Harris Emmylou - Spanish Johnny guitar tab

Emmylou Harris Spanish Johnny written by Paul Siebel

http://www.nashville.net/~kate/

Ricky Skaggs Mandolin

Rodney Crowell Guitar

Emmylou Harris Guitar, Vocals

Waylon Jennings Vocals

Mickey Raphael Harmonica

Emory Gordy Bass

Frank Reckard Guitar

John Ware drums

D

Those other years, the dusty years

E

We drove the big herds through

D

I tried to forget the miles we rode

E

And Spanish Johnny too

D E

He'd sit beside a water ditch when all this herd was in

D A E

And he'd never harm a child but sing to his mandolin

D E

The old talk, the old ways, and the dealin' of our game

D E

Spanish Johnny never spoke, but sing a song of Spain

D

And his talk with men was vicious talk

E

When he was drunk on gin

D A E

Ah, but those were golden things he said to his mandolin

SOLO

D

We had to stand, we tried to judge,

E

We had to stop him then

D E

For the hand so gentle to a child had killed so many men

D E

He died a hard death long ago before the roads come in

D A E

And the night before he swung he sung to his mandolin

D

Well, we carried him out in the mornin' sun

E

A man that done no good

D

And we lowered him down in the cold clay

E

Stuck in a cross of wood

D

And a letter he wrote to his kinfolk

E

To tell them where he'd been

D

And we shipped it out to Mexico,

A E D

Along with his mandolin

From Emmylou Harris "Evangeline"

Warner Bros Records

Two Ten Music(BMI)

Though other performers sold more records and earned greater fame, few

left as profound an impact on contemporary music as Emmylou Harris.

Blessed with a crystalline voice, a remarkable gift for phrasing and a

restless creative spirit, she travelled a singular artistic path,

proudly carrying the torch of "Cosmic American music" passed down by

her mentor, Gram Parsons. With the exception of only Neil Young -- not

surprisingly an occasional collaborator -- no other mainstream star

established a similarly large body of work as consistently

iconoclastic, eclectic or daring; even more than three decades into

her career, Harris' latter-day music remained as heartfelt, visionary

and vital as her earliest recordings.

Harris was born on April 2, 1947 to a military family stationed in

Birmingham, Alabama. After spending much of her childhood in North

Carolina, she moved to Woodbridge, Virginia while in her teens, and

graduated high school there as her class valedictorian. After winning

a dramatic scholarship at the University of North Carolina, she began

to seriously study music, learning to play songs by Bob Dylan and Joan

Baez. Soon, Harris was performing in a duo with fellow UNC student

Mike Williams, eventually quitting school to move to New York, only to

find the city's folk music community dying out in the wake of the

psychedelic era.

Still, Harris remained in New York, travelling the Greenwich Village

club circuit before becoming a regular at Gerdes Folk City, where she

struck up friendships with fellow folkies Jerry Jeff Walker, David

Bromberg and Paul Siebel. After marrying songwriter Tom Slocum in

1969, she recorded her debut LP, 1970's Gliding Bird. Shortly after

the record's release, however, Harris' label declared bankruptcy, and

while pregnant with her first child, her marriage began to fall apart.

After moving to Nashville, she and Slocum divorced, leaving Harris to

raise daughter Hallie on her own. After several months of struggle and

poverty, she moved back in with her parents, who had since bought a

farm outside of Washington, D.C.

There she returned to performing, starting a trio with local musicians

Gerry Mule and Tom Guidera. One evening in 1971, while playing at an

area club called Clyde's, the trio performed to a crowd which included

members of the country-rock pioneers the Flying Burrito Brothers. In

the wake of the departure of Gram Parsons, the band's founder, the

Burritos were then led by ex-Byrd Chris Hillman, who was so impressed

by Harris' talents that he considered inviting her to join the group.

Instead, Hillman himself quit to join Stephen Stills' Manassas, but he

recommended her to Parsons, who wanted a female vocalist to flesh out

the sound of his solo work, a trailblazing fusion of country and rock

'n' roll he dubbed "Cosmic American music." Their connection was

instant, and soon Harris was learning about country music and singing

harmony on Parsons' solo debut, 1972's GP. A tour with Parsons'

back-up unit the Fallen Angels followed, and in 1973 they returned to

the studio to cut his landmark LP Grievous Angel.

On September 19, just weeks after the album sessions ended, Parsons'

fondness for drugs and alcohol finally caught up to him, and he was

found dead in a hotel room outside of the Joshua Tree National

Monument in California. At the time, Harris was back in Washington,

collecting her daughter for a planned move to the West Coast. Instead,

she remained in D.C., reuniting with Tom Guidera to form the Angel

Band. The group signed to Reprise and relocated to Los Angeles to

begin work on Harris' solo major label debut, 1975's acclaimed Pieces

of the Sky, an impeccable collection made up largely of diverse covers

ranging in origin from Merle Haggard to the Beatles. Produced by Brian

Ahern, who would go on to helm Harris' next ten records--as well as

becoming her second husband--Pieces of the Sky's second single, a

rendition of the Louvin Brothers' "If I Could Only Win Your Love,"

became her first Top Five hit. "Light of the Stable,' a Christmas

single complete with backing vocals from Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt

and Neil Young, soon followed; Harris then repaid the favor by singing

on Ronstadt's "The Sweetest Gift" and Young's "Star of Bethlehem."

