Linda Ronstadt Calls Modern Country “Mall-Crawler Music”
Linda Ronstadt may not be able to sing anymore due to a Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis in 2013. But she can still talk and speak her mind, and that exactly what she did in a recent interview with Rolling Stone when prompted to discuss her influence on pop, rock, and country music—all of which she dabbled with in her time as a performer.
Though not asked to comment on today’s country specifically, Linda Ronstadt said anyway, “I don’t listen to modern country music. I don’t care for it particularly. I like old country music, when it still came out of the country. What they call country music now is what I call Midwest mall-crawler music. You go into big-box stores and come out with huge pushcarts of things. It’s not an agrarian form anymore. When it comes out of the country, it’s not farmers or woodsmen, or whatever. It doesn’t make much sense. It’s just suburban music.”
Of course it could be easy to criticize Linda Ronstadt herself for being a country artist who eventually crossed over into pop and rock. But few paid their dues as much as Linda did early in her career, including her years in the Stone Poneys, her debut solo album in 1969, Hand Sown…Home Grown, 1970’s Silk Purse that included cover songs of “Lovesick Blues” and “Mental Revenge,” and her 1972 self-titled album where she recorded “Crazy Arms” and “I Fall To Pieces.” Even when she achieved her breakout pop rock success, she was always honest about the genre and approach of her music, and then returned to country in the groundbreaking “Trio” project with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris.
Linda Ronstadt is currently out promoting the release of Live in Hollywood from Rhino, which contains recently-discovered audio recordings from a special Ronstadt shot for HBO in 1980. It includes live renditions of many of her biggest hits, including her country material such as her twangy rendition of Buddy Holly’s “It’s So Easy,” and “Blue Bayou.” It gives Linda Ronstadt fans something new from the Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, since health has left her unable to record or perform for many years now.
Linda Ronstadt came from a time when regardless what genre you plyed your craft in, you respected the roots of the music. Half German and half Mexican, Ronstadt also recorded an album of traditional mariachi music called Canciones De Mi Padre in 1987.
JB-Chicago
February 8, 2019 @ 10:00 am
She’ll always be a L E G E N D to anyone my age (58). A voice and face like an angel. Great video…….brought tear to my eyes. Parkinson’s is a horrible disease.
scott
February 8, 2019 @ 11:41 am
Amen, JB. I’m 60, LOVED her back in the day.
Chris
February 8, 2019 @ 12:41 pm
I’m two decades your junior and couldn’t agree with you more. She could sing just about anything and did, including pop standards and Gilbert and Sullivan. She transcended genre lines and excelled in each genre. And she may not have been a pure country artist, but when she did sing country, it rang true as country
The Church of Kane Brown will vilify her for these comments and call her an irrelevant old fart (not in exactly those words as they write at a middle-school level at best) without knowing a thing about her or her career. Let them. We who grew up with her music, whether we saw her singing Mexican music on “Sesame Street” or called the local radio station to request “Somewhere Out There,” know better.
Kross
February 8, 2019 @ 10:07 am
I don’t disagree w/ her except for the geographical reference. I spent the 1st 22 years of my life in the great state of Indiana around the Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana tri state area. It doesn’t get much more “country” than that.
Ian bruce
February 9, 2019 @ 8:42 pm
Love her beautiful voice, beautiful soul.
Will listen to her music everyday for the rest of my life. Just want to say Thank You for a lifetime of joy
Erik North
February 14, 2019 @ 10:14 pm
@ Kross:
I would agree with you, and actually Linda herself would, that the Kentucky/Indiana/Ohio tri-state area is as country as any other truly rural part of America. What I think one needs to read between the lines of what she said is in the comment about “box stores”. This would be the compartmentalized nature of country radio, a Wal-Mart one-size-fits-all mentality. Going by that standard, I think it puts Linda’s comment into a clearer context. She doesn’t go after the country genre, she’s going after the way it has been deformed.
