HiRez Poll Harris, Emmylou - PRODUCER'S CUT [DVD-A]

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Rate the DVD-A of Emmylou Harris - PRODUCER'S CUT


  • Total voters
    44
One other thing I forgot to mention... I LOVE the song selection. Her singles from that era (and therefore her hits compilations) were always short songs because country radio then were very unlikely to play something longer than 3 1/2 minutes. I love her singles but like many of these songs even better. "Leaving Louisiana" and "Last Cheaters Waltz" are among my favorite things she has even done.
 
I saw Emmy Lou in the late seventies and it was quite a show, alternating between country-rock and flat-out rockers. Most of the tracks on Producer's Cut are from early in her career and not as artfully experimental as on later albums such as Wrecking Ball and Red Dirt Girl (which I like a hell of a lot.)

The surround is conservative but works fine for these tracks; the audio is stunningly clear and detailed. I've listened to this one quite a few times over the years and still take it off the shelf to play every few months. A solid 9 for me.
 
I saw Emmy Lou in the late seventies and it was quite a show, alternating between country-rock and flat-out rockers. Most of the tracks on Producer's Cut are from early in her career and not as artfully experimental as on later albums such as Wrecking Ball and Red Dirt Girl (which I like a hell of a lot.)

The surround is conservative but works fine for these tracks; the audio is stunningly clear and detailed. I've listened to this one quite a few times over the years and still take it off the shelf to play every few months. A solid 9 for me.
Well, yes, this comp was selected and mixed by her 70-80s producer. One wouldn't expect to see Daniel Lanois produced tracks on it (though that is my favorite period of hers as well).
 
Well, yes, this comp was selected and mixed by her 70-80s producer. One wouldn't expect to see Daniel Lanois produced tracks on it (though that is my favorite period of hers as well).
Well, I didn't expect to hear Lanois produced tracks either. I was simply trying to differentiate the music on this album (which I do like) as compared to her later output for those who might not be as familiar with her work.
 
First, in the interest of full disclosure, I am a huge Emmylou Harris fan ever since seeing her in concert in MKE in April 1979 along with The Whites and of course her star studded Hot Band. Finding this DVD-A was a huge plus to me when it first came out and am so happy I spotted it and bought it. So yes, I love the material selected to be included and the last track with Johnny Cash - Wayfaring Stranger could not be a more perfect closing number.

As others have mentioned, the surround mix is not aggressive or inventive -but then it shouldn't be in order to match the music and the intent with which it was recorded. Brian Ahern did remix all of these tracks for this MC release and it shows up with some instruments newly prominent in the mixes which was likely more possible due to the great flexibility with more channels with which to work. It is significant these were all selections which he originally recorded i.e. Producer's Cut and many, many of them he recorded in the back of a semi-trailer - The Enactron Truck and for much of the time when these recordings were made, he was Emmylou's husband. Point being these are recordings that no one knows better than Brian Ahern and that knowledge enables him to remix for this MC disc in a way that just makes all the tracks sound great in MC but sound better than the original mixes, IMHO. Emmylou's voice shines wonderfully and it is such a recognizable instrument of vocal excellence. While she shines in all of these tracks, the attention paid to the harmony vocals achieves that blend that the word "harmony" really means. Best example of that is the "Sorrow In The Wind" track with the angelic voices of Sharon and Cheryl White and the distribution of these vocals across the channels - as well as some subtle but effective unison double tracking of some of the vocals. The easy way for me to describe the overall MC mixing is "smooth" and "warm" and on some tracks "intimate". So for a true fan - this was a great gift - but for the non-fan group that just appreciates a wonderful female vocal sound which is unique and complemented with some very excellently written songs -this is a full fidelity MC release worth having - - if you can still find it.
 
Your post caused me to dig out my copy. I'm glad I went out of my way to pick up DVDAs when they were still affordable.
What you say is true I'm only on the third song but this is recorded so well great fidelity and she has such a nice voice.
And it has a good surround mix.
Anyone who likes country pop easy listening female voices should pick this up.
 
