Review Summary: Strong original songwriting and a return to roots make this concept album among the best of Emmylou’s 80s output
After 3 missteps in a row of varying severity, Emmylou needed a comeback. Her only (mild) commercial successes of the decade up to ’85 had been Roses in the Snow and Evangeline, and, with the exception of the former album, her output hadn’t nearly lived up to her potential as a songwriter. When an artist finds themselves in such a slump, one option is to break new ground. Another is to return to the style that first granted them success. With the Ballad of Sally Rose, Emmylou elected to do both. By pushing in new conceptual directions with the idea of a narrative concept album, and going back to the smooth, outlaw-influenced sound that had put her so indelibly on the map, Emmylou managed to craft some of her strongest original work and an album that was perhaps the boldest personal statement of her career up to that point.
Emmylou was hardly the first country singer to do a concept album; Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson, Porter Waggoner and Johnny Cash had all dipped their toes in the idea of a narrative album, with varying degrees of success. But Emmylou’s was perhaps a bit more autobiographical, telling, roughly and with a degree of narrative distance, the story of her doomed relationship with Gram Parsons, which ended with his overdose on a combination of morphine and alcohol. Little wonder that the narrative is presented as a Star-is-Born-esque tale of loss and a claiming of one’s identity, the kind of story that presents grief as a crucible through which the protagonist must pass through to become a stronger, more fully realized version of oneself. It’s this personal dimension that gives the album one of its great strengths.
The music itself is consistently strong enough to back the concept of the album. While there are no instantly classic tracks as on the best of her earlier output, the collaboration between Harris and Kennerly is, for the most part, a roaring success, to the point that I was wondering why so few of her albums heretofore consisted of original material. Emmylou’s voice is, as ever, the defining element of the album, and the original compositions let her plaintive harmonies shine brighter than all but her very best material.
The album is structured as series of setpieces or images of moments in the relationship and its aftermath, songs that depict the feelings and experiences of the protagonist from a more introspective standpoint, the narrative being moved along by shorter, lyrical interludes that tend to describe the events of the story, an original and effective move. The sequencing of the album moves smoothly through ballads and barn-burners with ease, leaving very little on the album feeling redundant or unnecessary. The music itself focuses very much on a stripped-down classic country sound, indebted to Emmylou’s outlaw roots, but with nods here and there to the best of her bluegrass material, incorporated in an effortlessly effective package.
The commercial failure of the album perhaps speaks to its conceptual nature. While the songwriting is consistently great, its anything but a singles album, as track smoothly transitions to track, and the lyrical focus is all very much intertwined with the narrative. White Line was a moderately successful single, although in the context of the album it ends up being one of the weaker cuts. Unusually for a country album, the Ballad of Sally Rose’s strength doesn’t rest on individual songs or singles, but the cohesion of the narrative and its personal nature. As such, the music on it never really transcends the concept. There are no Blue Eyes Cryin’ in the Rain equivalents to be found here, just a set of tunes that, on their own and isolated from the concept of the album, are a solid enough recovery from her previous three outings. As such, Sally Rose ends up being one of Emmylou’s near-greats; a strong album full of strong songwriting that never quite transcends its status as a concept album.
