There's a long piece here about Emmylou, who's been talking to Fiona Sturges. She says at one point, about her relationship to country music:
I like to think I have my own category by now. I once said that I smoked country music but I didn't inhale.
Well, that's as may be. Her music has obviously moved on. But I also think that it was the country component that made Emmylou who she was, and in a way she acknowledges this in what she says about the important and distinctive influence of Gram Parsons - between country and country rock:
I didn't get his music; I didn't quite get his singing either. I had always sung folk music and I saw country music as kind of hokey. So at first I just saw what we were doing as an opportunity to make some money singing on a record. But as we began singing these harmonies it seemed like we sounded good together and I began to appreciate what he was doing.
Again, later in the conversation:
I get a great joy out of singing sad songs. It's why country music works well for me.
To me Emmylou's greatest period runs from Pieces of the Sky in 1976 to Roses in the Snow in 1980, though there are still terrific albums to come after that. (Thanks: CE.)