The Innocence Mission / Emmylou Harris / Daniel Lanois at Ventura Concert Theater

by chris cunningham

Emmylou Harris last Thursday at the Ventura Concert Theatre in Ventura, CA. the show was incredible! She had Darryl Johnson playing bass, footpedals and some percussion. Buddy Miller was doing a fairly good job at sounding like Daniel Lanios and um ….I forgot the drummers name…. anyway about 3/4 of the show has gone by and then she looks around and then says “let me introduce Daniel Lanois…” . I had to double take it! it was him! He came out strapped on his vintage Gibson Firebird and they broke into May This be Love. I was speechless, here he was my mentor. his stage presence was mindboggling! He ended up playing about six songs with her and then they ended up with Indian Red off of For the Beauty of Wynnona. His drop by was totally unexpected. There was no buzz about him playing so I just assumed that it was going to be just Emmylou.