Quote Of The Day By Emmylou Harris: 'It's Good To Know That ...'

With 13 Grammy wins and membership in the Country Music Hall of Fame, among other accolades over her multi-decade career, Emmylou Harris has certainly been recognized for her contributions. But there's nothing like hearing her velvety voice sing her unique blend of country, rock, and Americana songs for the first time. And every tune in her massive catalog — from hits like her versions of Buck Owens' "Together Again" and Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams" to her countless collaborations and duets — gets better with every listen.

Emmylou Harris was born in Birmingham, Alabama, on April 2, 1947. Her family eventually moved to Woodbridge, Virginia, where she excelled in high school. After a short stint at the University of North Carolina, she left school to pursue music in the folk scene in downtown New York. By 1969, she'd recorded a debut album, "Gliding Bird," but found herself destitute, pregnant, and in a crumbling marriage with songwriter Tom Slocum. That sent her back to her parents in Washington, D.C. 

In the early '70s, she broke into country music thanks to a collaboration with Flying Burrito Brothers member Gram Parsons. But weeks after they'd finished work on his iconic 1973 album "Grievous Angel," he suddenly died. In that tragedy's aftermath, she moved to Los Angeles and found her voice, breaking through with 1975's "Pieces Of The Sky" album. From there, Harris never looked back, producing inventive albums, touring, and collaborating with musicians ranging from Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt — forming one of the best female-led supergroups in rock history — to Neil Young and Mark Knopfler. 

Through the highs and the lows, Harris found her place in country and rock. Because she's forged a career like none other, she's our quote of the day.

"It's good to know that you're good at something. As long as you feel that you're not repeating yourself, that you've got good new material, that you somehow make the old material shimmer."

In 2014, Emmylou Harris sat down with Interview Magazine to talk about the re-release of her seminal 1995 "Wrecking Ball" album. In the interview, she reflected on the freedom and chemistry she felt with her band, and the impact that personal challenges — including her father's recent death and a divorce — had on her as she was recording it. "We were just out there in left field," she recalled of the album's reception at the time. "The record really didn't get any airplay, and yet it found an audience, I think out of curiosity." Indeed, it did, and the Neil Young-penned title track might just be her best song.

Asked why she tours so often, Harris laughed and put it plain: "Because I'm good at it. And I love singing." Performing night after night wasn't a grind for her because she knew what she had in her bag; every time she sang a song, even an old one, she made it new.

According to Emmylou Harris, in a music industry defined by change, longevity and survival mean leaning on your strengths and being true to yourself. At the same time, it means leaving room to evolve and grow. This has allowed her to breathe new life into her old, beloved material, and it's fed into her creative progress. She cultivated her audience and became an icon because she figured out what she's good at without letting that limit her overall artistic vision.

More than most, Emmylou Harris understood what it took to "make it" in music. Though she became country royalty in the '70s and '80s, she also faced periods where wider audiences eluded her. She stayed afloat and remained relevant by keeping her nose to the grindstone and working diligently, harnessing what she had to push forward. 

This drive and self-awareness made her earlier work iconic, and it made later-period albums like 1995's "Wrecking Ball" so vital and fresh. Wherever you look, Harris made songs that get better with age, and even as she's slid between country, rock, and folk and evolved as a musician, she's always remained true to her voice.

There's power in understanding what you're good at and learning how to harness it. What's most important is that, like Harris, you stay true to yourself; only by doing so can you avoid getting stuck in a rut. Lean on yourself and your strengths. Play every day like a brand new song, or like an old one you've always loved. 

• "There's a soulfulness to country music that can elude you if you just look at the big picture." 
• "Well, I don't really know what winding down is ... I think when you're an artist, you don't ever really retire. As I tell my friends, I don't know what I'm doing, but I sure am doing a lot of it." 
• "You look for those moments when you're stirred, when you're moved by something. You feel so blessed and grateful that the muse has shone down on you, that you were able to be a part of something that you knew was real and true, and it didn't matter how other people reacted to it." 
• "I don't really know what I'm doing, frankly. I'm not a schooled musician, or a schooled singer, so I'm just looking for something that creates an interesting sound, and the emotional story you're trying to tell." 
• "I've always felt that I brought people along with me, and that I couldn't get my message across without those people. That's just the way I roll." 
• "I don't know if anyone really understands the process of grieving. I suppose when you're dealing with a feeling, writing a song kind of builds a fence around it. And it does help you move on somehow." 
• "The most important thing for an artist is to feel creative and to feel excited about what you are doing. It doesn't happen all the time. There are times when an artist, in a long career, is going to be treading water, because you can't be coming up with something completely different. Maybe some artists can but, with every record, with every year, you're doing the best work you can at every step of the way."