Emmylou Harris

Is that what it is for, country music? Is it a kind of licence to wallow in emotion, Emmylou?

It's a good thing to wallow in the emotions, to visit those emotions. I mean, what else is there if we don't feel? Good music, um a good song, uh good words. I think brings you in touch with things that you were feeling. It connects you. with yourself and and with everyone else who is experiencing those things.

But there's not very often any joy in it, I suppose, is what one feels about it. It is always the sorrows, the worries, the longing, the loss, isn't it?

Well, yes, but you're not going to get away from those issues. And I think it's better to just face up to it. And sing about it because it is a kind of form of prayer in a way. It is a celebration, even if you are singing about dark things, at least you have the ability to sing.

Your father was a prisoner of war at one point, wasn't he?

Yes, my father was in the Korean conflict, as they call it, and uh he left when I was five, but he was shot down and there was a period of time when we did not know. Whether he was dead or alive, he was, as they call, missing in action. One of my clearest memories is standing next to my mother when she got the phone call. … I didn't know what that meant, but I knew that I might never see him again. And so it was um it was imprinted on me like a brand.