The Fire Station scales up with Emmylou Harris at Sunderland Empire
The Grammy-winning Americana icon is bringing her sold out farewell tour to Wearside. Fire Station director, Tamsin Austin looks forward to the gig - and the new chapter it represents for the venue
When Emmylou Harris walks onto the stage at Sunderland Empire next week, there will be a real sense of occasion.
The only North East date on what is being billed as a farewell tour for the UK and Europe, will offer a rare opportunity to see one of the most revered figures in American music singing songs from an incredible back catalogue, on Wearside.
The sold out Sunderland date sits alongside performances in London, Birmingham, Liverpool and Bristol - and it also marks a milestone for the city’s Fire Station, which for the first time is presenting a concert outside its own footprint.
And what a gig to start with.
Across more than 50 years, Harris has built a career which has helped shape the sound of folk, country and Americana music. A 14-time Grammy winner and Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, she has recorded more than 25 albums and collaborated with artists including Bob Dylan, Dolly Parton, Neil Young, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Mark Knopfler, Linda Ronstadt and Rodney Crowell (who was himself playing at The Fire Station earlier this month).
But statistics and accolades only tell part of the story.
What has made Harris such an enduring presence is the emotional honesty at the centre of her music. She has a reputation for making songs feel both intimate and expansive at the same time and whether interpreting the work of others or writing her own material, there has always been a sense of absolute conviction in the way she sings.
I suppose that’s how you clock up half a century of making the kind of music people always want to listen to.
For Tamsin Austin, founding venue director at The Fire Station, the concert offers the continuation of a connection which goes back decades.
“I was kind of thinking back through my history with Emmylou, who I think I first encountered in Texas at SXSW back in 2007,” she says.
By that time, Tamsin had been director of programming at Sage Gateshead (now The Glasshouse) for three years (her history with the venue actually went back to the late nineties when it was but a plan on paper… but we don’t have time to look back that far.)
“It was this tiny bar where Charlie Louvin from The Louvin Brothers was playing. Emmylou wasn’t performing, but wow, what a presence she had just being there.”
The early noughties saw Tamsin forge and cement relationships with agents and promoters the world over as she sought to bring artists of all kinds to the North East. One of these was Paul Fenn of Asgard in London.
“We’ve worked together for 20+ years now and he has been a great supporter of me throughout that time,” she says. “Paul brought Emmylou to the UK for the first time in the seventies and he has been her UK agent ever since.
“It was Paul who really encouraged me to start going to Nashville and introduced me to loads of artists… Nashville is one of those cities where you can go to small bars and little events, and then there’ll be really big, iconic names performing there.
“That’s really where the Americana festival at Sage Gateshead began.”
That would be the SummerTyne Americana festival which grew into one of the UK’s top annual celebrations of American roots music across more than a decade - blending up-and-coming artists with legends including Beth Nielsen Chapman, Kiefer Sutherland, Nick Lowe and… Emmylou Harris.
“She played in 2015 with Rodney Crowell,” says Tamsin. “And she also played a couple of years earlier, in 2013. I remember that SummerTyne one completely sold out, and it was phenomenal.”
This latest Sunderland concert comes more than a decade later and at a poignant moment.
While Harris remains a hugely respected and influential artist, this tour carries the added emotional weight of the aforementioned farewell for UK and European audiences.
“I think she certainly sees this as a personal goodbye to UK touring,” says Tamsin. “So it’s going to be emotional and very special.”
The appetite to be in the room didn’t take any tempting.
“Tickets really flew out the door. Right up into the gods. It’s completely full.”
Although The Fire Station has established itself over the past five years as one of the region’s busiest and most ambitious music spaces, this is the first time it has presented a concert outside its own building (not including the outdoor Parade Ground party gigs, of which there’ll be more later).
“I’ve always been committed to bringing great artists to the North East and what we’ve been trying to do at The Fire Station - putting Sunderland on the map and keep that ambition going.”
Tamsin says the idea is to create a broader ‘Fire Station presents…’ strand, allowing the venue to promote shows at different scales and in different venues while building on the reputation it has established since opening in 2021.
“I wanted to see how we could kind of scale up what we’re doing at The Fire Station,” she says.
The Sunderland Empire was an obvious place to start… not least because it’s over the road.
“The Empire is so beautiful, and it has a sort of a bit of a feel of the Grand Ole Opry (in Nashville),” says Tamsin. “I thought, ‘that could work really well for Emmylou’ and Marie (Nixon, the Empire’s director and former member of 90s band Kenickie) was immediately up for it. The Empire is a great neighbour to have.
“And I mean Emmylou is one hell of a headliner to start with,” she adds. “It says you mean business really, doesn’t it?”
Putting on a sellout gig at a nearby venue which holds more than double The Fire Station’s maximum capacity builds on the boldness it has displayed since it opened. In the throes of a global pandemic.
“We decided that would be a great time to open a new venue,” Tamsin laughs.
Five years on though, the venue has found both its audience and its confidence.
“People in Sunderland and across the North East have really taken the venue to heart,” she says. “It’s busy and it has a great buzz about it.”
Part of that success has come from refusing to be too rigid about programming.
“We have to be entrepreneurial,” says Tamsin. “We’re working really hard to build this sustainable business model.”
That means balancing headline artists with popular events, outdoor summer shows and regular nights which keep the venue commercially competitive while continuing to build audiences.
“It definitely needs to be all about balance,” she says. “I want it to be the best venue in the North East. Why not?”
That straightforward ambition runs through everything Tamsin talks about - from bringing BBC Proms back to the city to developing outdoor “yard party” style events inspired by venues in Nashville and Austin, Texas.
This year’s Summer Parties chime in with the broad church ethos which underpins the programming year-round.
Kicking off with a Silent Disco on July 31, tickets are also on sale for gigs by Pale Waves (Aug 1); Kula Shaker (Aug 2); John Grant singing the songs of Patsy Cline with Richard Hawley (Aug 9); Peat and Diesel (Aug 14); Lottery Winners (Aug 22); Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours with the Transatlantic Ensemble (Aug 25); Maximo Park (Aug 28); and Ibiza in Symphony (Aug 30).
“There’s a lovely vibe at the Summer Parties,” says Tamsin, who started programming them a few years ago. “We’ve consciously booked very different genres of music and artists to see what works and they have gone down really well.
“It’s a great space at the back of The Fire Station with a stage, and it holds around the same number as we do inside the auditorium. We’re looking forward to another big summer, which is fun.”
But first up, a final visit from a genuine musical legend.
For audiences, Emmylou Harris’ concert offers a chance to spend an evening with an artist whose music has spanned and shaped generations. For Sunderland, it is another sign of the city’s growing confidence as a true Music City.
And for The Fire Station, it feels like the starting pistol for an exciting new chapter.
For details of what’s coming up at The Fire Station, visit the firestation.org.uk