Pieces of the Sky

Infobox Album |
Name = Pieces of the Sky
Type = Album
Artist = Emmylou Harris


Released = 1975
Recorded =
Genre = country
Length = 38:40 (1975 release)
43:17 (2004 reissue)
Label = Reprise Records
Producer = Brian Ahern
Reviews = Allmusic Rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:1hmyxdybjola]
Last album = "Gliding Bird" (1970)
This album = "Pieces of the Sky" (1975)
Next album = "Elite Hotel" (1975)Although she had released the obscure folk-styled "Gliding Bird" five years earlier, "Pieces of the Sky" was the album that really launched the career of Emmylou Harris, and is widely considered to be her début. In those intervening years she had forged a musical relationship with the late Gram Parsons that would forever 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 Gram Parsons who had died the previous year), she included the Merle Haggard classic "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 good friend Linda Ronstadt sings harmony.

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

Track listing

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

Bonus tracks

A CD reissue in 2004 added a couple of previously unissued bonus tracks:
# "Hank and Lefty" (Dallas Frazier/Doodle Owens) – 2:50
# "California Cottonfields" (Dallas Frazier/Earl Montgomery) – 2:47