To call Emmylou Harris a legend is an understatement, because she has been in the forefront of American music for well over 30 years. From her work with the late Gram Parsons to her more adventurous contemporary material, she’s guided or helped guide the evolution of roots music. A multiple Grammy winner, her latest CD, Stumble Into Grace, has assumed its place alongside her best work. She told NUVO in 1997, “Well, I don’t really consider myself an influence. As far as a working woman on the road, yes. But a lot of us have been out there a long time.”

Billboard magazine honored Emmylou Harris with its prestigious Century Award in 1999. At the time, she was lauded as a “truly venturesome, genre-transcending pathfinder” who was being given the award “to acknowledge the uncommon excellence of [her] still-unfolding body of work.”