Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt Trio to Receive Distinction in Hollywood
When talking about country music supergroups, often the discussion immediately veers toward The Highwaymen—Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and Kris Kristofferson. But right behind them better be mention of Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt, whose 1987 record Trio is considered one of the crowning achievements in country music history. Just like The Highwaymen, it wasn’t only about the star power assembled, but the way these three iconic voices of country music combined together selflessly that made one sound greater than the sum of their parts, and hairs on the back of the neck stand on end.
Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt have all received individual distinctions aplenty over the years, with both Dolly and Emmylou being members of the Country Music Hall of Fame, and Ronstadt a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Dolly Parton has also been bestowed a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame previously. But now all three of these important and iconic country music women will be honored together with their own Hollywood Walk of Fame star.
Along with Robert De Niro, Guillermo del Toro, Anne Hathaway, fellow country artist Faith Hill, and others, it was announced Tuesday (6/26) that the Trio will be part of the 2019 Hollywood Walk of Fame class. In typical Dolly Parton fashion, she celebrated the news with a boob joke. “I am so excited that I have a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, but with two of my best friends … That’s natural. I like to do things in pairs, if you know what I mean.”
The honor holds special distinction for Linda Ronstadt who retired in 2011, and revealed in 2012 that she had been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, rendering her unable to sing. Though the contributions to country music by Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris are well-noted, Ronstadt’s often go overlooked. In 1974 she was awarded Best New Female artist by the ACM Awards, and landed Top 5 country hits with “Blue Bayou,” “When Will I Be Loved,” “I Never Will Marry,” and others.
The Trio album won the ACM for Album of the Year in 1987, and the CMA’s Vocal Event of the Year in 1988. It 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.
Also fitting the trio would be recognized in Hollywood. Both Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt were seminal to the expansion of the California country sound in the early and mid 70’s. During the 70’s is when the trio first began performing and collaborating together, occasionally appearing on each other’s albums. But due to scheduling conflicts, it would take another decade for a proper album to be recorded and released.
June 26, 2018 @ 8:10 pm
It is definitely a great honor for these women to have; and I would guess that this was done through intense lobbying on the part either of people within Dolly’s crew, or even Dolly herself, since her other two TRIO partners are much more low-key. Linda, in particular, has often said that while prizes and honors are great to have, she didn’t get into the music industry for that reason alone. Her quote about this is (and I so wish the Nashville artists would take this to heart): “If you’re working for prizes, you’re in trouble.”
This is only my suggestion, but I feel like this star should be laid down outside the Capitol Records building (the structure that looks like a stack of LPs on a giant spindle) on Vine Street. And the reason for this is that it was at that building, for that label, that Linda began her recording career as a member of the folk-rock trio The Stone Poneys in 1966. Laying down a star for The Trio at that iconic locale would bring Linda’s career full circle (IMHO).
June 26, 2018 @ 11:31 pm
When you get THREE national treasures together for one album… has there ever been such a summit. I don’t think so. And ALL three seemed, unlike many of their male counterparts, to steer clear of scandal and more outspokenness (which I don’t mind) that I think allowed them such huge success across isles and even ponds for I know Emmylou has been given some major awards in Europe and Dolly still tours the world.
Not and ego among them but they all seemed to come from an era when it was about collaboration and sharing ideas more so than money and fame.
June 27, 2018 @ 1:08 am
Linda Ronstadt should also be in the Country Music Hall of Fame for her early pioneering efforts in Country Rock as well as pure country.
June 27, 2018 @ 5:56 am
Speaking of Linda Ronstadt and early country/rock contributions I’d love to give some props to Michael Nesmith. He wrote “Different Drum” which first brought attention to LR (vocalist for the Stone Poneys at the time) and scored his own hit with “Joanne”. His First National Band was a treasure with Red Rhodes on pedal steel. And beyond music an important player in video (1st Grammy award winner for a music video) and movies of which some are classics (Repo Man). Nesmith has just encountered some health issues of his own and hopefully will fully recover.
