out there on the bus — I'm on the bus now! (laughs) And even though there have been periods of drought for me creatively, there has been, especially in the last few years, a lot of rain, the good kind. So I've had a resurgence at a time when a lot of artists are slowing down. So I'm — at least for the time being — feeling very creative and feeling like, well, almost like what I felt like when I started out. But it's not like I'm all of a sudden having this huge commercial success, either. So I just think it's been the nature of my fan base, and... who knows? I've been very, very luck, and sometimes I think that huge success — not that I've ever had it — seems like it can sometimes work against you.