50 Years Ago: Dolly, Emmylou, and Linda Debut New Supergroup

About the only thing that could possibly ever top the beauty and majesty of the voices of Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris, is all three of them together.

Their 1987 album Trio is considered one of the crowning achievements in country music history. Just like country music’s other major supergroup The Highwaymen, it wasn’t just the star power assembled in Trio, but the way these three iconic voices of country music conjoined together seamlessly and selflessly that made a sound greater than the sum of its parts.

The Trio album won the ACM for Album of the Year in 1987, and the CMA’s Vocal Event of the Year in 1988. The group also won the 1988 Grammy for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group, and was nominated for the Grammy’s all-genre Album of the Year. Trio was Certified Platinum by the RIAA, and was succeeded by the Gold-Certified Trio II in 1999. The Complete Trio Collection combining all of the supergroup’s work including rare takes was released in 2016.

But this wasn’t where the collaboration of these three sirens of country music started. It all began 50 years ago today, April 27th, 1976, on the set of the syndicated TV show Dolly!

Dolly Parton came up at a time when country music variety shows were all the rage. She was introduced to much of the world as the sidekick and harmony singer of Porter Wagoner on The Porter Wagoner Show. Of course as time went on, Dolly Parton started stealing the show, and became so beloved, it was time for her to leave Porter Wagoner’s side and shadow. Dolly left in 1974, penning “I Will Always Love You” for Wagoner upon her departure.

In 1976, Dolly Parton would star in her own short-lived, syndicated 30-minute television show simply called Dolly! At the time, Dolly, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt were already friends, and already had been conspiring to perhaps collaborate together in some capacity. Aligning the schedules of the three stars to record an album proved to be difficult. But when Parton launched Dolly!, they were all able find a stitch in their schedule to appear together.

It was during the taping of the second episode of Dolly! where the three first appeared together. In 1975 on her album Prisoner In Disguise, Linda Ronstadt had covered the old J.B. Coats song “The Sweetest Gift.” Emmylou Harris had joined her in studio to sing harmonies. So this seemed like the perfect song for the Trio to sing.

The Trio also performed the old Carter Family classic “Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow.”

The collaboration went so well, the three women resolved to make an album together ASAP, despite the scheduling difficulties. They were actually able to record nearly an album’s worth of material in the coming years with Emmylou’s husband at the time, Brian Ahern, acting as producer. But since all three of them were on separate record labels, logistical snafus dogged the project.

Some of the songs from the sessions did see the light of day though. The songs “Mr. Sandman” and “Evangeline” ended up appearing on Emmylou’s 1981 album, with “Evangeline” becoming the title track. “My Blue Tears” written by Dolly, and featuring all three was also released on Linda Ronstadt’s 1982 album Get Closer.

It would be a decade after that first collaboration on the Dolly! TV show that a proper Trio album would come about. But it was worth the wait, with both the album, and the Trio supergroup going down as one of the greatest collaborations in country music history.

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