TRIO - THE SISTERHOOD OF SONG

The album Trio, a collaboration featuring Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt was released on 4 March 1987, thirty-five years ago this month. To celebrate I am looking back at the recording, release and success of the album. The majority of the text in this article is taken from my book Linda Ronstadt-A Life In Music which was published back in 2009 although there is additional/edited text throughout. The illustrations have also been added for this article.

(Photographer: Robert Blakeman)

Sessions were held back in 1978, when Linda teamed up with fellow country stars Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, although they hadn’t gone smoothly and one of the reasons given at the time was problems finding enough time to record and work together. All three artists decided to wait until they could do the album justice.

In an article printed years later in USA Today, the three artists talked about the problems encountered. “The first attempt at recording eight years ago involved too many chiefs and not enough indians. So we had a pow wow between the three of us and said why don’t we wait until we can do it properly. Let’s weed out and get rid of some of the aggravations,” said Parton.

At the start of 1986, it seemed the time was right and in January they convened at The Complex in West Los Angeles to begin work on a new album under the direction of George Massenburg. A stellar group of musicians were on hand including Albert Lee, John Starling and Mark O’Connor on guitars, Herb Pederson on banjo, Steve Fishell on pedal steel and dobro, David Lindley on mandolin, Bill Payne on keyboards and Russ Kunkel on drums. Old friend Kenny Edwards was also on hand playing acoustic and electric bass. Sessions ran, on and off, through to November with additional recording taking place at Woodland Studios in Nashville and Ocean Way Recording in Hollywood.

Edwards had a lot of respect for all three artists: “I hadn’t been working with Linda for while when she called me for that. I remember clearly that between the three of them there was an awful lot of expertise in that kind of country music. One evening, after the session, I jammed with Emmylou until the small hours and she knew more songs than anyone I had ever met. Dolly was always sweet and in a good mood and the sessions went very smoothly despite the three stars having to make room for each other. Linda has always been very generous with other people whose talent she admired and was a big supporter of Emmylou in the early days of her career.”

(Photographer: Robert Blakeman)

Their sense of humour showed during the sessions and in USA Today in February 1987 producer Massenburg recalled that they “showed up one day in Tina Turner wigs carrying pink cassette players.” They did take the recording seriously though and in the same issue Linda talked about the project, “What we really have in common is the love of that music. We can do it for hours and hours and never get bored.”

Just prior to the album’s release in March a single was issued, To Know Him Is To Love Him backed with Farther Along. The a-side had been written by Phil Spector who had written the haunting track after seeing the words ‘To Know Him Was To Love Him’ inscribed on his father’s gravestone. The song was a 1958 number one hit for The Teddy Bears, who had named themselves after the recent Elvis hit. The group disbanded soon after although Annette Kleinbard, who sung the haunting lead vocal on the original, continued a career in music. Spector would go on to make a very successful career as a producer with his legendary ‘Wall Of Sound’ technique. The single, which at the time was the fastest charting record in the history of Warner Brothers (Nashville), reached #1 in the country charts, only her second single to achieve this. At the Country Music Association Awards, Phil Spector picked up the ‘Song Of The Year’ award, an unexpected surprise for him. A video promo was filmed and showed the three girls sitting by the fireplace in Linda’s home, laughing and joking while cutting out valentines. The film’s director was George Lucas, who was Linda’s boyfriend at the time, and he sent the girls roses - red for Ronstadt, white for Parton and pink for Harris.

Following the end of the sessions, and before the album’s release, Linda was kept busy with various concert appearances across the USA. On 13th October she appeared, alongside Parton and Harris, at the famed Grand Old Opry in Nashville where they performed ‘My Dear Companion’ a track from the forthcoming album. 

The long-awaited album, released on 4 March 1987, was a stunningly beautiful selection of traditional and original country material paying tribute to the harmony-laden music that played such an important role in the trio’s early careers. Parton remembered the album fondly in her 1994 autobiography Dolly, My Life And Other Unfinished Business when she wrote, “Of course, the Trio album, the one with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris, was one of the crowning achievements of my career and something I am very proud of. I sounded better with those two incredible voices than I ever have, before or since.”

The opening track, The Pain Of Loving You was written and recorded by Parton and Porter Wagoner back in 1971 and had originally appeared on their Two Of A Kind album. The harmonies from all three artists, some great acoustic and steel guitar work from Harris, Albert Lee and Steve Fishell sets the mood for the rest of the album.

