Who is Linda Ronstadt

For close to forty years, Linda Ronstadt has been an ultimate gold standard for a great many female singers, especially those in the country and roots-rock fields. Without Linda, we'd be almost certainly deprived of such illustrious heavyweights as Trisha Yearwood, Sheryl Crow, Lucinda Williams, Tift Merritt, and many others. And the five-year period between 1969 and 1974, when Linda was on the Capitol label, is where her reputation as a country and roots-rock icon was established, on four albums--1969's HAND SOWN, HOME GROWN; 1970's SILK PURSE; 1972's LINDA RONSTADT; and her 1974 commercial breakthrough HEART LIKE A WHEEL. Now all those four albums, plus five extra goodies, have been combined on THE BEST OF LINDA RONSTADT: THE CAPITOL YEARS, something that Ronstadtphiles have been itching for, to quote one of Linda's best known songs, for "a long, long time."

HAND SOWN, HOME GROWN, released in the spring of 1969, is arguably the very first alternative country album ever released by a female artist; and for all its crudeness, it has held up quite well, with Linda varying her repertoire between the pure folk-rock of Dylan ("Baby You've Been On My Mind") and the California honky-tonk of "The Only Mama That'll Walk The Line" and "Break My Mind." The latter two are examples of where Linda would give current "Redneck Woman" Gretchen Wilson a run for her proverbial money in terms of a tough-mama image.

SILK PURSE, released in early 1970, is largely remembered for its cover of Linda frothing with pigs, and for the fact it remains her only album to be recorded in Nashville. It is almost straight-ahead country. Out of this album, however (one that Linda has always said she hates), came the country-rock classic "Long, Long Time" (a #25 hit in late 1970), along with a juiced-up rendition of "Lovesick Blues."

LINDA RONSTADT, released at the beginning of 1972, found her moving much closer to the country-rock aesthetic, and doing it with the cream of the crop of the L.A. country-rock session mafia, including four guys--Don Henley; Glenn Frey; Randy Meisner; and Bernie Leadon--who would go on to form the Eagles with Linda's blessing. Covers of contemporary songs like Jackson Browne's "Rock Me On The Water" and Neil Young's "Birds" stand proudly alongside honest renditions of such country songs as "Crazy Arms" and Patsy Cline's 1961 classic "I Fall To Pieces"; half of this album was recorded live at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in the summer of 1971.

HEART LIKE A WHEEL, released late in 1974, broke Linda to a huge audience and cemented her place in the pop music pantheon, a place that she has never relinquished. No other female singer has proven as capable of mixing straight-ahead rock with the traditional spirit of country as Linda did on this album, where a straight-ahead rocker like "You're No Good" (a #1 hit) stands with a straight-forward country classic like "I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You" (a #2 country hit, and one that gave Linda her first Grammy [Best Female Country Vocal]).

But this collection doesn't stop with just the four albums. There are the five previously unreleased tracks. From the HAND SOWN sessions there is "It Won't Be Easy", which sounds like a cross between Indian raga and bluegrass; from the SILK PURSE sessions is an unused Nashville version of "He Darked The Sun" (the one on SILK PURSE itself is more folk-rock, while this previously unreleased one is straight C&W); "Can It Be True?" was the theme song to the 1971 film MARRIAGE OF A YOUNG STOCKBROKER; and in the same 1971 Troubadour performances that made up the self-titled album, there is a wonderful live version of "Long, Long Time", plus "(Get Up) Kate", a composition by Glenn Frey that finds the future Eagle duetting with Linda on a hard-rocking number about James Taylor's younger sister.

All these tracks, particularly those from HEART LIKE A WHEEL, have been constantly copied in some form or another since at least the late 1980s in Nashville by a staggering number of female artists there, for the obvious reason that Linda is a legend in the country-rock field. But nobody has ever been able to duplicate what Linda pulled off during that fertile period of 1969-1974; and very few (Trisha Yearwood being among those few) have even come remotely close. Whatever one might think of her other endeavors in the areas of big-band, Mexican mariachi, or adult contemporary, this 2-CD collection should leave no doubt as to the place Linda holds as one of the single most influential female singers of all times. -- Erik North, San Gabriel, California, USA