Cowgirl's Prayer is the seventeenth studio album by American country artist Emmylou Harris, released on September 28, 1993, by Warner Bros. Records. Coming immediately after 1992's live acoustic At the Ryman album, Cowgirl's Prayer is a collection of similarly subdued material (with a couple of rockers thrown in, notably "High Powered Love", the album's first single). Released at a time when older artists (i.e. anyone over 40) were being dropped from country radio playlists, the album received little airplay, despite positive reviews, and its relative commercial failure is said to have served as a catalyst for Harris's decision to change course with the harder-edged sound of her subsequent work, beginning with 1995's rockish Wrecking Ball, thus rendering Cowgirl's Prayer Harris's last mainstream country album.
Despite the lack of radio airplay, accompanying videos for the album's three singles, "High Powered Love", the Cajun-themed "Crescent City", and Jesse Winchester's "Thanks to You", received considerable exposure on CMT.
The album's name is taken from the first line of the last song, "Say a prayer for the cowgirl". In Leonard Cohen's original song Ballad of the Absent Mare the subject is a cowboy, but for Jennifer Warnes' 1987 version Cohen changed the name of the song to Ballad of the Runaway Horse and the protagonist to a cowgirl.
- Richard Aspinwall – assistant engineer
- Larry Atamanuik – percussion, drums
- Sam Bacco – percussion
- Grace Bahng – cello
- Richard Bennett – acoustic, tremolo, electric guitar, percussion, tambourine, producer, mandocello, hi-string guitar
- Mike Brignardello – bass
- Lori Brooks – harmony vocals
- Sam Bush – fiddle
- Kathy Chiavola – handclapping, harmony vocals
- Ashley Cleveland – handclapping, harmony vocals
- Suzanne Cox – background vocals
- Emory Gordy, Jr. – string arrangements
- Emmylou Harris – acoustic guitar, harmony vocals
- Connie Heard – violin
- John Heiden – design
- David Hoffner – Hammond organ
- Roy Huskey, Jr. – acoustic bass
- Kieran Kane – gut string guitar
- Mary Ann Kennedy – harmony vocals
- Jana King – harmony vocals
- Alison Krauss – background vocals
- Chris Leuzinger – acoustic and electric guitar
- Sam Levine – clarinet, flute
- Joe Loesch – special effects
- Robin Lynch – art direction
- Edgar Meyer – double bass
- Mark Miller – engineer, mixing
- Al Perkins – pedal steel, steel guitar
- Jon Randall – harmony vocals
- Allen Reynolds – producer
- Pam Rose – harmony vocals
- Milton Sledge – percussion, drums
- Jay Spell – piano, accordion
- Tim White – photography
- Hurshel Wiginton – harmony vocals
- Kris Wilkinson – viola
- Dennis Wilson – harmony vocals
- Bobby Wood – organ, electric piano
- Bob Wray – bass
- Trisha Yearwood – handclapping, harmony vocals
| Chart (1993)
|
Peak
position
|
| U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums
|
34
|
| U.S. Billboard 200
|
152
|
| Canadian RPM Country Albums
|
19
|
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