This album actually has its origins dating back to 1975 when the title track was first recorded and released as a single. It established the blueprint for the remainder of the album: sparse instrumentation is employed throughout (on “Golden Cradle” Harris is backed only by an understated gut string guitar, and “The First Noel” is an a capella number where she is backed by the Whites), all instruments are acoustic, and the emphasis is placed squarely on Harris’ angelic voice.
The musicians are from among the best in country music: Ricky Skaggs, Rodney Crowell, Hank DeVito and Emory Gordy Jr. Several tracks also feature autoharpist Brian Bowers to wonderful effect.

Emmylou Harris is an artist with the rare sort of voice that communicates an honest and firmly grounded humanity while possessing a crystalline purity that verges on the angelic. In short, she was a singer born to make a great Christmas album, and in 1979 she did just that with Light of the Stable, in which she fused the high-lonesome traditional sound she’d been exploring on Roses in the Snow and Blue Kentucky Girl with songs that honored the spiritual and emotional roots of the holiday season. The album’s gestation began with a 1975 single of “Light of the Stable,” with most of the material recorded years later, but Harris and producer Brian Ahern gave the project an admirably unified sound, which speaks of Christmas with a quiet dignity that’s celebratory but reverent — this is one of the few Christmas albums from a secular artist that scarcely mentions Santa Claus while focusing clearly on the birth of Christ. Harris and Ahern assembled a stellar cast for these sessions — the pickers include Ricky Skaggs, James Burton, and Rodney Crowell, while Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Neil Young pitch in backing vocals — but the results are a marvel of restraint, with precious little showboating and a handful of performances that rank with the performers’ best work. If you’re looking for a disc that will kick up your Christmas party a few notches, Light of the Stable isn’t it, but if you want to hear music of quiet but compelling beauty which warmly resonates with the true meaning of the holidays, then you’ll find this album is an experience to treasure. [In the liner notes to Rhino’s 2004 reissue of Light of the Stable, Harris jokes that “We used to affectionately call the album the best-kept secret in the music business…that is why we could put it out with a different cover every year.” While she exaggerates a bit, the 2004 edition of the disc did indeed feature its third set of cover artwork, as well as three new songs recorded especially for this edition. While the new songs display traces of the more adventurous approach Harris embraced on Wrecking Ball and Red Dirt Girl, they still fit comfortably with the album’s original ten tracks, especially the lovely “There’s a Light” and “Man Is an Island,” while the new mastering makes the most of the album’s crisp, warm sound — if Harris didn’t exactly improve a masterpiece, she certainly gave it a new finish that reinforces the qualities that make it so memorable in the first place.

Emmylou Harris’ Light Of The Stable is a bracing exception to this sad legacy. Exuding a warm Christmas glow, Light Of The Stable is a brilliant meeting of traditional mountain music and hippie country hoedown. Most great Christmas records evoke a curious combination of melancholy and joy, mirroring the odd commingling of loss and hope, dread and anticipation that the holiday often brings - particularly as we mature and accumulate psychic baggage. Harris’ album captures this feeling perfectly. Younger readers should think of the music from O Brother Where Art Thou? - that’s the sort of deeply traditional and heartfelt music we’re talking about here, just translated into modern vernacular.

Emmylou Harris released “Light Of The Stable” as a single in 1975. It’s a simple song celebrating the birth of Christ, and producer Brian Ahern gives it the perfect arrangement - simple, spare, swelling to a rousing, if restrained, finale. “Light Of The Stable,” in fact, marked the coalescing of Harris’ acclaimed Hot Band, including Ricky Skaggs, Emory Gordy Jr., Hank DeVito, Rodney Crowell, James Burton, Glen D. Hardin, and the Whites (plus cameos by Neil Young, Linda Ronstadt, and Dolly Parton). When Harris and Ahern recorded the rest of Light Of The Stable in 1979, they brought the same passion and sense of history to the record that Harris did to her other brilliant, influential records of the day (such as Luxury Liner and Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town), as well as the same cast of up-and-coming pickers that helped make those records so great.

Harris’ talented crew weaves a steady, acoustic-based sound through a varied line-up of songs - originals (Crowell’s “Angel Eyes”), country classics (Tex Logan’s “Christmas Time’s A-Coming”), and carols both traditional (”Beautiful Star of Bethlehem”) and modern (”Little Drummer Boy”). The diversity of the repertoire, the consistency of Ahern’s production, and Harris’ indelible voice combine to make Light Of The Stable a strikingly original, instantly memorable record. All told, it is perhaps the best country Christmas album ever made - or at least the best since Gene Autry bestowed “Here Comes Santa Claus” upon us in 1947. Certainly, no one’s cut a better one since (though Dwight Yoakam came close).
In an ill-considered, cynical move, however, Warner Brothers amended the LP cover art when Light Of The Stable was reissued on CD in 1992. They replaced the beautiful, madonna-like shot of a young Emmylou from the original vinyl issue with a more traditional, non-contemporaneous portrait by a Christmas tree. Mercifully, there’s no stuffed horse, and, thankfully, the music’s pure Appalachian beauty remained unsullied.

Under the auspices of Rhino Records, things improved considerably in 2004, when Emmylou Harris revisited Light Of The Stable 25 years after its original release. Most notably, she recorded three new tracks, all prominently featuring Kate & Anna McGarrigle as well as many of the album’s original players. Except for “Cherry Tree Carol” (a traditional song), however, the new songs don’t add much to the album. But, this new edition is sweetly remastered and admirably repackaged with detailed liner notes and attractive new artwork taken from the original picture sleeve for the “Light Of The Stable” single. Sadly, Rhino chose not to include the original cover - or even a picture of Emmylou - anywhere the package. But all told, the 25th anniversary edition of Light Of The Stable is a major improvement over Warner’s original CD reissue and a worthy legacy for this all-time classic.
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