I would also mention Linda’s other qualifications for discussing country music beyond her own half-century-long career. She grew up on the last ten acres of her family’s ranch in Tucson; her father operated a hardware store in Tucson that sold all manner of farming and ranching tools, up to and including tractors; and she rode horses in and around the desert environs. This was all before she even decided to shoot for a career in music in the mid-1960s. Granted, her style of country was not necessarily “pure” (something she was always upfront about), but she found a way of making the genre’s traditions relevant to her generation in a way that would be commercially and artistically successful. Her career and the results it produced speak for themselves (IMHO).
Bill Weiler
February 8, 2019 @ 10:20 am
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TVvNXfzR6dw
All performed without fireworks, clowns or circus animals. Who knew it could be done this way?
Jay Eff
February 8, 2019 @ 11:29 am
I know it isn’t Linda’s original, but I love that Miranda has been covering “Willin'” live for the past few years. I wonder how Linda feels about her.
Larry S
February 8, 2019 @ 11:35 am
Bill Weiler: WOW…50 yrs ago. I have never seen that one. Thank you! While my peers had the infamous Farah Fawcett poster on their walls, I had Linda.
Tootsie
February 8, 2019 @ 11:45 am
Always loved Lindas music, she herself was a fresh new voice and tone in country in the day. She was part of the country revolution into outlaw music. She inspired many with her music. Today it is other Lindas and outlaws with their own voice; as yesterday some will sing on into tomorrows and be legends and some will sell a few songs. Its the music business…it changes as the sands of time… As Linda helped change it when it was her time…Thank you Linda for you music, it still plays
Stringbuzz
February 8, 2019 @ 12:54 pm
Mall Crawler = A Jeep wrangler that doesn’t go off road..
albert
February 8, 2019 @ 12:59 pm
‘ mall-crawler music ‘
am I the only guy who’s never heard that expression before ?
it is PERFECT ….!!!!
so……..there’s no denying the woman could sing . for me , calling her ‘COUNTRY’ is a stretch …but not nearly the stretch calling Brown , Hunt , Urban , Ballerini , Little Big Town , Rhett , Elderidge and about 30 other mainstreamers is .
Let’s face it …..most of us grew up in a time when THE BEST , MOST ORIGINAL AND DIVERSE POPULAR MUSIC IN ANY GENRE was the soundtrack to our lives . Most of what’s going on right now ….in almost every genre ….is just using the templates set by Rondstadt and her contemporaries and is , at best , derivative . Mainstream , for the most part , has simply become a parody of itself with generic , pandering , exploitative and , often , disrespectful and classless ‘artists’ cluttering the airwaves and streams .
KGD
February 8, 2019 @ 4:01 pm
She crossed all genres, but definitely started out as country/country rock. Saw her with Emmylou Harris a few years back, another time with Aaron Neville and a third time with a rock band.
Love her music and am sad that Parkinson’s took her voice away from us.
Charles Bennett
February 8, 2019 @ 4:12 pm
Mall crawler music never heard that expression before I don’t listen to that juck on the radio . I have on my phone the best music country n blue Grass I ever want to listen too . Linda i.loved her voice and her country songs. God bless her for saying that ..
Greg Green
February 8, 2019 @ 5:16 pm
I came across this site a few weeks ago. Sorry for the length but the quality and diversity is stunning.
“Radio Hits November 1968: And on San Francisco’s Top 40 KFRC, it was an incredible week for lots of songs that would stand the test of time.
“Bubbling under and entering the chart at #30 (on its way to becoming a #5 hit nationally in early 1969) was B.J. Thomas‘ terrific “Hooked on a Feeling.” What a great vocal!
“Debuting at #28 was blue-eyed soul singer Dusty Springfield with “Son of a Preacher Man.” The song would ultimately reach #10. Check out that attitude…
“Canned Heat‘s “Going Up the Country” began its run at #26. (We told you this was a great week…) The blues-rock band would earn their highest-charting hit at #11.
