The Ballad of Sally Rose is the eleventh studio album by American singer Emmylou Harris released in February 1985. It represented a significant departure for Harris, in that all the songs were written by her and her then-husband Paul Kennerley, whereas her previous albums had consisted mostly of others' material. Additionally, it is a concept album, loosely based on Harris' relationship with Gram Parsons. The album tells the story of a character named Sally Rose, a singer whose lover and mentor, a hard-living, hard-drinking musician, is killed while on the road. Harris cited Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska as a major influence on the album. Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt sing harmony on several of the songs, while Waylon Jennings played lead guitar on "Rhythm Guitar". Prior to this album, only Harris' 1969 debut Gliding Bird had more than two of her own compositions, a feat she would not repeat until Red Dirt Girl in 2000. Harris has described the album as a "country opera". From Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bal...) under Creative Commons Attribution CC-BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/...)