To Know Him Is To Love Him, was an ideal song for the three girls to tackle and it is easy to see why this track was chosen as a single, and why it reached the top of the charts. Harris takes the lead for the song which features some unusual backing from Ry Cooder on tremolo guitar and David Lindley on Kona Hawaiian guitar. It is interesting to note that Peter and Gordon recorded the song under the title To Know You Is To Love in 1965 and it became a top ten hit, the same Peter Asher who became Linda’s manager and producer. Harris is also the featured singer on My Dear Companion, a beautiful performance that would have not been out of place on her Roses In The Snow album.

Linda takes over the lead for three numbers. Recorded back in February 1932 Jimmie Rodger’s Hobo’s Meditation is really a man’s song but Linda does a great job and, as with many of her previous covers, makes the song her own. Hank Snow, the 'Singing Ranger', also recorded the song. I’ve Had Enough is a typical Kate McGarrigle track and over the years Linda had recorded many of her songs including Heart Like A Wheel and Talk To Me Of Mendocino. She is outstanding on Telling Me Lies, written by Linda Thompson and Betty Cook. The song earned the pair a Grammy nomination for 1987’s ‘Best Country Song (Songwriters Award)’ and they performed it on the show. The latter two songs are the only ones on the album to feature strings and these were arranged and conducted by David Campbell.

Those Memories Of You is mostly Parton, supported by some of the best harmony singing on the album. She is ably supported by excellent playing from David Lindley on mandolin, Mark O’Connor on fiddle and the Hawaiian guitar, this time played by Steve Fishell. This is a foretaste of Parton’s foray into bluegrass that culminated in her three excellent albums The Grass Is Blue (1999), Little Sparrow (2000) and Halos And Horns (2002). She also takes the lead on both Making Believe and Wildflowers and shines on both tracks. Wildflowers was semi-autobiographical with its story of a girl who leaves her mountain home to find success in the outside world.

The album closes with two traditional numbers, Rosewood Casket and Farther Along. The former, with just acoustic guitar, mandolin, dulcimer and acoustic bass is a sad song with a very sweet melody that is well suited to their voices. The track was arranged by Avie Lee Parton, Dolly’s mother, and it is probably from her that she learned the song. The song is performed by Parton with vocal support from Harris and Ronstadt on the chorus. It features some of the best singing on the album, at times Parton’s vocal sends shivers up the spine. The gospel track Farther Along, arranged by John Starling and Harris, features even less instrumentation with Albert Lee playing acoustic and high-strung guitar and Bill Payne providing all the keyboard work. Parton, Ronstadt and Harris take a verse each and join together on the chorus. The song is yet another stunning performance with beautiful vocal harmonies of which they should be proud. It is also a fitting close to the album.

During the recording of the album they spent a lot of the time discussing new outfits, especially the ones that were created by Manuel, a Hollywood designer, for use on the album cover. Linda is wearing a black skirt with a fringed top, Dolly is shown in fringed crimson skirt and matching top while Emmylou is dressed in black jeans, shirt and a pink jacket. The back of the album featured a black and white shot representative of the material on the album. They are all shown wearing lace dresses which has a turn of the century feel. Linda came up with the idea for the photo: “It was my idea to have us in Victorian dresses, because stylistically what we had in common was from the early part of the century. We have different figures and we all have different styles of dressing and we didn’t want to look like three people who’d never met each other.” The album cover images were taken by photographer Robert Blakeman. 

The inner bag contained caricatures of the three girls in their underwear along with various items of clothing that could be cut out and added. This was illustrated by Andy Engel based on Manuel’s designs.

Reviews were mixed. In Stereo Review (July 1987) Alanna Nash felt that Dolly Parton’s contribution was a major factor in the album’s success “...the most vibrant contributions are undoubtedly Parton’s. Not only do her two original songs - The Pain Of Loving You, which she wrote with Porter Wagoner years ago, and Wildflowers – pick up the pace, but it is Parton who finally breaks the album’s arch restraint with Alan O’Bryant’s Those Memories Of You, a strong and mournful bluegrass tune in the best Bill Monroe tradition.” She did go on to praise the production of the album as “a gorgeous sampler of female harmony singing and thrilling instrumental solos.”

In the July 1987 edition of Playboy, Robert Christagau wrote: “Trio is a literally thrilling apotheosis of harmony – three voices that have thrived and triumphed individually engaged in heartfelt co-operation.” Later, he says, in an echo of Nash’s thoughts, “Parton’s penetrating purity dominates the album as it once did country music history. The only one of the three who’s had the courage of her roots recently, Harris sounds as thoughtful up front as she does in the backup roles that are her forte. And while Ronstadt’s big, plummy contralto will always hint of creamed corn, she’s a luscious side dish in this company.”

“Trio, bad album full of woman-as-victim songs” ran the headline in the Gastonia, North Carolina Gazette. They felt the album was a disheartening mistake and that their voices never quite gelled! They picked out Linda as the major problem, feeling her voice was far too polished and the project should have been a duo. In closing they wrote: “Overall, Trio is severely flawed by misdirected emotions and an unfortunate mix of voices. The album is far less than the sum of its parts.” A harsh point of view and one that most of the the record buying public didn’t agree with.

At one of the Saturday night Grand Ole Opry shows, not long after the album’s release, many of the country greats had nothing but praise for the album. Hank Snow, a friend of Jimmie Rodgers, praised their version of Hobo’s Meditation, as did the Wilburn Brothers for Making Plans.

Although there was talk of a tour to promote the album Parton’s schedule, which included her TV show, put an end to any plans. It was unfortunate as a tour by three of the biggest artists in country music would have been a major event and would have taken the music of Trio to a much wider audience. Although there was no tour to promote the album there were several promotional appearances on TV featuring all three artists. On 13 March they appeared on The Carson Show and performed Hobo’s Meditation, Haunting Memories and their latest single To Know Him Is To Love Him. Other appearances over the coming months included Entertainment Tonight, where Linda talked about George Lucas’ involvement in the making of their video, the Today Show, Hollywood Insider and Solid Gold. Many of these shows featured the video and also clips from Parton’s own TV show Dolly when all three artists appeared.

The album spent an incredible 84 weeks on the country charts, with five spent at the top, while on the pop chart it reached #6 with a respectable 48 weeks in the top 200. The RIAA certified the album gold then platinum on the same day on 14 July. In the UK the album only managed to reach #60.

Three more singles were lifted from the album, and although none repeated the success of To Know Him Is To Love Him, they all made the top ten. In May Telling Me Lies became the first country single to be released on CD by Warner Brothers and this was followed in September by Those Memories Of You and then Wildflowers. All three made the country top ten and in terms of singles chart success Trio would remain Linda’s most successful album. More success followed at the 1987 Grammy Awards when the album was nominated in both the ‘Album Of The Year’ and ‘Best Country Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal’ categories winning the latter. Unfortunately Linda couldn’t attend the ceremony to pick up the award in person.

A second album, Trio II, was released in 1999. The twelve year gap between the two albums was caused by a number of problems and as this article is to celebrate the 35th anniversary of Trio I will not be covering this album here.

In 2016 a 3-CD set, The Complete Trio Collection, was released and featured both Trio and Trio II with a third disc bringing together twenty alternate versions and previously unreleased tracks from both albums. Of these no fewer than fifteen originate from sessions for the first album.

There are alternate takes of Wildflowers (a less traditional version), My Dear Companion (featuring a solo vocal from Emmylou Harris) and Making Plans (a solo vocal from Dolly Parton) and alternate mixes of I've Had Enough and Farther Along.

Previously unreleased songs included Pleasant As May, Where Will The Words Come From, Are You Tired Of Me, In A Deep Sleep, Grey Funnel Line and an acappella version of Calling My Children Home. Also featured is the gospel track You Don't Knock, co-written by Pops Staples and the compilers of the set left in a short bit of studio chat at the end of the song.  

Both Even Cowgirls Get The Blues and Mr Sandman had been previously released on Emmylou's 1977 album Blue Kentucky Girl and 1981 release Evangeline respectively. However, the version of Even Cowgirls... on her solo album has Parton and Ronstadt singing harmony, whereas on the Trio Collection they share verses. Another track, My Blue Tears, despite being listed as unreleased and from 1994 is actually from the early abandoned sessions featuring all three artists in 1978 and was originally released on Ronstadt's 1982 album Get Closer album.

Palms Of Victory, an outtake from the first album, appeared on Emmylou Harris' 2007 compilation Songbird: Rare Tracks and Forgotten Gems and for reasons unknown, was not included on The Complete Trio Collection.

I'll leave the final words to Emmylou Harris, "I first met Linda in 1973, and a long friendship was forged when we both realized our favourite 'girl singer' was Dolly Parton. We knew then we were destined to be soul sisters, but could never have imagined that only a few years later we would not only meet and befriend Dolly, but spend those glorious hours in each other's living rooms and in the studio harmonizing on songs we all loved - a welcome respite from the pressures of solo recordings. As a singer, nothing compares with the joy of adding your voice to those of others, especially when those voices happen to be Dolly's and Linda's. And I am so grateful to have been a part of such a unique experience."