“This is crazy: Joe Cocker‘s cover of “With a Little Help From My Friends” jumped this week from #19 to #15.
“Leaping to #11 (from #22) was Marvin Gaye‘s “I Heard it Through the Grapevine,” which would become the first of his three #1 pop hits.
“Onto the Top 10: at #8 was Steppenwolf’s “Magic Carpet Ride.”
“By November 1968, Stevie Wonder was earning his 18th Hot 100 hit of his career at – get this – the age of only 18 with “For Once In My Life.” It was #4 this week on its way to #2 nationally.
“Judy Collins recorded Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides, Now” in 1967. It was released as a single in October 1968 and her gorgeous rendition became the highest charting single of her career, reaching #8 on the Hot 100, her only Top 10 chart hit.
“At #1? Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman,” one of many Jimmy Webb compositions that the singer recorded.”
Paulette Markham
February 8, 2019 @ 1:00 pm
I love Linda, always have and always will. When I was in college, 4 1/2 hours from my home, I listened to Blue Bayou and it somehow quenched my thirst for home. She is truly one of the greats.
Ed
February 8, 2019 @ 2:10 pm
I put it this way: I would still spend a fortune on music but not one cent on that trash I hear today, called county.
Dannyjoe
February 8, 2019 @ 2:13 pm
For those of us who are old enough to remember her album covers, “a boy scout uniform never looked so good!”
Duhamburglar
February 8, 2019 @ 3:19 pm
It was a Cub Scout uni. I should know since I had that poster on my locker while serving Uncle Sam overseas.
Tom Smith
February 8, 2019 @ 2:46 pm
She nailed it.
Sharon Driscoll
February 13, 2019 @ 7:08 am
She always does!
Opal Earick
February 8, 2019 @ 3:38 pm
I do not listen to what they call country music today to me its to comterrary with pop rock and etc mixed. I grew up listen to legendary Hank Williams Sr. And old timers.Linda a well re
spected lady worth listening too.
Mike
February 8, 2019 @ 4:13 pm
Our civilization is slowly going to the fires of Hades. There aren’t many heroes anymore. But as hard as it seems to believe. There are heroes that remain. There are those brave warriors of truth who rise to the challenge and fight the most insidious of evils.
Ladies and gentlemen, Linda Ronstadt is one of those heroes.
altaltcountry
February 8, 2019 @ 4:58 pm
Dolly Parton reportedly said “There are only three female vocalists: Barbra Streisand, Linda Ronstadt, and Connie Smith. The rest of us are just pretending.”
When you’re as good as those three, genre doesn’t matter much. And when you’re as good as Dolly Parton, you probably got there by being humble.
jj
February 8, 2019 @ 5:33 pm
What do you think of Brandi Carlile being a SELLOUT on Maren Morris’ atrocious new “country” song Common.
Linda is right. Bless her!
Erik North
February 8, 2019 @ 5:36 pm
Having been a big fan of Linda’s since 1978, I think it should be said that this isn’t the first time she has made this sharp-tongued critique of what passes for today’s country music. In fact, it was in an interview in the now-defunct Country Music Magazine back in February 2003 where she first made this remark, and she placed the blame on country radio, which even then, according to her, no longer respected either the traditional sounds she loved growing up as a kid in Arizona, or the progressive values she espoused in her own approach.
And by any stretch of the imagination, she knows whereof she speaks. She grew up on a substantial amount of country music via listening to the Grand Ole Opry and the Louisiana Hayride on the radio in the early 1950s, including Hank Williams: then Patsy Cline in the late 1950s; and then to bluegrass music as part of that form being revived during the early 1960s folk music revival (or “scare”). This, combined with her exposure in the mid-50s to that new-fangled melange of country and R&B that we came to know as Rock And Roll, was what helped fuel the approach she took in her own career, starting in 1967.
