Before we begin our interview, Emmylou Harris takes a brief moment to tell her old friend Rodney Crowell that she has an old photo of his. “It’s a little picture of your father as a boy,” she tells him. “I’m going to put it in a safe place for you.” The black-and-white image, nearly 100 years old, is one of many personal artifacts that appear on the cover of their second collaborative album, “The Traveling Kind.” When the designer returned the materials, this small snapshot of James Walter Crowell was apparently sent to Harris by accident, but her partner knows it’s in good hands.

The Americana pioneers team up for their second collaborative album, “The Traveling Kind”