With a career that has sold more than 15 million albums worldwide, garnered a remarkable 12 Grammy Awards and stirred music lovers for more than thirty years and counting, Emmylou Harris has been rightfully hailed as a major figure in several of America’s most important musical movements of the past three decades. A steadfast supporter of roots music and a skilled interpreter of compelling songs, she also has been associated with a diverse and dazzling array of admiring collaborators from Bright Eyes to Tammy Wynette and from Neil Young to Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash.

Her contributions to country-rock, the bluegrass revival, folk music, and the Americana movement are widely lauded, and in recent years Emmylou Harris certainly has carved out a sound that is uniquely her own. Her 1995 Wrecking Ball was a watershed album for her, combining several world-music elements with acoustic instruments, driving percussion, and a folk/roots flavor, and in general catching audiences by surprise, as Harris yet again reinvented her sound. The new style would evolve on a number of Harris’ subsequent releases, including 1998’s Spyboy, 1999’s Western Wall (a collaboration with Linda Ronstadt), 2000’s Red Dirt Girl and 2003’s Stumble into Grace.

Emmylou emerged as a solo star with Pieces of the Sky in 1975. The album electrified the country-music world, becoming the first in a series of annual gold or platinum albums through the ‘70s. Emmylou Harris has been regarded as a key figure in the movement that united rock audiences with country traditionalists. She made country music "hip" and brought it to a vast youth market for the first time. By the early 1990s Harris changed her sound again with the acoustic band The Nash Ramblers and honoured one of country music’s most legendary concert halls with the Grammy-winning Live at the Ryman CD of 1992. With 2000’s Red Dirt Girl, Emmylou released the first album of her career that was nearly entirely comprised of Harris-penned songs. The album, and its follow-up, 2003’s Stumble Into Grace, confirmed her remarkable songwriting talent, and further demonstrated Harris’ diverse musical influences.

The wide range of Harris’ repertoire is mirrored by the musicians who have sought her out as a collaborator. She has recorded with artists from such diverse points on the musical compass as The Band, Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello, Bright Eyes, Bob Dylan, Little Feat, Tammy Wynette, Neil Young, Bill Monroe, Lyle Lovett, Roy Orbison, Bonnie Raitt, Garth Brooks, Lucinda Williams, and George Jones. Stars such as Ricky Skaggs, Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, Jon Randall and The Whites have emerged from the ranks of her bands.

In 2007, Rhino Records celebrated Emmylou’s distinguished career by releasing Songbird: Rare Tracks and Forgotten Gems, a 4-CD, 1-DVD boxed set featuring previously unreleased material, demos, studio tracks, collaborative work with other artists, and a DVD of videos and performances beginning with The Hot Band in the 1970s.