Asking musicians to recreate the magic they sparked off each other almost 40 years ago is a tall order.

There were some underpowered and slightly awry passages as Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell reconvened to showcase their shared history and their first album as an equally billed partnership, Old Yellow Moon.

More to the point, there were also examples of greatness that really felt like the Hot Band, which featured Crowell's singing, songwriting and guitar playing behind Harris' plaintive cowgirl voice, was back in business.

They were, as Harris noted, their own support band and used their two sets to remember departed friends, including Townes Van Zandt, Susanna Clark and most touchingly Kate McGarrigle, with Harris singing Dear Kate alone with just her own guitar and her genuine sorrow still evident.

Favourite old songs such as the Louvin Brothers' The Angels Rejoiced Last Night found Harris and Crowell in heart-felt harmony, although the former dominated Love Hurts with uncharacteristic abrasiveness.

She more than made up for this, though, with Spanish Dancer from the new album, a song written by Patti Scialfa, or Mrs Bruce Springsteen, that sounds as if created with Harris's voice in mind.

As the balance shifted towards Crowell, with a fabulously committed I Ain't Living Long Like This and the neatly appropriate Glasgow Girl, the band and notably guitarist Jedd Hughes, displayed their considerable chops.

There was one piece of Harris magic still to come.

She must have sung Boulder to Birmingham thousands of times, but when she hummed the coda on this version it was like she'd happened across a brand new vocal goldmine.

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