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Emmylou Harris

Hear Seldom Scene, Emmylou Harris sing 'Hickory Wind'

Brian Mansfield
Special for USA TODAY
Seldom Scene members Fred Travers (L) and Ronnie Simpkins, Emmylou Harris, John Starling of the Seldome Scene, "Long Time... Seldom Scene" producer Pete Reiniger and Seldom Scene singer/guitarist Dudley Connell.
  • This collaboration will appear on the bluegrass group%27s %22Long Time... Seldom Scene%22 album
  • %22Long Time... Seldom Scene%2C%22 out April 22%2C is the group%27s first studio album in seven years
  • The album also features founding member John Starling on three tracks

For more than 40 years, the Seldom Scene has been a fixture on the bluegrass scene in the Washington, D.C., area. Longtime friend Emmylou Harris joins them for a cover of The Byrds' Hickory Wind that premieres at USA TODAY and will appear on the group's new album, Long Time... Seldom Scene.

Written by Gram Parsons and Bob Buchanan, Hickory Wind appeared on The Byrds' 1968 album Sweetheart of the Rodeo. In Byrds lore, it's famously the song the group substituted for a planned Merle Haggard cover when the group played Nashville's Grand Ole Opry in 1968. Harris, who used to sing harmony for Parsons after he left the Byrds, recorded her own version of the song for her 1980 album Blue Kentucky Girl.

"Hickory Wind is a song filled with bittersweet nostalgia for a way of life that has passed, and it is beautifully interpreted by Emmylou Harris," Seldom Scene singer guitarist Dudley Connell says. "It was a thrill and joy to blend our voices with Emmylou."

Long Time... Seldom Scene, out April 22, is the group's first studio album since 2007 and its first for Smithsonian Folkways Recordings. The album features new recordings of 16 songs from the group's repertoire. Original member John Starling rejoins the group on three tracks. Punch Brothers guitarist Chris Eldridge, son of founding Seldom Scene banjo player Ben Eldridge, guests on Wait a Minute, which the band first recorded for its 1974 Old Train album. Harris appears on a second track, a version of With Body and Soul.

The track listing for Long Time... Seldom Scene follows:

  1. California Cotton Fields
  2. Wait a Minute (feat. John Starling, Rickie Simpkins, Chris Eldridge)
  3. What Am I Doing Hangin' Round
  4. Hickory Wind (feat. Emmylou Harris)
  5. I'll Be No Stranger There
  6. Walk Through This World with Me
  7. Big Train (From Memphis)
  8. With Body and Soul (feat. Emmylou Harris, Tom Gray, John Starling)
  9. Paradise
  10. It's All Over Now, Baby Blue
  11. Mean Mother Blues (feat. John Starling)
  12. My Better Years
  13. Little Georgia Rose (feat. Tom Gray)
  14. Like I Used to Do
  15. Through the Bottom of the Glass
  16. Lorena

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