Hard Bargain, is full of all kinds of goodness. Perhaps the most impressive thing about it is that Emmylou, who has made a career out of singing other people's songs beautifully, wrote most of the songs herself (though there have been previous albums, notably The Ballad of Sally Rose, that she wrote everything on as well).

"Big Black Dog" is one of the most charming, parly because it's kind of goofy and out of character for Emmy. This is the video from her bonus DVD where she talks about how she came about writing it: She's become heavily involved in animal rescue in the past few years, and this is about one of her friends.

Emmy has a site devoted to facilitating at-risk dog recovery called Bonaparte's Retreat (though it looks like it's still a work in progress at this point). And you can see the organizational info here. An Associated Press reporter even penned a story about the work.

[You can see a live performance of Emmy doing the song, without the voiceover, here.]

[Psssst, Anne Laurie.]