Pieces of the Sky was released by Reprise Records on 7 February 1975 (catalog MS 2213) and produced by Brian Ahern. It was Emmylou Harris’s first album for a major label, six years after Gliding Bird (1969). Harris sings and plays acoustic guitar. James Burton plays electric guitar, Glen Hardin and Bill Payne piano, Ben Keith steel guitar, Ray Pohlman bass and Ron Tutt drums, and Herb Pedersen sings harmony and plays banjo. Bernie Leadon, Byron Berline, Ricky Skaggs and Amos Garrett each play on individual tracks, and Linda Ronstadt sings backing vocals on “Queen of the Silver Dollar.”
The ten songs range from the Louvin Brothers’ “If I Could Only Win Your Love” and Dolly Parton’s “Coat of Many Colors” to Merle Haggard’s “The Bottle Let Me Down,” Boudleaux and Felice Bryant’s “Sleepless Nights,” the Beatles’ “For No One,” Shel Silverstein’s “Queen of the Silver Dollar” and Rodney Crowell’s “Bluebird Wine.” “Boulder to Birmingham,” written by Harris and Bill Danoff, was written for Gram Parsons, who had died in 1973; Parsons had brought Harris into country music as a harmony singer in his band.
“If I Could Only Win Your Love,” with Pedersen singing harmony, reached No. 4 on the Billboard country chart, and the album reached No. 7 on the country albums chart.
Tracklist
- 1 Bluebird Wine - 2003 Remaster 3:17
- 2 Too Far Gone - 2003 Remaster 3:33
- 3 If I Could Only Win Your Love - Remastered 2:36
- 4 Boulder to Birmingham - 2003 Remaster 3:33
- 5 Before Believing - 2003 Remaster 4:43
- 6 Bottle Let Me Down - 2003 Remaster 3:17
- 7 Sleepless Nights - 2003 Remaster 3:26
- 8 Coat of Many Colors - 2003 Remaster 3:42
- 9 For No One - 2003 Remaster 3:41
- 10 Queen of the Silver Dollar - 2003 Remaster 4:59
- 11 Hank and Lefty - 2003 Remaster 2:50
- 12 California Cotton Fields alt version 2:47
