TV REVIEW : Emmylou Harris’ First Special Truly Is

Country singer Emmylou Harris long has blazed a career path from equal parts talent, inspiration and integrity. So it’s no great surprise that her first TV special, “Emmylou at the Ryman” (tonight at 5 and 8 on the Nashville Network), operates so effectively and effortlessly on a variety of musical and historical levels.

At its most fundamental, the show finds Harris singing her heart out in Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium, home from 1943-1974 of the Grand Ole Opry and now largely a tourist attraction used for live music only on special occasions.

But just as her 1982 “Last Date” live album opted for new material over the usual “greatest hits live” approach, “Emmylou at the Ryman” (also the title of a new album recorded during these sessions) finds Harris exploring new corners of the musical universe.

For one thing, the concert provides an introduction to her dazzling new acoustic band, the Nash Ramblers, formed in 1990 after a bronchial infection prompted her to rely on fewer decibels--but no less musical energy--than she had been used to with her justly legendary Hot Band.

With flawless interpretations of songs by writers from Stephen Foster and Bill Monroe to John Fogerty and Steve Earle, Harris and the band conduct a virtual basement-to-attic walk through country music history and styles, from rollicking bluegrass and heart-piercing blues to ebullient gospel and sublime balladry.

There are no guest celebrities (save a quick exhibit of lively footwork from the 80-year-old Monroe), no flashy costume changes, and neither a strobe light nor a wisp of stage fog in sight--just an hour of honest, unpretentious music played the same way. But then, with a marriage of country institutions as venerable as Harris and the Ryman, who would have expected anything less?