Bloggerhythms

I know there have been too many reruns on Bloggerhythms lately, but I'm posting another one today due to the sad passing of the legendary Dolly Parton at age 80 after an unfortunate battle with cancer. This post first appeared here on October 15, 2013. Too many celebrated musicians have said goodbye to us lately. In 1987 three great female talents formed a vocal ensemble for the ages. In a true collaboration, Emmylou Harris, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt blended their voices together perfectly to record the award winning  Trio , producing beautiful, Appalachian style, three-part harmonies in the process. They created the kind of music you envision hearing in Parton's Smoky Mountains on 1940's AM radio, back when banjoes, dobroes, fiddles, and acoustic instruments ruled, back when the music was still called country and western and before it became a huge, more urban-centered business. Harris, Parton, and Ronstadt worked together without considering their own egos and t...

Every once in awhile it becomes necessary to do a tribute for someone who is still alive. Such was the case with the accolades the entertainment press heaped upon Glen Campbell when news of his Alzheimer's disease went public and, unfortunately, the time has come to do the same for Linda Ronstadt. The former rock star recently announced that she has Parkinson's and can no longer sing. It's quite sad because her rare and instinctive talent allowed her to become one of the very few truly outstanding vocalists of the rock era, male or female. I first heard of Ronstadt way back in 1967. As lead singer of The Stone Poneys she earned her first hit single when "Different Drum" (written by Michael Nesmith before he joined The Monkees) went to #13 on the Billboard Hot 100. Then, she disappeared from view but finally became a huge star as a solo act in 1974 when her LP, Heart Like a Wheel , sold something like a trillion copies. After that, she was on the charts consiste...