She was always honest in not considering herself a country artist in the strictest sense of the word. But the albums she made during the height of her success in the 1970s (all of which were big country and pop smashes), plus the TRIO albums she made with her good pals Emmylou and Dolly, still continue to influence legions of mainstream country and Americana women, from Trisha Yearwood and Martina McBride on the mainstream side to Margo Price and Tift Merritt in the Americana genre, and many, many others. And those that have known her personally for years, especially Emmylou, consider her extremely thoughtful, incredibly knowledgeable, and generous, even with her having to deal with the effects of Parkinson’s.
Linda is someone that today’s artists can still really learn a hell of a lot from (IMHO).
Mike Honcho
February 9, 2019 @ 3:44 pm
Progressives don’t have values.
Jon Till
March 29, 2019 @ 10:53 am
Why make this a political thing? Stick to the music, please.
Arlene
February 8, 2019 @ 6:05 pm
https://youtu.be/wWEQDyrbphE
It doesn’t get much better than this
JB-Chicago
February 8, 2019 @ 11:22 pm
When I was little boy and I heard the Monkey Mike Nesmith penned “Different Drum” I just thought the voice was incredible…lol I remember the single on the radio but I never saw this video until today. Absolutely adorable! 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGZznJXY1Xc
KGD
February 9, 2019 @ 10:21 am
No, YOU’RE crying, 😀
Thank you for this.
Ray
February 8, 2019 @ 6:33 pm
I watched Linda’s interview on “CBS News Sunday Morning.” I was amazed how fast it took me back to when I heard here sing “Silver Thread and Golden Needles” and “Love Is a Rose.” These songs are so country, they wouldn’t be given any attention by modern day radio, even with her beautiful face.
For anyone who doubts Linda was always the real deal, she was able to sing with Nelson Riddle (standards), Mexican, opera, a duets album with Aaron Neville and most importantly, the album with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris, which still holds up 30 years later.
The best thing about the press Linda is getting this week is giving her music to the new generation.
Raeman C. Haines
February 8, 2019 @ 6:40 pm
I remember seeing her live in Philadelphia during the taping of the Mike Douglas show . This tiny beautiful girl in a blue velvet mini dress and bare foot . I was a fan of hers from the Stone Ponies days in 1967 and seeing her two yrs later was a treat . I am still a fan and listen to the CD’s I now have frequently . This new album will be an exciting addition
Deborah Liber
February 8, 2019 @ 9:34 pm
I have always loved her voice back in late 60′ and 70’s. I still listen to her cds daily. One of the other things I have always liked is she worked with such talented musicians. In many songs there is usually some instrument in the spotlight. So not only hear her pleasing, soulful voice but hear a lot of talented musicians to. Something I miss in today’s music.
Kevin Reeves
February 8, 2019 @ 9:58 pm
One of my favorite descriptions of modern country music is: Garage band rock with a trailer park accent. You will see what trash they are selling now when you hear Lefty Frizzel, Bobby Bare, Faron Young, Buck Owens, Porter Wagoner, Johnny Cash and the Carter’s and many dozens more.
Ernest Tubb, Hank Thompson, Patsy Cline, Loretta, Dottie West, Tammy Wynette, George Jones, Jim Reeves, the list of all Time greats is almost endless…..Linda Ronstadt ranks somewhere in this list, she is to be numbered among all the national treasures mentioned here.
Anita GLASZKO
February 8, 2019 @ 11:01 pm
Linda Ronstadt will always be my idle. Herself and her music carried me through the saddest times in my life.
Her spirit is unique in that she reveals herself to be a loving and caring lady
I commend you Linda for your beautiful talent. You show a kind of innocence and dont give yourself enough credit for how great you truly are.
Frank
February 8, 2019 @ 11:10 pm
I think she’s being kind. I mean, that stuff is crud on a stick. I never understood it. Some of it’s rather vulgar & sexist. The new country artists seem to be carefully groomed in some image factory. They used to say The Beach Boys couldn’t surf. How many of these artists know how to run a tractor, raise crops, grew up on a farm or sip white lightnin’?
