It’s almost strange hearing Emmylou Harris singing on her own. She’s sung duets with everyone, from Johnny Cash to Bob Dylan to Ryan Adams to Bright Eyes to Jack White to Gram Parsons, who first brought her into the public view.

It’s important to note that her debut album, released five years prior, before her partnership with Parsons, failed to make much of an impact. But here, bereft of Parsons after his death the previous year, she carries on alone, to great success. The album ranges from rollicking folk rock of the excellent Bluebird Wine to the honkey-swagger of Merle Haggard’s The Bottle Let Me Down to the Beatles’ For No One to the quiet acoustic country of songs like Before Believing and the heartbreaking Boulder to Birmingham, the only original on the album, written in the wake of Parsons’ passing. As far as second debut’s go (see also: David Bowie’s Space Oddity), Pieces of the Sky is a tender, aching record for those melancholy nights when you’re missing someone.