Precious Memories is a traditional gospel song written by J. B. F. Wright in 1925. It’s fitting that as a native Tennessean, Wright's creation has long been recorded by several of Nashville’s finest country artists. My personal favorite being the tender soul-filled rendition by Emmylou Harris.
Emmylou Harris’ 1987 album Angel Band, originated with her producer and later husband Paul Kennerley, after finishing up the semi-autobiographical and psychologically exhausting album, The Ballad of Sally Rose.
It was Kennerley, who told her, “I really think you should do some singing just for the heck of it. ‘Let’s get some people over to my house and do some old traditional songs and record them. We won’t make a record. It’ll be just for ourselves.’”
The friends invited were Vince Gill, Carl Jackson and producer-musician Emory Gordy Jr. A year passed, before she and Kennerley got around to listening to the home recordings with their friends, but when they did, Harris was more than a little surprised.
“It was phenomenal,” she says. “The vocal performances, the sweetness, the purity of it... we said, ‘Boy, that should come out on a record.’” A year later the album was released. To this day, Angel Band remains one of Harris’ more obscure albums, but easily one of her best as well, having mostly traditional songs with a spiritual expression rarely matched.
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Sources: Chicago Tribune + Veronique Rolland + Randy Fath