M Pearce
February 9, 2019 @ 1:29 am
I love going through the bins at the old record stores and finding one of Linda’s records that I don’t have or one that’s in better condition. Her music will always be spinning on my turntable. It always puts me in a good mood. Thanks Linda
Sally Levinson
February 9, 2019 @ 7:50 am
As a sufferer of Parkinson’s I think that she’s just an amazing woman I don’t care what kind of music she sings
Batterycap
February 9, 2019 @ 10:29 am
I got to see her live at the University of Georgia in ’75 or ’76. Loved her before. Loved her then. Love her now. One of my top 10, and possibly top 5 all time favorites.
Bear
February 9, 2019 @ 11:04 am
One thing about Linda is that she was a MASTER of song choice. She pulled out new younger writer of her generation and sang their songs. People like Lowell George of Little Feat or Neil Young, Dolly Parton, Anna McGarrigle…
Coincidentally I saw Blackberry Smoke on Thursday and Niki Lane opened. She covered, “Roll Um Easy” , which Linda sang on Prisoner In Diguise. And Blackberry Smoke covered, “Willin'”, which Linda Sang of Heart Like A Wheel. Two of my favorite Linda recordings.
Almost every single album she released went several times platinum no matter what genre she sang in.
And a she told a story in reference to awards and to not being in the RnR Hall of Fame, about winning a Grammy and how she tossed it in the backseat of a rental and forgot it.
She will always be one of my favorite singers and like many of my favorite singer I was born late to the game and thus never got to see them live.
Rusty
February 9, 2019 @ 5:41 pm
Boy I can tell you growing up in the 70’s, any boy would have a crush on her!
Her voice just will hypnotize you. I’m glad it is preserved for the generations to
come to discover.
Corncaster
February 10, 2019 @ 6:48 am
After Ronstadt came Benatar and Jett, who were a little screedy by comparison. The new wave or punk influence instead of Motown country and soul diminished singers overall. Then rap put the lid on them. There are many good singers out there, but not enough great lyrics, melodies, and love for musicians. When karaoke rules in bars, you’re in big trouble.
I want the 70s back, Ronstadt included.
Bamstrait
February 10, 2019 @ 10:21 am
The beauty of Linda is that she has recorded music of many genres including rock, pop, country, Mexican, big band standards etc. This is an artist you can’t pigeon hole she has succeeded at every genre she has tried, all because her of her magnificent voice, sad that it’s been silenced.
Paula M
February 10, 2019 @ 3:17 pm
Soulful, touching and brilliant singer, thank you Linda Ronstadt for the gift of your voice to my ears
Carl Hensler
February 10, 2019 @ 3:19 pm
Back in ’75 I heard Hoyt Axton and Linda sing Lion in the Winter on the radio. I immediately bought the single. I love the way her harmony soars above his low voice. There is a touching video of them:
https://youtu.be/ya2dSRcqLBE
I grew up in Charleston, WV, and worked at the country radio station where the most requested song was the Carter Family’s Wildwood Flower. I remember the day our announcer broke in to report that Hank Williams had died up near Point Pleasant.
Of course I only listen to the old stuff. Today’s country is garbage.
Doug
February 10, 2019 @ 5:08 pm
Surprised not to see a mention of “Long Long Time,” here, the tear-jerker that made this teenage kid fall in love with Ronstadt way back when. Remember driving from San Mateo to Sacramento and back one summer day, delivering some documents for the law firm I worked as a messenger for, listening to that song over and over again, head filled with fantasies. Even at that age, though, I thought the pig pen cover photo on the album was embarrassing.
Woogeroo
February 11, 2019 @ 1:57 am
She’s spot on… about ten years ago I told some people that they turned country radio into “the soccer mom blues”.
