Their paths have been intertwined for 40 years. While looking for songs for her album Pieces of Sky (1975), Emmylou Harris came into contact with Rodney Crowell's brand of country when producer Brian Ahern played her Crowell's tape back in 1974. It wasn't even meant for Harris to hear, being sent to Ahern for singer Anne Murray's ears.
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"I had been listening to a lot of stuff that Brian was playing for me and I didn't really appear to like anything," Harris says. "Brian hadn't even listened to the tape and he said, 'Well, I've got one more thing that we could listen to.' And it turned out to be Rodney."
The song was Bluebird Wine, which wound up opening Pieces of Sky. It was a great beginning to the pair's relationship, which went to the next level when Harris asked Crowell to play in her band.
Today, both are multi-Grammy Award winners, and have just released their second duet album together, Travelling Kind. A follow up to 2013's Old Yellow Moon, which won Best Americana Album at the 56th annual Grammy Awards, Crowell and Harris will be together in Canberra this month to put on the kind of show only two old friends know how to do.
"Our friendship has been pretty steady over they years. There have been times when even though both of us were living in Nashville, we might not see each other but there was something that connected us," says Harris.
"Rodney is just great company. He has great enthusiasm, great energy. And he makes me laugh."
And of course they sing beautifully together.
"Well that's just a plus," Harris says. "I felt totally comfortable with Rodney from the very beginning. We're kind of two lead singers who can also sing harmonies."
When it comes to impressing audiences at their Australian shows, Harris is confident her and Crowell will be able to pick a successful path through their catalogue of work.
"There's going to be a lot of old stuff and a lot of new stuff," she says. "There are certain favourites that we still like to play, like Pancho & Lefty. I don't think I've ever done a set since I recorded that song when I haven't performed it. There is something about it that is like a sacrament, you know. It's like, we have to do Pancho & Lefty. I feel like its really important to the show and to myself. Of course, Rodney loves that song too. And he was on the record, he sang the duet with me."
Whatever songs the pair play, the show will be a once in a life-time opportunity to hear two old friends, two legends of country music, take the stage to perform together. Something, it seems, they have been destined to do.
"There has been an awful lot of serendipity in my life, or my career at least, over these last 40 some odd years," Harris says. "You do sit back and wonder what would have happened if that tape hadn't been intercepted and I hadn't heard Rodney's voice. Because I think that his presence in the early part of my career, first as a songwriter and then as a member of the band and then as kind of my soul brother, musically, was really important to getting my footing as a performing artist. And it's hard for me to imagine those years, those formative years, without Rodney."
EMMYLOU HARRIS AND RODNEY CROWELL
With: Harmony James
When: 8pm, June 23
Where: AIS Event Centre
Tickets: $112.04 B Reserve, $142.63 A Reserve, $203.80 VIP via ticketek.com.au