June 27, 2018 @ 7:16 am
I totally agree. Whether the country music industry will do so is another matter, of course, because she has never been part of that industry, and has been very straightforward (as with everything else, she WILL tell people exactly what she thinks) about her not really being a country artist in the strictest Nashville sense of the term. But it would be wise for them to take into account Linda’s ability to cross between country and pop without ever compromising her own integrity, and how dozens of female country artists over the last thirty years consider her a prime inspiration (and in Trisha Yearwood’s case, probably THE inspiration) for becoming singers in the first place.
June 27, 2018 @ 3:57 am
The Trio is/was an incredible super-group! Individually, each woman is an icon. The Trio I and II albums were (and still are) an amazing collection of songs and performances. I believe each album earned a Grammy back in its day. The Trio Complete Collection (3-CD set) is highly recommended due to the remastered versions of the songs as well as the inclusion of alternate takes and unreleased gems. A Hollywood Star is a nice recognition of this fabulous collaboration.
June 27, 2018 @ 4:19 am
If you were to create a new trio of future legends (in your estimation) who would you pick?
If it were women, I’d make it :
1. Kacey Musgraves
2. Miranda Lambert
3. Caitlyn Smith
If it were men, I’d make it :
1. Sturgill Simpson
2. Randall King
3. Cody Johnson
but hey, that’s just me!
June 27, 2018 @ 6:59 am
Easier to pick the guys IMO. There are a lot more talented female singers flying under the radar these days.
– Whitey Morgan, Cody Jinks, Sturgill Simpson, with the 78s backing them up.
June 27, 2018 @ 12:11 pm
I don’t think it’s as easy as to just pick three women. The reason that the albums “Trio” and “Trio 2” did so well wasn’t because they had the best female voices or were the best singers. You forgetting women like, for example, Loretta Lynn or Tammy Wynette. It was because their voices blended very well together and they were very good friends who knew each other’s weaknesses and strengths
June 27, 2018 @ 6:52 am
The best vocal harmony ever recorded. Nothing compares to the Trio.
June 27, 2018 @ 8:15 am
The Beach Boys, Four Freshmen, and Queen might have something to say about that.
June 27, 2018 @ 10:51 am
They’d be wrong 😉
June 27, 2018 @ 11:05 am
Just from a musical standpoint, those groups did far more complex harmony. The Trio’s harmony, while blended beautifully was really standard; tonic, third, 5th and maybe some other notes for color. Subjectively I’m fine with it being the best to you, but I think you could say with certainty that other groups had objectively more complicated and impressive vocal harmony ????
June 27, 2018 @ 8:02 pm
Yeah, I’m judging by the way the music touches the soul. The Trio was like angels singing.
June 27, 2018 @ 10:45 am
There are quite a few of us who learned to harmonize by singing along with their record.
June 27, 2018 @ 10:59 am
A well deserved honor for three of the classiest and most talented women in music.
June 27, 2018 @ 4:12 pm
I have always thought that each of these women always made other artists records that much better when they did guest vocals. The songs Linda did with James Taylor back in the 70s are such perfect specimens, and when each of them would appear on the others songs like Emmylou on Linda’s “I Can’t Help It” on Heart Like a Wheel or Dolly on a couple of tunes on the Prisoner in Disguise album. I am an unabashed Ronstadt fan and always will be. What I love about Dolly and Emmylou’s voices is their sweetness. They really make you feel things deep down.
June 28, 2018 @ 9:25 pm
Linda sang on a couple of Warren Zevon’s albums to spectacular effect.
Emmylou is on Lyle Lovett’s first album and takes it to another level.
June 27, 2018 @ 4:29 pm
This article is why I like this site so much. Love how you made this a main news story that other sites might add in a smaller way. Thanks also for the info/history in the article I can learn from. This might be a small thing but also enjoyed the throw-back photo. I also enjoyed reading the comments on here.
Black Boots— I’m curious about your opinion of ‘The Eagles’ and ‘Crosby, Stills and Nash’ for harmonies.
June 28, 2018 @ 5:19 am
I just saw the Eagles Saturday night and although Glen is gone, with the addition of his son Deacon and the amazing Vince Gill they still harmonize beautifully. They opened with Seven Bridges Road and blew me away – back to the ‘70s.