First, in the interest of full disclosure, I am a huge Emmylou Harris fan ever since seeing her in concert in MKE in April 1979 along with The Whites and of course her star studded Hot Band. Finding this DVD-A was a huge plus to me when it first came out and am so happy I spotted it and bought it. So yes, I love the material selected to be included and the last track with Johnny Cash - Wayfaring Stranger could not be a more perfect closing number.

As others have mentioned, the surround mix is not aggressive or inventive -but then it shouldn't be in order to match the music and the intent with which it was recorded. Brian Ahern did remix all of these tracks for this MC release and it shows up with some instruments newly prominent in the mixes which was likely more possible due to the great flexibility with more channels with which to work. It is significant these were all selections which he originally recorded i.e. Producer's Cut and many, many of them he recorded in the back of a semi-trailer - The Enactron Truck and for much of the time when these recordings were made, he was Emmylou's husband. Point being these are recordings that no one knows better than Brian Ahern and that knowledge enables him to remix for this MC disc in a way that just makes all the tracks sound great in MC but sound better than the original mixes, IMHO. Emmylou's voice shines wonderfully and it is such a recognizable instrument of vocal excellence. While she shines in all of these tracks, the attention paid to the harmony vocals achieves that blend that the word "harmony" really means. Best example of that is the "Sorrow In The Wind" track with the angelic voices of Sharon and Cheryl White and the distribution of these vocals across the channels - as well as some subtle but effective unison double tracking of some of the vocals. The easy way for me to describe the overall MC mixing is "smooth" and "warm" and on some tracks "intimate". So for a true fan - this was a great gift - but for the non-fan group that just appreciates a wonderful female vocal sound which is unique and complemented with some very excellently written songs -this is a full fidelity MC release worth having - - if you can still find it.
Embarrassing correction needed: The last track with Johnny Cash and Emmylou is "Old Rugged Cross", not Wayfaring Stranger as I stated originally. Not sure why I did that - both are great songs but the closing track on this DVD-A is in fact "Old Rugged Cross". Sorry for the mistake!
 
Well, yes, this comp was selected and mixed by her 70-80s producer. One wouldn't expect to see Daniel Lanois produced tracks on it (though that is my favorite period of hers as well).

sorrow in the wind by Emmylou Harris is on the 5.1 acura 2007 DVD-A by Elliot Schiner

so Elliot didn't mix this particular track on the DVD-A or did he and Daniel Lanois produced the tracks on the original Blue Kentucky Girl?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Kentucky_Girl_(Emmylou_Harris_album)
Brian Ahern – producer, engineer
  • Donivan Cowart – engineer
  • Bradley Hartman – engineer
  • Stuart Taylor – engineer
 
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I imagine it was probably Brian Ahern, as I detailed in this thread a while back, he seems to have done a number of unreleased 5.1 mixes, including at least one other Emmylou Harris album that we know of, so he could've easily been working on more of her back catalog as well.
Can you identify the "at least one other Emmylou Harris album that we know of" and where it is available and the format? Thx!
 
From a 2003 MixOnline interview/article:

"Working from his Easter Island Surround facility in Nashville, producer Brian Ahern has been working on the re-release of Emmylou Harris’ 1980 album, Roses in the Snow, and the Johnny Cash album Silver (released on SACD in February), which were both mixed on the Yamaha DM2000 Digital Production Console to create a 5.1 mix."

Sadly never released so not available in any format.
 
From a 2003 MixOnline interview/article:

"Working from his Easter Island Surround facility in Nashville, producer Brian Ahern has been working on the re-release of Emmylou Harris’ 1980 album, Roses in the Snow, and the Johnny Cash album Silver (released on SACD in February), which were both mixed on the Yamaha DM2000 Digital Production Console to create a 5.1 mix."

