Linda Ronstadt, who emerged from SoCal's vaunted early-'70s country-folk scene, became the American female rock superstar of the Me Decade.

After the initial success of the Stone Poneys' Michael Nesmith-penned "Different Drum," Ronstadt expanded her horizons through interpretations of a long string of successful pop and R&B covers. Along the way she championed emerging songwriters like Warren Zevon ("Poor Poor Pitiful Me") and contemporary favorites like Neil Young ("Love Is a Rose") in the bargain.

As the formula waned with the changing tastes of the '80s, she briefly turned to new wave before stepping boldly back to the pop standards of the '30s, '40s, and '50s. Unfortunately, this collection inexplicably skips over that three-album collaboration with arranger-conductor Nelson Riddle, a body of work that presaged the 1990s' lounge-pop revival by a full decade--and outclassed it by miles. It also eschews a compelling contemporary Latin chapter of her career in favor of her winning collaborations with Aaron Neville ("Don't Know Much" and "All My Life") and less successful AC fodder like "Winter Light" and "Somewhere Out There" with James Ingram.

A good primer to Ronstadt's immense vocal talents and recording history, but one that's flawed by some crucial missing chapters. -- Jerry McCulley

"Appalachia circa 1907" is the way they described it in the postgame interviews. It wasn't, of course, but it was as close as you could come in 1987 and still hope to sell the million copies that this ended up selling. The "Three Tenors" of country music juggle leads, complement each other to often haunting effect, and subjugate their egos to a greater cause. The songs run the gamut from primordial country favorites like "Rosewood Casket" and "Hobo's Meditation," to '50s pop (a rather anomalous "To Know Him Is to Love Him"), and mainstream country.

The instrumentation is restrained, the vocals are unfailingly lovely, and the result is a trio that is more than the sum of its parts. -- Colin Escott

Topflight pop singer Linda Ronstadt pays tribute to her heritage on this amazing roots ranchera album that also features excellent backing by the world-famous Mariachi Vargas, all under the experienced hand of master arranger-composer-producer Ruben Fuentes.

Everything clicks wonderfully here, but numbers that set a new standard include "Tu Solo Tu," an incredibly harmonic love ode; "Por un Amor," on the price of real love; and "Los Laureles," a song of declaration on which Ronstadt soars unbelievably high. These are old Mexican classics, played by arguably the world's best mariachi group and sung by one of North America's greatest vocal talents. Extras include performances by another world figure, requinto player Gilbert Puente, who made trio history when he led Mexico's Los Tres Reyes in the '50s and '60s. In the mariachi-ranchera genre, this CD easily ranks among the very best. -- Ramiro Burr

This teaming of Linda Ronstadt and Cajun folk traditionalist Ann Savoy, billing themselves as the Zozo Sisters, shows how wide is the musical range of bittersweetness. The harmonies and shared lead vocals offer a complementary contrast between Ronstadt's purity of tone and Savoy's more piquant expressiveness.

The arrangements turn folk songs into art songs, drawing as much upon chamber strings as Cajun fiddle and accordion. There's an exquisite beauty to the vocals, but the real surprise is how well the album holds together, given a range of material that extends from Cajun songs in French patois to stellar material from Julie Miller ("I Can't Get Over You," with husband Buddy Miller on guitar) and Richard Thompson ("King of Bohemia," "Burns' Supper") to a disarming revival of the Left Banke's 1960s hit "Walk Away Renee." Among other highlights, "Go Away from My Window" provides a showcase for the upper register of Ronstadt's soprano, and Savoy's lead vocals on Bill Monroe's "The One I Love Is Gone" bring out the blues in bluegrass. -- Don McLeese

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

It's often said that this 1974 set, Ronstadt's true commercial breakthrough after a half decade's worth of minor hits, set the formula for the platinum successes to follow: some underrecognized singer/songwriter jewels, a couple of semi-obscure early rock tunes, always with something for country radio as well as Top 40 to grab hold of. But Heart Like a Wheel does it with a magic Linda Ronstadt and her L.A. session crew would never touch again; for one thing, she was rarely again as convincingly tough ("You're No Good") or as fragile (the Anna McGarrigle-penned title track) as she is here. -- Rickey Wright