All I can say is “shame, shame, shame” on Elektra Records.<\/p>\n
Back in 1995 Linda Ronstadt recorded arguably one of the best
\nrecords of her post-70’s career,
\nFeels Like Home<\/i>. It was – and still is – a revelation of
\nwhat can happen when a singer is perfectly matched with the songs
\nshe’s performing. I recall at the time Ronstadt did several
\ninterviews that indicated
\nFeels Like Home<\/i> was initially to have been the follow up to
\n1987’s
\nTrio<\/i>, which she recorded with Emmylou Harris and Dolly
\nParton.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the second trio album didn’t happen for whatever
\nreasons, but apparently the record company kept the tracks of the
\nsongs – and have released them now four years after Ronstadt’s solo
\nversions. Five of the 10 songs on
\nTrio II<\/i> were also included on Ronstadt’s ’95 album – why,
\nthat’s nearly unforgivable.<\/p>\n
Worse, yet, both projects were produced by George Massenburg and
\nthe players on the duplicated songs are nearly identical. One has
\nto surmise that Massenburg at the least started with the same sonic
\n“bed” as used on Ronstadt’s disc, then added Parton’s harmonies
\n(Harris were already there) – or vice versa he started from the
\nTrio<\/i> sessions to create Ronstadt’s solo versions.<\/p>\n
All of the songs that feature Ronstadt on lead vocals (“The Blue
\nTrain,” “Feels Like Home,” “High Sierra,” and “Lover’s Return”)
\nplus a true trio song, Neil Young’s “After The Gold Rush,” appeared
\nin practically the same arrangements on Ronstadt’s
\nFeels Like Home<\/i>. The only difference is Parton replaces
\nValerie Carter in the Young song.<\/p>\n
Which is not to say any of these songs sound bad. Far, far from
\nit. These artists are too good to release songs that bark, so these
\nsongs still sound as good now as they did then – of course, they
\nare essentially the same songs. Especially moving are Jennifer
\nKimball and Tom Kimmel’s haunting “The Blue Train” and Randy
\nNewman’s beyond excellent “Feels Like Home.” (Only Bonnie Raitt on
\nNewman’s
\nFaust<\/i> album performs the song better.)<\/p>\n
The extent of the duplication here is so complete that it’s
\ndifficult to hear anything good in the five songs on
\nTrio II<\/i> that aren’t repeats. But, once again, these three
\nare professionals and those five songs do sound darn good.<\/p>\n
Of the “new” songs, two by Parton are standouts on this
\nimpoverished disc: “I Feel the Blues Movin’ In” by Del McCoury, and
\n“He Rode All the Way To Texas” by John Starling. On both, her
\n“little-girl lost” voice perfectly augments the blue tone of the
\nsongs.<\/p>\n
Harris also shines on her moments in the spotlight, “You’ll
\nNever Be The Sun” and “Do I Ever Cross Your Mind.” On the latter,
\nParton’s high soprano enriches in an exquisite way.<\/p>\n
The saddest part of this effort is not that 50 percent of the
\ndisc has already been released. The saddest part is that those of
\nus who were anxiously waiting for
\nTrio II<\/i> since the release of the first effort are still left
\nwaiting – and waiting with a bitter taste in our mouths.<\/p>\n
I understand that the record industry doesn’t exist for the
\nreasons I’d like it to – quality, artistry, originality, etc. No,
\nthe record industry exists for one reason – bucks. What burns me is
\nnot that they would essentially re-release half of Ronstadt’s album
\nas something new – after all that’s a cheaper, though despicable,
\nway of making an album.<\/p>\n
What sticks in my craw is the incredible waste of talent.
\nHarris, Ronstadt, and Parton have more talent singing in the shower
\nthan most of today’s “artists” have in all of their overdubs put
\ntogether.<\/p>\n
Ronstadt and Harris are teaming up for another album, or may
\nhave even done so by this time – let’s all hope they are treated
\nbetter by the record company this time around.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":28036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7597],"rating":[5616],"class_list":["post-39430","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-emmylou-harris-linda-ronstadt-dolly-parton","rating-rating-d"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39430\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39430"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}