Luxury Liner

Released over the holidays in 1976, Luxury Liner became Harris' second consecutive #1 album. Together with 1975’s Elite Hotel, it represents the commercial peak of her rock-country run with the legendary Hot Band before turning to more traditional folk and country sounds in the late 70s and 80s.

Like other Harris albums, it contains an eclectic mix of songs, including a country take on Chuck Berry’s rock'n'roll classic “C'est La Vie (You Never Can Tell),” and updated versions of throwback songs in the Carter Family’s “Hello Stranger” and the Louvin Brothers' “When I Stop Dreaming.” It also, characteristically of Harris, has two songs penned by Gram Parsons, in the title track and the slow ballad “She,” which may showcase the emotion and range of Emmylou’s voice more than any other on the record; and two by guitarist Rodney Crowell–“You’re Supposed to Be Feeling Good” and “Tulsa Queen,” on which Harris share a co-write and which closes out the original record.

Finally, it fulfills Harris’s mission to serve as a “discoverer of songs,” first by including a track (“I’ll Be Your San Antone Rose”) by her friend Susanna Clark, but more importantly for bringing Townes Van Zandt to a broad national audience for the first time by covering “Pancho & Lefty.” Though the song did not chart for Harris, this recording and Van Zandt’s newly elevated profile eventually led to a subsequent version by Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard in 1983. The Nelson & Haggard version was a #1 hit and the title track on the megahit album that re-established both as country superstars for the 1980s.