Ten Favorite Hills and Mountains Songs: Heartbreak Hill (#9)

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Climb every mountain!!! No, that didn't make the list, but you will find other mountains and hills here in this countdown of my favorite songs that have "mountain" or "hill" in the title. Here's the next song on the list. #9: Heartbreak Hill - Emmylou Harris I know a lot of singers, and I've met a lot more. Meeting Emmylou Harris is high on the list of thrills in my life. Emmylou never set out to make a new genre of music, but the what we now call "Americana" music can find deep roots in the way she blended rock, country, folk, and bluegrass (on her own, with Gram Parsons, and as part of "Trio" with Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt). And you talk about a hot band? Harris' backing band, known as "The Hot Band," featured the likes of Ricky Skaggs, Rodney Crowell, and James Burton at one time or another. (Well, her record company did tell her to get a "hot band"....) Here Harris and then-husband Paul Kennerley teamed up to compose a staple of country music: a song with lyrics that are cry-in-your-beer sad but a melody that has you dancing through the sawdust and the peanut shells in the honky tonk. Country music at its finest, from one of our great traditionalists and historians. Heartbreak Hill Written by Emmylou Harris and Paul Kennerley Recorded by Emmylou Harris From Bluebird, 1989 Emmylou's live Letterman version: