Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions

Set aside your preconceptions, this album is not a country record (and nothing at all like Trio). a stunning set showcasing Ronstadt and Harris at their artistic peak, the sound is distinctly modern adult rock, with fervent guitars, sparkling arrangements and warm harmonies. This album boasts writing collaborations with Bruce Springsteen, Jackson Browne, Leonard Cohen, Luscious Jackson and Patty Griffin; also, Neil Young and Kate & Anna McGarrigle sing on several tracks. 1st single: "Sweet Spot."

Emmylou Harris once said of her four-shows-a-night salad days that she refused to sing anything on the hit parade, opting only for "bizarre, left-field songs" that "made it hard to make a living." Decades later, Harris still spends a lot of time in left field, and it's those offbeat, haunting gems--more than the classics here from Leonard Cohen or Jackson Browne--that make Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, her duet album with Linda Ronstadt, so memorable. That, and her exquisitely pained soprano--reminiscent of "cracked crystal," as Linda puts it--nestled up against Ronstadt's thicker, corduroy harmonies. With arrangements that meet somewhere between Harris's Wrecking Ball and Ronstadt's Hasten Down the Wind, the two explore a mood of morose dreaminess, but profound beauty. Ghosts gather here, to the sounds of rattling bones--in songs of abandoned love, of musical giants now gone silent, and of World War I soldiers, who parade from the arms of prostitutes to the arms of death. Left field, dotted with the wreckage of heartache and regret, never sounded better. --Alanna Nash