Graceful Age: Emmylou Harris is 65



It's the grand dame of country music's 65th birthday today. The Giant salutes her as the perfect example of how to age gracefully. That silver fox hair has been her hallmark for a couple of decades now.

I discovered her album Wrecking Ball in '96 at a dingy old record store behind the Baptist Student Union in Gainesville, Florida. Rumor was that the record store had once been the home of Tom Petty when he was a young man. It turned out not to be so, and the record store is gone now, turned into a hip hiking outfitter's place last I remember. Wrecking Ball turned me on not only to the rich, melancholy voice of the woman herself, but to the post-Blood on the Tracks Bob Dylan, for which I'll always be grateful to the Grand Dame.

A beautiful old woman can make you feel like her presence is a grace, as the interviewer below says. But that only happens if she ages with grace. Which Emmylou has done, between her wonderful hair, her demure look, her sure elegance, and her confident way of speech. And if you ever start to think plastic surgery, which sometimes I do, simply check out those biceps above. This is a happy, healthy woman. Long live.





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