Remembering When Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris Dished Out Another ‘Trio’ Album Despite Their Differences in 1999

In the wake of her passing, fans are exploring the catalog of Dolly Parton anew, looking for well-worn favorites and hidden gems. Just don’t forget to check out her many collaborations, especially her work with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris on the Trio albums.

The second of those albums arrived in 1999, a dozen years after the first. And the harmony the three women projected on the album wasn’t always evident during the long process of making the record.

Worth the Wait

As much as they admired each other from a musical standpoint and as wonderful as they sounded together when they sang, you might think that Parton, Harris, and Ronstadt would have put out more than two albums together. Something always stood in the way.

The women originally had the idea of recording an album together in the 70s. But the busy schedules of their respective careers and record label entanglements kept it from happening. What songs they did record together here and there landed on solo records from the women.

Finally, Trio, their first full album together, arrived in 1987. As it turned out, the timing was perfect. None of the women were at a career peak at the time, meaning that folks were anxious to hear them again. In addition, the earthiness of the music stood out from the synthetic productions so common at the time.

Waiting on the Follow-Up

The album received massive critical love and Grammy accolades. A follow-up seemed like a natural. But behind-the-scenes machinations kept it from happening. In fact, rifts between the women rose up in public as frustration grew.

If you do some research, you’ll find differing accounts as to why Trio II didn’t arrive on schedule in 1994, which is when it was recorded. Ronstadt and Harris claimed that Parton couldn’t commit to promoting the album properly. Parton claimed that the other two belabored the process too long and then reneged on a commitment to release it.

These disagreements trickled out in interviews at the time, somewhat spoiling the view that these women were tight as thieves. Since the tracks were in the can and it looked like they might never get released, Ronstadt took five of them, remixed them to remove Parton’s vocals, and released them on her 1995 solo album Feels Like Home.

As years passed, however, the tension among the three women eased off a little bit. They decided it would be better to release the ’94 sessions as they were, which required some studio trickery since Ronstadt had already repurposed them. Trio II arrived in 1999. It included the five songs that had already appeared on Ronstadt’s solo record, only this time with Parton’s vocals back in the fold.

The ‘Trio’ Rides Again

If you didn’t know about any of this ado, you wouldn’t sense anything was amiss from simply listening to Trio II. Once again, the women’s voices overlap and intermingle in gorgeous fashion. Their taste in material hadn’t deserted them either, as each of the ten tracks is a beauty.

If anything, there’s a bit more of an elegiac feel to Trio II when compared to its predecessor. Songs like “The Blue Train”, “You’ll Never Be The Sun”, and “When We’re Gone, Long Gone” luxuriate in high lonesome ache.

In 2016, a compilation of the Trio albums included a third disc of unreleased material from the sessions. That finished the story, as Ronstadt retired in the early 2010s due to the inability to sing caused by her Parkinson’s disease. Trio II, star-crossed as its making was, still forms an integral part of this wonderful unit’s small catalog.

(Photo by: Margaret Norton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)