Sadly never released so not available in any format.
"Roses In The Snow" done in a full surround mix a la Bela Fleck's "The Bluegrass Sessions: Tales from the Acoustic Planet. Volume 2" would be phenomenal due to the quality of the instrumentalists on that album! I would buy it - even though I have the original vinyl from 1980 as well as the remastered CD with the bonus material. A great 5.1 release would be worth the duplication of formats. But since this update is from 2003 (!) it looks like this is not likely to see the light of day or grace our ears anytime soon. Sadly.
 
First things first- happy birthday to Emmylou Harris. For her birthday, I raised my vote here from '8' to a '9'. I will also take exception to the categorization of Emmylou's work here as 'country pop easy listening female voices', which would lump her in with much that is mediocre, though I know you meant well. And, to be fair, there are a lot of slow and medium tempo tunes on here. But with that voice, what's the rush?

Emmylou natal day

As far as I can recall 'Producer's Cut' is/might have been the first surround disc I bought, before I even had a surround system to play it on- just a long-since dead JVC DVDa player that came with a demo compilation and a 'Yes' surround sampler. Details are hazy, but back then I didn't have a screen hooked up to be able to select stereo/surround audio options, nor did I have a center speaker at first, so I guess the idea of high sample rate picqued my interest- everything else was hit-or-miss, like whether I'd even hear any lead vocals if I somehow got in surround mode. Ah, those were the days. Now I can bask surrounded in pristine angelic vocals singing classic material backed by a who's-who of country/rock players. Yay progress, it only took me 15 or so years of system upgrading to get here.

'Producer's Cut' also makes good use of the video features of DVD-audio; every song is accompanied by an easy-on-the-eyes portrait of Emmylou and a list of the players, with optional lyrics and additional photos that can be selected without interrupting the music. There's also an extended interview with producer Brian Ahern, which I just watched through for the first time- it's pretty haphazard in terms of production values but ends up pretty compelling if you stick with it, especially the points of interest he shares regarding individual songs. The Dolby 5.1 soundtrack throws some quick clips of rough mixes around the room to nice effect, and there are some brief interview clips from Emmylou too sharing enthusiasm for surround sound. Turns out that sparse duet with Johnny Cash was a lot more involved to produce than it sounds.

Here's what Allmusic has to say about this collection-

"Rhino Records asked producer Brian Ahern to select his favorite tracks from the Emmylou Harris albums he helmed -- he produced her first 11 studio offerings for Reprise Records. That's quite a daunting task when you consider that some of those recordings were Elite Hotel, Luxury Liner, Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town, and Pieces of the Sky, just to name a few. But Ahern rose to the task and put together a solid, aesthetically perfect set here, highlighting many different aspects of Harris' career at the time: from her trademark, utterly pure singing voice, to her song selection, to the sound of her band and the studio she recorded in, this is a top-notch set from start to finish and serves as an excellent introduction to her early work for the newcomer."

Anyone know how to correct info on Allmusic? Under 'releases', they have this as a CD. AFAIK it was only released as DVD-audio, which isn't mentioned. Otherwise, I agree with them.
 
Anyone know how to correct info on Allmusic? Under 'releases', they have this as a CD. AFAIK it was only released as DVD-audio, which isn't mentioned. Otherwise, I agree with them.
The only thing I know is to write a short review and mention it in there.
 
There's no reason Rhino could not issue a Quadio from Brian Ahern's Roses in the Snow quad mix. If it's not Emmylou Harris's best album, Ricky Skaggs and Tony Rice's creative contributions certainly make it my personal favorite. Unfortunately, the two bonus tracks tacked onto the album's 2010 Rhino reissue fit the RITS concept like an uncomfortable pair of shoes. If Ahern's quad mix eventually surfaces I hope it maintains the integrity of the original Warner Bros. issues, short running time or not.
 
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Raising the rears makes a world of difference. There is actually a lot going on back there and the mix sounds great now.
Thanks to you posting this, I ordered a copy. It is an exceptional disc - not least because it was only produced for the DVD-Audio. The mix from the original multitracks is reference quality. If your set-up is well-calibrated, the mix is perfectly balanced and the rears don't need to be raised at all. The best one of the Warner DVD-Audio discs I've heard. A 10, without question.IMG_9133.jpeg
 
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