Trio Album New Review in Pitchfork

[RobGNYC]

pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/dolly-parton-emmylou-harris-linda-ronstadt-trio/

[eddiejinnj]

Wow, this just came out today. Am going to go read it. thanks, Rob!!! eddiejinnj

[RobGNYC]

I like that the reviewer got “Telling Me Lies”:

“Ronstadt in particular was at a new personal best…she belts a stunner with “Telling Me Lies.” Songwriter Betsy Cook penned it with Linda Thompson, who was divorced and operating free of the “Richard-and-” prefix of her songwriter ex-husband when she first released it on her solo debut in 1985. The arrangement—electrified keys, a little jazz guitar sting at the end—stands apart from the album’s country focus, but that didn’t stop the song from picking up a Grammy nomination for Best Country Song in 1988. It’s a buried treasure in Ronstadt’s vast catalog.”

[eddiejinnj]

"Telling Me Lies" was the only song from Trio to be on the Adult Contemporary chart (I found it and it peaked at Number 35 on the HAC chart). It is a remarkable gem. Not sure if the writer needed to use the "f" word to get his point across. Just a personal preference. Hoping that younger readers would pick up on this. I know "they" hear it everywhere but....

eddiejinnj

[RobGNYC]

The reviewer is a woman. I’m not much for gratuitous profanity—it often indicates lazy writing or an unnecessary attempt to shock the reader but here I thought her use of the word was entirely appropriate given the context of men and women and power in the 1960s-1970s music business. I’m remembering the “Johnny Cash Show” producer in Linda”s hotel room.

[eddiejinnj]

Like I said, I understand the context. Probably just as effective but not quite as profane would be to use the word "screwed". The JC incident was something the man should have gotten arrested for - period. It should NEVER have been tolerated no matter "the times". I appreciate your feedback Rob and bringing up an incident important for female even male upcoming artists to talk about. People of power should not extort such position. eddiejinnj

[eddiejinnj]

Also, what is of note, imo, as a pretend reviewer re: Telling Me Lies" is how Linda build up the pain and frustration up throughout the song to the point of belt it out at the end. She starts out more sublime in the beginning with an almost resignation start to realizing she does not need to have somebody "telling her lies". eddiejinnj

[RobGNYC]

Never occurred to me until just now looking at the album cover. Why was the billing Parton-Ronstadt-Harris rather than alphabetical? Because Dolly was the bigger name for a “country” album? Maybe coincidentally, that’s the order of the cover photo left to right.

[eddiejinnj]

I guess in terms of looking at the side or alphabetizing with other CD's Parton comes first but the way I looked at it was Linda was top and center in pic.

She looked the most prominent to me. eddiejinnj

[Partridge]

Of the singles released from Trio, the only one to reach #1 country was To Know Him Is To Love Him, with Emmylou on lead vocals. The 45 release that sold the most copies was Telling Me Lies, with Linda on lead vocals. No video. And the one most recognized and remembered is Those Memories of You, which had Dolly on lead vocals. I suppose the video was memorable. The video for To Know Him Is To Love Him, produced by George Lucas, was a real snooze. As was the song! That song should have been left off the project entirely.

[erik]

Quote by Partridge re. video for the Trio's "To Know Him Is To Love Him":

The video for To Know Him Is To Love Him, produced by George Lucas, was a real snooze.

He probably should have bought light sabers into the mix (LOL).

[eddiejinnj]

Telling Me Lies" as with the other singles (Wildflowers, Those Memories) if they were released first probably would have been a number one country single based on the anticipation of the project. I actually think they are more bang for your buck so to speak than "TKHITLH." The video has really no imagination to it at all being repspectfully honest. I mean they looked cute sitting there but... eddiejinnj

[alyn]

Jul 11, 2023 8:32:51 GMT -5 eddiejinnj said:

I guess in terms of looking at the side or alphabetizing with other CD's Parton comes first but the way I looked at it was Linda was top and center in pic.

She looked the most prominent to me. eddiejinnj

What was the old Crosby Stills and Nash story about being in the wrong order on the cover photo for the first album before they'd settled on a name, then went back to the shack to get them in the right order for the photo but the shack had been demolished...or something like that :-)

Not exactly relevant but when am I ever

I hate swearing too Eddie, I regret it when I do. I hate the way it's become the norm in society. I hear groups of kids walking past my shop just loudly effing, I hate it so much.

Was always told it showed poor command of the English language to have to swear rather than articulate the feeling. However, Linda was often sweary and she obviously does not have a poor command. Having said that, in the right spot it can be perfect...trying to think of the Woody Allen film which is really excellent and the climax is punctuated by the best placed F word I've heard...ugh what was it.... dammit...the one about a writer being outed as a communist.... 'The Front'...that's the one.

[erik]

To put Trio into a little historical context, it is important to remember that Music City did not exactly look fondly on that album when it was released. Nashville was still in the midst of its 80's countrypolitan/post-Urban Cowbo pop crossover fever; and this singular album, as uber-traditional as it was with its nods to the mountain music of Dolly's Appalachian upbringing (despite the cover art, which put the three of them on a ranch in Linda's home state of Arizona) was considered...well, is "Subversive" too strong a term? To hear tell, it would seem the mentality of the time was that, instead of having created a landmark album in the history of country music in general, and for its womenfolk in particular, the three of them had loaded a truck full of explosives, parked it outside the gates of Opryland, and set it off.

Of course, when it was evident that music lovers, country and otherwise, were buying this album like there was no tomorrow, then Nashville's power brokers softened up. It wasn't any accident that they did; after all, and I'm sorry to sound so cynical in saying this, they all saw dollar signs more than they saw the art. They saw an album that was selling somewhere between two and three million copies (which most country albums up to that time almost never did), and which got up to #1 on Billboard's C&W Album Chart, and #6 on the overall Billboard Top 200 Album Chart.

In a lot of ways, I think the overall effect that Trio had was that it laid the final groundwork not only for the emergence of Americana and alt-country, but also for the explosion in the number of female artists in country music, mainstream and otherwise, during the 1990's and early 2000's.

[RobGNYC]

Country music was changing in 1987, moving further toward neo-traditional. The Trio may have even been a catalyst for (or at least benefited from) the change. George Strait, Reba, the Judds, and Randy Travis all had #1 country singles after “To Know Him Is to Love Him.”

[erik]

I think Trio was the catalyst for country music's shift towards the traditional, or rather the New Traditional, because Dolly, Linda, and Emmylou went much further by re-introducing dulcimers, autoharps, and mandolins to mainstream country music, where once they had been the province for the more authentic kind of Appalachian mountain music that the three of them were paying homage to.

And let's consider that, if not for Trio, there is one other prominent female country group that might never have existed. (Dixie) Chicks, anyone?

[eddiejinnj]

My guess is that the Trio probably helped Allison Krauss' respect she gathers as an artist. eddiejinnj