Then again, like Travis Tritt sang: country ain’t country no more
folks in rural areas now, for the most part have all the same toys people in the burbs do.
Joyce B Rich
February 13, 2019 @ 11:53 am
I agree I don’t like the modern music I prefer old in any type if music The new s just a lot of shouting and screaming.
Bruce Bremer
February 13, 2019 @ 11:55 am
Linda has exquisite taste in music. That’s all I’m gonna say.
Joyce Rich
February 13, 2019 @ 11:57 am
Only listen to any of today’s music prefer vintage. Any type of music today is just much screaming and it gets on my nerves.
Jon Toll
March 25, 2019 @ 6:19 pm
And why isn’t this LEGEND in the Country Music Hall of Fame?
Ms. Ronstadt’s first national tv performance was on the Johnny Cash Show. She was very popular, and they kept asking her back. She is everywhere presented as a COUNTRY singer. On the last video that Glenn Campbell made when he discusses his llfe and his career, when he talks about the people that he liked to sing duets with, the first and only person he names is Linda Ronstadt. On the Playboy clip that you can see on Youtube, she’s presented as a COUNTRY singer. She tells Hef that she is a country girl. George Jones begged her to perform with him. She was on Hee-Haw with Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. She sang with Earl Scruggs. She sang with Hoyt Axton, who fell in love with her and wrote a song about her. In fact, she sang with over one hundred other singers. Dolly Parton said, the Ms. Ronstadt was one of three singers that all other signers looked up to, and that other singers were just pretending. Her words. Look it up. Ms. Ronstadt twice won country Grammys with Dolly and Emmylou Harris as one of the Trio. Ms. Ronstadt’s backup band was the Eagles, which an article on this very website says was the “gateway drug” (an unpleasant, but somewhat apt expression) to country music for millions of fans.
I remember when Neil Young and and Glen Frey and others publicly and persistently called for the Queen of Rock to be elected to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Well, are we going to let Ms. Ronstadt be taken by the Rock N Roll people? I love Rock N Roll, but the sings that really make me smile, and really tear my heart and make me cry, are the country ballads and songs that Ms. Ronstadt sang. Blue Bayou. You’re No Good. Poor Pitiful Me, Love Is A Rose, When Will I Be Loved, I Can’t Help It (If I Still Love You). Etc., etc., etc.
Most Sincerely,
A Fan
Erik North
March 28, 2019 @ 8:10 pm
Granted Linda DID say she was a country girl on that October 1969 episode of “Playboy After Dark”, but it’s instructive to remember that she is not “country” in the way it is often defined in Nashville or the South. Her ideas of country music are a result of her upbringing in the Southwest: late 1940s/early 1950s honky-tonk, traditional cowboy ballads (both American AND Mexican), and early rock and roll (Rockabilly), then later the pop/country of Patsy Cline, and then the revival of mountain music and bluegrass during the early 1960s folk music revival (or “scare’, if you will). That’s a very wide and eclectic swath of the genre.
One would hope that having this wide view of country music, and the fact that her eventual musical path was based in the canyons and mountains around L.A., and not necessarily Music Row, doesn’t count against her in the eyes of the Country Music Hall of Fame. In any case, winning prizes and the like isn’t what motivated Linda to seek a career in music; she did it because she LOVED to sing, and because she loved the work. Remember what she said in the CBS interview: “if you’re working for prizes, you’re in big trouble”. I really wish today’s Nashville artists were as down-to-earth in that respect as she has been, because too many of them seem to be all about the winning and not the work.
jon till
March 29, 2019 @ 10:02 am
HI Erik,
Your answer is closely reasoned, and I mostly agree with it. However, I think that deciding whether Ms. Ronstadt is “country” on the basis of limited definition of Nashville and the South is just a loss for country music. After all, this site is called Saving Country Music.