June 27, 2018 @ 5:26 pm
A little background on The Trio.
Linda and Dolly actually met first, back in 1971, during the last of Linda’s four appearances on The Johnny Cash Show. Dolly had advised Linda not to get the impression that she, Dolly, was a dumb blonde country girl because of the outlandish way she dressed and looked; and it never occurred to the West Coast hippie Linda to do so. Dolly, however, had heard Linda sing, and she felt it was the equivalent of hearing Elvis and the Beatles for the first time.
Meanwhile, Linda was the supporting act for Neil Young in early 1973 when she ran into Gram Parsons at Houston’s Liberty Hall. Gram invited Linda onstage to meet his protégé Emmylou; and the two women hit it off virtually immediately. Emmy had seen Linda once in New York back in 1969 at a time when Emmy was, in her own words, “a struggling Joan Baez wanna-be” and was insanely jealous, but by 1973 she had gotten over it. And after Gram died in late 1973 of an overdose, it was Linda who urged Emmy to really start her own career.
The trio first got together in late 1975 at Emmy’s L.A. home to work up their harmonies on a whole host of honest-to-goodness traditional country songs, and they all appeared on Dolly’s TV show in 1976. And while it would indeed be another ten years before all three could get together in the studio (their individual careers were much too hot in the late 70s), they eventually managed to produce the two albums that have become legend among both country and rock fans over the years.
June 28, 2018 @ 2:15 am
Yes and Linda also sang vocal harmonies on “In My Hour of Darkness” (The Return of The Grievous Angel” LP 1974) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ERhhkjqDGsA
June 28, 2018 @ 7:07 am
This too was Gram’s idea, to get Linda to add the extra layer of harmonies on that track; and it pretty much cemented hers and Emmylou’s friendship.
Linda, incidentally, had known Gram as far back as 1968, when she had just gone solo and he had just joined the Byrds. She admired what he was trying to do, bring the hippie rock and blue-collar country music audiences together, but she was less than thrilled with the way he comported himself at times in public.
June 28, 2018 @ 2:57 am
“a struggling Joan Baez wanna-be”
In this TV show from 1970 she sings two song from the Gliding Bird album. I think I’ve posted this link before. But I can do it again. Here she really try to both sing and play the guitar like Joan Baez 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3IfU1b-kmY
June 27, 2018 @ 9:58 pm
When the best of the best come together then there can be nothing short of something just gliding in just below the Realm of Heaven and the Angels of Heaven humming in harmony with them in the background. That is what these three women accomplished when they joined their voices to make the Trio Albums. All of them were already Stars and had nothing to prove to anyone. Their collaboration put them on their on Realm and all of us that are privileged enough to have been blessed by their music both singularly and collectively are the most fortunate of all. The greatest salutation to these women are that regardless of how famous they became; they never lost sight of “who they were and where they came from”. They found true joy in sharing the gift of their beautiful voices with the rest of the world. The fame and awards were by-products. Sure, everyone likes to be recognized for their gifts and accomplishments but the joy of music and sharing it has always been front and center focus for these women. You can enjoy the train ride even if you aren’t the engineer but to get to do both has to be the things dreams are made of and their music sure filled a lot of dreams for a lot of people.
Congratulations on a job well done and lives well lived!
July 23, 2021 @ 4:56 pm
I am astonished at lindas vocal range. she often hit high notes well into the soprano range. on trio she sings alto. in a mixed chorus the alto usually sings the 3rd of the chord just under the soprano. in 3-part girl group harmony the alto sings the bass line. no doubt these songs are arranged in keys they can all sing but in a mixed chorus the men would sing the bass line and alot of those lower notes. linda is really in anne murray contralto territory. whitney houston also had a phenomenal range. she was a great admirer of linda ronstadt even though they had very different styles. if whitney had lived and taken care of her voice i believe shed have gone the same way as linda shed have matured as an artist and stopped over-singing. shed have stopped chasing hits and done the music she really wanted to do. linda was a better singer when her career had leveled off and she was no longer under pressure to chase trends and sell millions of records