EDMONTON - Last night was one of those nights. Cold enough to make you miserable if you had to go out, glad if you didn't.

Bundled and layered, people still made their way into the Jubilee Auditorium more briskly than usual.

But Emmylou Harris, the star of the show, came on stage early to thank the 2,200 people on hand for their brave faces and to let us know it would all be worthwhile.

"I know you're all used to the weather," she said, laughing, "but I'm still happy when people show up."

Harris also wanted to give us the heads-up on her opening band, John Starling and Carolina Star. She and the five-piece bluegrass ensemble go back some 30 years.

Carolina Star's old handle, back then, was the Seldom Scene, and Harris's enthusiasm for the venerable members of the group almost made you feel like they were in fact a lost treasure.

If they were lost anywhere, it was 1,000 miles from home - somewhere between 'Frisco and Dixieland, waiting for an empty rail car to steal away in.

The call of distant train whistles and the open road were common threads in the band's travellin' brand of oldtime country.

When Harris took the stage, it didn't take her long to remind the crowd why they showed up.

The 59-year-old looked elegant, wearing a dark blazer, black blouse and a beautifully patterned and sequined black and silver dress to match her shoulder-length silver hair.

She looked great, played great and sang even better.

While she introduced Sweet Dreams (Of You) as a number she and the band were still working on, the spine-tingling quality of Harris's still-got-it voice would never have revealed that. Same goes for hits like Red Dirt Girl, a tune she says she faked unhappiness on because she actually had a happy childhood.

Harris kept the lost love theme going, with Blue Kentucky Girl, a George Jones cover and a rendition of the Louvin Brothers' If I Could Only Win Your Love, which was her first top-five hit in 1975.

Another kind of train whistle, namely this newspaper's deadline, beckoned me just as Harris started in on Even Cowgirls Get the Blues.

It was sort of sad, too. Because if anything will give you the blues, it's scurrying back to your car on another chilly winter night in Edmonton.