Your point about Ms. Ronstadt having a “wide view of country music” is important. Before the Eagles, Ms. Ronstadt was turning on rock n rollers to the beauty of country music. You had rock n rollers watching the Johnny Cash Show and the Glenn Cambell show because they wanted to see Ms. Ronstadt.
In that quote of Dolly’s regarding the 3 best women singers, note that Barbra Streisand sang only pop, and never country, and Connie Smith sang only country, and nothing else. Ms. Ronstadt, by the very eclecticism that you note, brought entire communities, entire demographics to country music.
So, let’s look at a more mercantile, market-based issue. Ms. Ronstadt is listed as the fourth or fifth bestselling COUNTRY woman singer of all time, and the 10th or 11th bestselling country singer of all time when included with the men. She has sold 30 million country records, which is far more than Emmylou Harris, who was inducted in 2008. Overall Ms. Ronstadt has sold more than 100 million records — surpassed only by Garth Brooks and only recently equaled by Dolly as Ms. Ronstadt sold more records and sold them faster in the 1970s and 1980s than Dolly did (and stopped making records eight years ago because of her physical problems).
I have seen this argument, this point, about Ms. Ronstadt not being “country” made by other authors in other media. It seems that these writers are bothered by the very fact of her genius, of her gift, of her ability to excel not just in country but in more genres than any other singer.
Ms. Ronstadt is the only member of Trio who is not in the Country Music Hall of Fame. At least she shares a star with Dolly and Emmylou on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
A Fan
J. Later
March 25, 2019 @ 6:34 pm
Why isn’t this LEGEND in the Country Music Hall of Fame?
Lost in the Tornado
March 29, 2019 @ 7:49 pm
In the Hank Williams, Jr. song “If You Don’t Like Hank Williams”, he mentions Charlie Daniels, Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, the Marshall Tucker Bank, Hank Williams of course, the Allmond Brothers, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Willie Nelson, the Rolling Stones, the Eagles, and then says “I’m in love Linda Ronstadt”. Linda is the only woman mentioned in the song.
Bonnie Nicoletti
April 15, 2019 @ 7:39 pm
Personally speaking, I Love Linda Ronstant. She sang so many Hit songs in many different genres. One of the Great talents of our time. I sing and I sing a lot of Linda Ronstats Music. I do a lot of every type of songs. I think if you want to be a really good Singer you really have to appeal to every age group. And Linda Ronstant did and always will be one of the Greatest Singers of all time. She’s also very wise. Love her! Thank you Linda for all the Great Music you have given us through the years.
get moving
September 3, 2019 @ 10:00 pm
Rolling Stone magazine, after using Ronstadt’s image on their covers a record six times, turned on Ronstadt for the likes of Elvis Costello, whose songs Ronstadt brought to the Classic Rock and Pop audiences. Ronstadt was presented for years by RS revisionists as a mainstream pop gadfly while Costello, whom the late 1970s-early 1980s critics considered cutting edge and authentic for years, even when he went on to record with true pop mainstream artists like Paul McCartney, and Daryl Hall. It was only after the embarrassingly late induction of her fellow 1970s peer Donna Summer a year after Summer’s death and it’s resultant outcry, and 47 years after Ronstadt’s 1st hit, as well as the publication of Ronstadt’s tragic Parkinson’s disease that the RRHOF finally inducted Linda.
Although RS lists any news or articles of interest related to Ronstadt under its Country section, she isn’t even listed in its Top 100 Country Music artists nor its Top 100 female Country singers. This seems to have trickled down to other Country Music Associations who haven’t inducted her into their Halls of Fame and her liberal politics are probably used against her.
In the meantime, she continually receives Industry recognition through organizations like Billboard, is the recipient of the Presidential Honors, an upcoming Kennedy Center Honors, And was a recent recipient of her Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Much of these tardily warded honors have come from her fans’ efforts and persistence to obtain her rightfully acknowledged honors from our cultural organizations.
Her Country fans should petition the CMA and Country Music Hall of Fame for recognition of her lifetime achievements. She deserves it.