Emmylou Harris's groundbreaking album Wrecking Ball was produced by Daniel Lanois (U2, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Willie Nelson), won the 1996 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album and was highly praised by critics worldwide. The 2014 three-disc set features the remastered original album, a bonus CD of previously unreleased material, and a DVD of the documentary Building the Wrecking Ball, which includes interviews and studio footage of Harris and Lanois as well as special guests Kate and Anna McGarrigle, Neil Young, Steve Earle, Brian Blade, and others.
Originally released in 1995 to widespread critical praise, Uncut called the album "the most daring, inventive album of Harris's career," while Rolling Stone said, "The album features unvarnished, otherworldly renditions of songs written by Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Earle, and other lesser-known artists," and the Los Angeles Times said, "The pace is deliberate, unhurried, meditative, the atmosphere rich, dark, and ghostly." The reissue follows a very successful 2013 for Harris, whose collaborative album with longtime friend and colleague Rodney Crowell, Old Yellow Moon, won the Grammy Award for Best Americana Album. Harris and Crowell were also honored with two awards at the 2013 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards Show: Album of the Year and Duo/Group of the Year.