Dunno bout you, but every year one of my favorite moments at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival is when Emmylou Harris emerges at dusk, her silver mane glowing, her plaintive vocals blanketing Golden Gate Park in a spellbinding fog of their own.

Festival founder, financier Warren Hellman, originally named it the "Strictly Bluegrass" festival as a way to entice Harris to tap into his favorite genre.

It didn't work. You don't tell "Emmy" (as her friends call her) what to do, especially when she's touring with a New Orleans-style blues band.

Thus the "Hardly" in the festival moniker these days.

This summer, the grand dame of country and folk is out on the Three Girls and Their Buddy tour with Shawn Colvin, Patty Griffin and multi-instrumentalist Buddy Miller (who's recovering from a triple-bypass heart surgery).

Before she rolls through next weekend's Kate Wolf Memorial Festival, Harris took a break to chat about sad songs, how her voice has changed and her "middling" Atlanta Braves:

Q: You told the crowd the other night (in Toronto), "I've made a living out of super-sad songs."

A: Well, if you look at a lot of people's material, the richest soil for singing and for lyrics are the songs that touch on those parts of our lives that we all share. To me, they're the most real songs.

Q: The voice you were born with fits that emotion like a glove.

A: Well, thankfully.

Q: Have you thought about why we like sad songs so much?

A: Well, you have to go to that place and visit it. Somehow I think it helps us to take the next step. I mean it doesn't all of a sudden eradicate the bad memory or the sadness. It's something that we're always going to live with. There's a catharsis and sad songs help us through our journey. I believe that. Sometimes you hear a song and you don't even know why you're responding to it emotionally, but you do.

Q: How is that playing out on tour?

A: It's always great to find that new song. With Patty and Buddy and Shawn coming up with songs that have meant a lot to them, that maybe you missed or never heard before in that setting, I'm emotionally moved every night.

Q: Do you still get that pinch-me-am-I-dreaming feeling? You also told the crowd the other night, "I'd do this for free, but don't tell anyone."

A: Oh yeah. It's one of the great blessings in life to have work that gives you joy. Because I think one of the great balms in our life, oddly enough, is work. Work that is satisfying, that you actually enjoy. To have that, it takes away your ability to whine.

Q: I want to go back a bit further " what do you still carry with you that you learned from Gram Parsons?

A: Well, not to be too grand about it, but I really think that working with him helped me find my voice. I was one of thousands of young women who had a pretty voice. I was copying Joan Baez, who was a huge influence on me. Once I started singing country music, it kind of made me simplify things. But because I had more of a folk voice but I was singing country, somehow all was revealed, if that makes any sense.

Q: It does.

A: Because I think it's good to have parameters and to also understand your limitations. I read somewhere that style is a product of your limitations. Otherwise, we'd all be singing commercials. It's like not everybody can sing everything. Like, I tried to copy Dolly. Well, she does things vocally that I cannot do. But I still wanted to sing her songs. So by the time I finished singing those words in my own voice, it helps you realize well, that's your style. We all start by copying.

Q: Has your voice changed over the years?

A: Oh, I think it has. First of all, it's gotten a little rougher and it's lost some of its highness. But I think that phrasing and emotion is ultimately the most important thing. And you just have to maybe change a little bit here and there, a little nip and tuck. You say, "Well OK, I can't sing that note that way, but I'll just have to sing it a little softer." I don't think you can get too self-conscious about that because for me it's always about the song. The song will carry you. If you've got good material, whether it's your own that you've written or you've gathered a repertoire of songs from other people that you've made your own. That will carry you.

Q: I imagine if your voice does change, as you said it got a little rougher, you can delve into emotions that you maybe didn't before.

A: I think as you grow older, you've experienced more. Just by the nature of how many miles you've traveled, you're gonna go deeper. You can't dive into music and skim the surface. I think all the artists I tend to hang with and be inspired by are the people who always dive deep.

Q: Do you like the way the music business has changed?

A: Well, I haven't really been affected by it. I got into it kind of early on with Warner Reprise and for a big company they still appreciated the coloring-outside-the-lines artist. And then I got an audience who kind of expected me to zig and zag if it was coming from the heart.

Q: That's kind of the ultimate compliment " an audience that will go with you wherever you go.

A: Yeah, and it kind of goes back to the folk thing " you just kind of stay in the trenches " the trench out there in left field.

Q: Speaking of left field, your Braves are doing pretty well this year, no?

A: Well, they're just kind of middling.

Q: Better than last year, maybe?

A: Better than last year. The pitching I think is a little better. I like this new guy they got " Nate McLouth (recently traded from Pittsburgh), is that how you say it?

Q: I don't know. I think you follow baseball more than me.

A: I haven't been able to see a lot of games, but I just really love the poetry of baseball. I will enjoy watching a game just to see all the different things that can happen. Sometimes nothing happens, which is why baseball is like life. I really love defense. I'm not a big homerun fan. I like the small ball. I like the National League. It's what gets me through the long summer.