Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town

The last of Emmylou Harris’s 1970s run of country-rock albums recorded with the Hot Band, Quarter Moon peaked at #3 on Billboard’s country albums charts in March of 1978. Other artists on high on the charts that week included several with ties to Quarter Moon: Willie Nelson (#1, Waylon + Willie), who appears on “One Paper Kid,” Waylon Jennings (also Waylon + Willie as well as Ol Waylon at #18) who went on to make “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” an outlaw anthem, Dolly Parton (#5, Here You Come Again), who wrote “To Daddy”, and the Oak Ridge Boys (#8, Y'All Come Back Saloon) who would later make “Leaving Louisiana in the Broad Daylight” a #1 single.

Harris herself reached #1 on the singles chart with “Two More Bottles of Wine,” which became a signature song of her famed catalog.

Notably, the cover art was painted by Susanna Clark, who also co-wrote the first track, “Easy From Now On,” from which Harris drew the album’s title.