Documents from Gilberto Gil's Private Archive

Austin 360 on statesman.com 2 Click to Print UNIVERSAL Orlude By Joe Gross AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Friday, March 16, 2007 DO THE EXTRAORDINARY Unlimited Admission - 2 Parks for $85.99 plus tax! BUY ONLINE! SAVE THIS EMAIL THIS Close Emmylou Harris, full of grace and good humor SXSW scene: Townshend talks about his generation; down on the corner, a banjo and a mandolin; waving away clouds of smoke. Rule No. 1 for interviewers: No matter how famous you think you are, or how humble you think you're being in front of the big star you're talking to, please introduce yourself. Director Jonathan Demme, a longtime F.O.L.B. (Friend of Louis Black), didn't bother to introduce himself Thursday as he took the stage with victim Emmylou Harris. It took a good five minutes for a nice chunk of the crowd to figure out who the heck he was. Rule No. 2 for interviewers: It's an interview, not a conversation. Yet, Demme, in full "I love your work" mode, declared he was having "a conversation" and immediately started talking about the soundcheck that he saw with Harris' musical partner, the brilliant Buddy Miller. This was potentially interesting to nobody. Harris surfed it beautifully, noting the pointlessness of soundchecks. "Sound changes once people are in the room. A sound check cancels itself out. It's like a religious thing, your payment to the gods, a sacrament we go through." Demme, who shot Harris in the Neil Young film "Heart of Gold," played the role of fan more than journalist, asking her how her voice worked, getting Harris to demonstrate vocal exercises ("KREEE-KREE!") Harris also played a few numbers, Gillian Welch's "Orphan Girl" and "Love Hurts," both of which featured lovely electric soloing from Miller. The latter song inspired the following exchange: Demme: "Do you mind if we talk about Gram Parsons?" Harris: "I've been talking about Gram Parsons for 35 years." Genius! Her comments about "Love Hurts" were moving, noting that the line "I'm young" might not resonate coming out of the mouth of an older woman (She's wrong; it becomes all the more powerful, but Demme said "Maybe