Uncommon Music - Ballad Of Sally Rose

Written By: Nichole Wagner

One of the first concept albums in the country genre is Emmylou Harris’ “Ballad of Sally Rose,” from 1985. It is also possibly the most overlooked of her thirty-album career

With help from friends like Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, Vince Gill and then-husband Paul Kennerly, Emmylou tells the sings of Sally Rose, the girl from South Dakota who leaves home to become a rock star. By the second song, Sally has made her way to Tupelo and has joined up with an unnamed male musician to “play Rhythm Guitar and sing the third.”

Despite her best intentions efforts, the third track finds Sally falling for the frontman and the gentle “Heart to Heart” cements the feelings.

The mystery musician perishes in a wreck along the highway in “Bad News” leaving Sally to pick up the pieces in “Timberline” and go on to shine with her “red-hot dynamite band” in “Long Tall Sally Rose.” Even with her success, she hasn’t forgotten the “White Line” that took her baby.

The last few tracks reiterate her longings with lines like “I stepped into the light you left behind / I stood there where all the world could see me shine / Oh I was on my way to you to make you mine / But I took the longest road that I could find.” She goes on to buy a radio station, KSOS, to carry his torch. The closing number, “Sweet Chariot” is aching with bitter acceptance of Sally’s loss.


If the entire story of girl meets rock star, joins him on tour only to have him meet his tragic and untimely end strikes you as oddly familiar, the not-so-subtle reference to Joshua Tree seems fitting. While Ms. Harris has never said that the narrative of Sally is a modification of her own history it does draw some parallels.

“The Ballad of Sally Rose” is a stand-out in Emmylou’s discography as the first album that she wrote or co-wrote (with Kennerley) all the tracks and as a great mix of upbeat tunes paired with ballads. While it is currently only available on vinyl or import CD a few tracks were included on the Songbird box set released last year.