For her second LP, 1976's Elite Hotel, Harris established a new

backing unit, the Hot Band, which featured legendary Elvis Presley

sidemen James Burton and Glen D. Hardin as well as a young songwriter

named Rodney Crowell on back-up vocals and rhythm guitar. The

resulting album proved to be a smash, with covers of Buck Owens'

"Together Again" and the Patsy Cline perennial "Sweet Dreams" both

topping the charts. Before beginning sessions for her third effort,

1977's Luxury Liner, Harris guested on Bob Dylan's Desire and appeared

in Martin Scorsese's filmed document of the Band's legendary final

performance, The Last Waltz. Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town followed

in 1978, led by the single "Two More Bottles of Wine," her third

Number One. The record was Crowell's last with the Hot Band; one of

the tracks, "Green Rolling Hills," included backing from Ricky Skaggs,

soon to become Crowell's replacement as Harris' vocal partner.

1979's Blue Kentucky Girl was her most country-oriented work to date,

an indication of what was to come a year later with Roses in the Snow,

a full-fledged excursion into acoustic bluegrass. In the summer of

1980, a duet with Roy Orbison, "That Lovin' You Feelin' Again," hit

the Top Ten; a yuletide LP, Light of the Stable: The Christmas Album,

followed at the end of year, at a time during which Harris had quit

touring to focus on raising her second daughter, Meghann. Evangeline,

a patchwork of songs left off of previous albums, appeared in 1981.

Shortly after, Skaggs left the Hot Band to embark on a solo career;

his replacement was Barry Tashian, a singer/songwriter best known for

fronting the 1960s rock band the Remains.

In 1982, drummer John Ware, the final holdover from the first Hot Band

line-up, left the group; at the same time, Harris' marriage to Ahern

was also beginning to disintegrate. After 1981's Cimarron, Harris and

the Hot Band cut a live album, Last Date, named in honor of the

album's chart-topping single "(Lost His Love) On Our Last Date," a

vocal version of the Floyd Cramer instrumental. Quickly, they returned

to the studio to record White Shoes, Harris' final LP with Ahern at

the helm. Her most far-ranging affair yet, it included covers of Donna

Summer's "On the Radio," Johnny Ace's "Pledging My Love," and Sandy

Denny's "Old-Fashioned Waltz."

After leaving Ahern, she and her children moved back to Nashville.

There, Harris joined forces with singer/songwriter Paul Kennerley, on

whose 1980 concept album The Legend of Jesse James she had sung

back-up. Together, they began formulating a record called The Ballad

of Sally Rose, employing the pseudonym Harris often used on the road

to veil what was otherwise a clearly autobiographical portrait of her

own life. Though a commercial failure, the 1985 record proved pivotal

in Harris' continued evolution as an artist and a risk-taker; it also

marked another chapter in her personal life when she and Kennerley wed

shortly after concluding their tour. Angel Band, a subtle, acoustic

collection of traditional country spirituals, followed, although the

record was not issued until 1987, after the release of its immediate

follow-up, Thirteen.

Harris, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt had first toyed with the idea

of recording an album together as far back as 1977, only to watch the

project falter in light of touring commitments and other red tape.

Finally, in 1987, they issued Trio, a collection which proved to be

Harris' best-selling album to date, generating the hits "To Know Him

Is to Love Him" (a cover of the Phil Spector classic), "Telling Me

Lies" and "Those Memories of You." The record's success spurred the

1990 release of Duets, a compilation of her earlier hits in

conjunction with George Jones, Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons and others.

Fronting a new band, the Nash Ramblers, in 1992 she issued At the

Ryman, a live set recorded at Nashville's legendary Ryman Auditorium,

the former home of the Grand Ole Opry. At the time of the record's

release, Harris was also serving a term as President of the Country

Music Foundation.

In 1993, she ended her long association with Warner Bros./Reprise to

move to Asylum Records, where she released Cowgirl's Prayer shortly

after her separation from Paul Kennerley. Two years later, at a stage

in her career at which most performers retreat to the safety of

rehashing their greatest hits again and again, Harris issued Wrecking

Ball, perhaps her most adventuresome record to date. Produced by

Daniel Lanois, the New Orleans-based artist best known for his

atmospheric work with U2, Peter Gabriel and Bob Dylan, Wrecking Ball

was a hypnotic, staggeringly beautiful work comprised of songs ranging

from the Neil Young-penned title track (which featured its writer on

backing vocals) to Jimi Hendrix's "May This Be Love" and the talented

newcomer Gillian Welch's "Orphan Girl." A three-disc retrospective of

her years with Warner Bros., Portraits, appeared in 1996, and in 1998

Harris resurfaced with Spyboy. -- Jason Ankeny, All-Music Guide