Hard Bargain

This twenty-fifth solo studio album from the country-folk institution is the follow-up to her warmly-received 2008 comeback effort \’All I Intended To Be\’. On this album, produced by Jay Joyce (Cage the Elephant, Patty Griffin) and co-written in part by Grammy and Oscar winner Will Jennings, classicist country twang is in full effect, and Harris\’s lyrics take an autobiographical bent, particularly on the bewitching \’The Road\’ where she reminisces on her apprenticeship with the late Gram Parsons.
\”We did the whole record in about a month, which is quite unusual for me. But I had all the material beforehand. I\’d written 11 of the 13 songs and I really wanted to include two more by other writers,\” Harris explains. \”One of the covers is Ron Sexsmith\’s \’Hard Bargain\’ which I absolutely love. The other is by Jay Joyce, called \’Cross Yourself.\’\”We did the whole thing with just three musicians, me being one of them. Jay, the producer, and Giles Reeves play everything between them. It\’s not a stripped down record though; there\’s only one song that\’s a little bare bones. I\’m basically a slow ballad-y person, but Jay managed to really move the songs up a bit. But they still have the same emotional feel.\” In addition to \”The Road,\” another of the album\’s songs looks back on a relationships that was central to Harris\’ creative life: she wrote \”Darlin\’ Kate\” for her close friend and collaborator Kate McGarrigle, who died last year of a rare form of cancer.
Unfortunately there has yet to be a vinyl announcement on Hard Bargain. Diverse will however be stocking a deluxe CD edition of the album, which includes a DVD featuring six performances interspersed with interviews. Keep your eye out on our news page any news on an LP format!