Emmylou Harris has been singing for over 40 years, and is considered an musical icon.
She has been named as an influence for many modern country artists, but recently revealed in an interview with Radio.com that the feeling is not mutual.
In fact, she doesn’t even listen to modern country.
“I never listen to it, I have to be honest. Unless it’s by accident. When I do hear it by accident, it doesn’t relate to me at all, for the most part.”
She also isn’t impressed by modern songwriting mainly by the male singers. “They worry about having a hit and [are] lowering the bar lyrically,” she says. “Guys singing about ‘Drive my tractor,’ and they probably can’t even drive a manual transmission car! Which I do, by the way.“
Although, she did express her liking to a few modern female country singers like Miranda Lambert, Kasey Musgraves, and Ashley Monroe. She even called Lambert “a little firecracker“.
“I know there’s a lot of great gals out there. [Musgraves] is great, and I do like Ashley Monroe’s ‘Like a Rose’. Beautiful song! So they do pop up in the cracks of the sidewalk every once in a while.”
Harris is currently on tour with Rodney Crowell in support of their collaborative album The Traveling Kind.
Take a listen to their title track below.
