Dolly Parton Album: “Trio II”

The follow-up to their 1987 "Trio" album, 1999's "Trio II" by Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt doesn't disappoint. In fact, it builds on the earlier work and expands outwards to music beyond country. Beginning with the Carter family's "Lover's Return," these ladies set the tone with a beautiful rendition of a classic. Sounding as though they're hanging out on the porch on rocking chairs, Harris, Parton and Ronstadt make their extraordinary collaboration sound easy. The harmonies are flawless. There's no grandstanding here--the point is not for any single voice to stand out, but for all three to melt together in an emulsion of vocal purity. They take on Neil Young's grand "After the Gold Rush" and transform it an eerily beautiful anthem of hope and fear. And Ronstadt on the quiet but propulsive "Blue Train" uses the long, lean line of her voice to vocally paint the picture of a train going, going, going. Gorgeous stuff.

The album is so great, I can't believe I never knew about this one earlier. The album is so moving, the music & the singers on here are totally haunting. The songs get to where they never leave your mind and it gets you where your listening to it over & over again, of course the most haunting and beautfully sad song on here is "After The Goldrush", I really can't understand what it's about, but all I know is that's the one song that sticks in my mind. "Trio II (2)" also gives you three different kinds of music, there's Country, Bluegrass, & a little bit of rock/pop especially on "5. The Blue Train", "8. He Rode All The Way To Texas" & "9. Feel's Like Home". Emmylou Harris & Linda Ronstadt are the lead singers on here & their great, But! Dolly Parton (one of my favorite's ever!) only sings for the leads on track 4 & 8, the rest is either back vocals are all together. Overall it's an A- album.

As a young listener at the time this CD was released, I liked the CD alot as I came to know every song by heart. This is a pleasing effort from the trio with each lending their own unique qualities and abilities to the group. Linda is the loud belter; Dolly handles the bird-like, songbird songs and Emmylou takes the traditional country songs that require an authentic country voice. The material here is varied ranging from pure country to Adult contemporary, more in Linda's league. HIGH SIERRA shows the AC as Celine could get away with singing this song. There are some very touching songs that mean alot to me and they are toward the end. It is great to see these veteran performers come out and perform great material as such.

Some people are complaining about the duplication of songs on this cd and Linda Ronstadt's Feels Like Home cd. When these tracks were recorded, there were conflicts with schedules and an argument took place between Ms. Parton and Ms. Ronstadt (I remember reading an article that Dolly told the details). After the feud, the recordings were shelved and it looked very grim that this cd would ever be released. Ms. Ronstadt's company was pushing for a cd to release and since there didn't seem to be any hope of another Trio recording, she used the tracks of her and Ms. Harris (and in her linear notes on her cd, she thanks Ms. Harris for her loyalty because of the feud between her and Dolly.) They decided to record other singers for the 'Trio' affect, they recruited Alison Krauss (a frequent Dolly collabirator). Dolly used one track for her Treasures cd and also used Ms. Harris but also used a third singer for the 'Trio' affect. After several years, things worked out so that they could release the Trio cd but of course some of the tracks were released on previous cd's. When the trio was promoting the cd, you could sense some tension between Ms. Parton and Ms. Ronstadt.

Even with all the drama, the cd is terrific and they sound perfect together. The original concept was to have each lady take lead on a cd. The first one has Dolly being lead on most songs and the second one has Linda taking lead on most songs. Doubtful that a third cd will be released using Emmylou as the lead, which is a shame because these ladies combined can do no wrong as far as I'm concerned. Angelic is the word that comes to mind when I hear the three of them harmonizing.

Parton, Harris and Ronstadt have put together a beautiful CD, one I find myself listening to on repeat for hours. I come at this album more from the folk angle than the country, and so I find it even more to my liking than the original Trio album. I highly recommend Trio II.