"WHAT a wonderful theatre," says 11-time Grammy winner Emmylou Harris as she takes to the stage at the Empire. "In America we'd have knocked it down and built a Wal-Mart but some of us are a bit more like you people" Thank God no-one told her about the Cavern. Country music was once such a dirty word they had to invent a new genre - alt country - and something called Americana, though I've never really worked out what that means. For the past 30 years and more, Emmylou Harris has, of course, defied any attempt to place her into such simple boxes. Country? Yes. But folk, blue grass and gospel too. And they're all here in a quite wondrous 100 minutes from a singer/songwriter who is at the top of her craft. Backed by a simple three-piece band featuring Pam Rose on guitars, Mary-Ann Kennedy on mandolin and percussion and David Jakes on double bass, this was very much a case of less is more. Simple arrangements gave some great songs room to breathe and left space for that unmistakable southern-tinged voice to send the veritable shivers down the spine. Some great harmonising between the three female performers only added to the effect. Harris's long dark locks of the 70s have long since given way to a dyed mane of white hair, but even at 59, she still has the power to enchant. "The girl of my dreams" was one colleague's verdict. Here I Am and Orphan Girl kick us off before she hits top stride with Love and Happiness For You, a standout track from her recent collaboration with Mark Knopfler, losing nothing for the absence of the Dire Straits man. Her work with other performers has been a huge feature of Harris's career, starting of course with those legendary Gram Parsons solo albums, and for a long time her stock in trade was singing other people's songs. Tonight we're treated to songs ranging from the traditional acapella of Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby (featured in the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack) to Townes van Zandt to the obligatory Beatles cover (For No One) and a superb version of Neil Young's After the Goldrush. But it's Harris's own compositions which steal the show. She tells us she believes Strong Hand (For June) was dropped into her lap by its inspiration, June Carter Cash. What a catch that was. Then there's the melodrama of Michelangelo and then the encore. It had to be Bolder to Birmingham, written for Gram, perhaps her greatest song and the only time her voice falters slightly. Her music may well be "misery with a beat" as she tells us, but oh what sweet misery. ANDY KELLY | 
