“We’ve been trying for years to put out the thing that we had in the can and repackage the things that we did,” she said. “Emmylou has been working at this for a long time. We thought it was coming out two to three years ago — actually even before that — but I just got a note from Emmy and Linda saying that they had signed off on it, and so it is gonna happen. I don’t have a date, but it’s supposed to be coming out this year.”Interestingly enough, this could actually be the fourth Trio album. In 1978, Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris, friends and admirers of one another's work (Ronstadt had included a cover of Parton's "I Will Always Love You" on Prisoner in Disguise) attempted to collaborate on a Trio album. Unfortunately, the attempt did not pan out. Ronstadt later remarked that not too many people were in control at the time and everyone was too involved with their own careers. (Though the efforts to complete the album were abandoned, a number of the recordings were included on the singers' respective solo recordings over the next few years.) This concept album was put on the back burner for almost ten years.
This would mark an end in the threesome's collaborative efforts as in August 2013, Ronstadt revealed to AARP that she has Parkinson's disease, and "can no longer sing a note."
It isn't a stretch, in my opinion, to say that most, if not all, of the female collaborations in country music over the last 28 years (and yes, that includes the Pistol Annies, and even the Dixie Chicks) owe their genesis to what these three women managed to accomplish on their two official albums; so it would be hugely interesting to see what this collection yields. But it is also quite sad that it should have taken this long, and possibly came about in part because of Linda losing her voice to Parkinson's.
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