The singer that Linda Ronstadt said was out of her league: “A lot better than I could”
For someone who single-handedly reshaped the world of country rock, Linda Ronstadt seemed to have a major love-hate relationship with her own voice.
She knew that she could bend notes in a way that drove people crazy, but it was also tough for her to relisten to any of her records without thinking that there were a few flaws behind the scenes. So if that person was already uncomfortable with her own voice on record, it was going to be hell hearing her on record with one of her competitors.
Then again, Ronstadt was never one to see music as a competition behind everything. She was far more content to have a bunch of friends playing the best music they could together, and even if they didn’t make a lot of money, she was still happy to amuse herself half the time she was up onstage. But when expectations started coming after Heart Like A Wheel, Ronstadt had more of a reputation to uphold.
Before she was known as the country singer that would guest on the occasional Neil Young album, but having worked with Eagles and doing songs by everyone from JD Souther to Jackson Browne, she was practically the godmother of country music for the greater LA area. And while she ended up taking a step back from that kind of music, she never quite forgot about it when she started working with her own supergroup.
Although the Trio was a great idea that somehow manifested itself into existence, it’s not like Ronstadt had grown any more comfortable with her voice. The idea of hearing herself next to Dolly Parton would have had anyone else shaking in their boots half the time, but when listening to what Emmylou Harris was going to bring to the table, there was a little bit more levity to the situation.
While Parton’s voice is the epitome of country perfection, Harris’s voice was great because of how natural it sounded. Whereas Ronstadt had pure power behind her voice every time she sang, Harris has always had that distinct character in her voice that made people tremble when she harmonised with Gram Parsons or when she started putting together her own albums in the 1970s.
But even before working with the Trio, Ronstadt was quick to point out that some techniques Harris did were completely beyond her, saying, “When I met her, I thought, ‘I would give anything to be able to sing with Emmylou Harris. I wish we could become the Everly Sisters.’ Well, she had a singing partner, Gram, and I thought it was a wonderful combination. I remember telling my boyfriend at the time, who was Albert Brooks, that Emmy could sing higher and lower, and louder and softer, and she could phrase a lot better than I could.”
If you listen to all of them singing together, though, there’s never a moment where you feel like any of them are slipping on the vocal front. This was the country-rock answer to all of the manufactured supergroups of the time, but when looking at the way that the Trio carried themselves, Harris was the real glue that held them together, having the kind of natural voice that fit so well with Ronstadt and the country background that resonated with Parton.
It’s a shame that we never got any more music from them while Ronstadt was still performing, but when listening to Harris’s music today, you’re not only hearing pieces of rock and roll history. Even decades after her work, she remains the living embodiment of the pure joy that can come from country-rock.
