Linda Ronstadt - LINDA RONSTADT***

Rock Me On The Water/Crazy Arms/I Won't Be Hangin' Round/I Still Miss Someone/In My Reply/I Fall To Pieces/ Ramblin' Round/Birds/Faithful/Rescue Me

This self titled album was released by Linda Rondstadt during the relatively lengthy period between leaving The Stone Poneys and her eventual super stardom in the mid 1970s. It has a country-rock feel, unsurprising as she is backed by The Eagles before they too became famous. (US:163)

“This is the best pre-superstardom Linda Ronstadt album. It is not as polished but sounds fresh and vital. While her voice was always an instrument of undeniable strength and beauty, this time it was perfectly used on ten songs which are enjoyable in their own terms. The album, as always, is filled with covers, yet this time she made them her own.”

“It sounds like music coming out of California in the early 70s; not entirely rock, not quite country, definitely not pop but it does have traces of it occasionally.”

“Linda always was more of an interpreter rather than a songwriter of her own, and it doesn't harm the quality of the album that she didn't write any of the songs. She handles material from Jackson Browne, Neil Young and Johnny Cash with the utmost care, making every word sound like she could have written it.”

“An early Linda Ronstadt album and it's already quite good. Unfortunately it isn't that well produced and her voice is not yet what it would soon become.

“My favourite Ronstadt album. Great singing, some excellent songs and a fine set of musicians playing with great feel. There is a wealth of wonderful material and Ronstadt's pure, bright voice at the centre. It's a lovely, sad, bittersweet effort, thrown a bit by a strident cover of Rescue Me at the very end.”

“This was the last of Linda's early country-folk-rock albums before she began the transition to the mainstream pop-rock artist of the seventies that made her famous. The music is still fairly simple and raw, unlike the slicker music that came later, but the song selection gives some clues about the future.”

“This is a lovely album recorded in the brief period after she had left The Stone Poneys and before she burst onto the national scene. This collection is much more country and even bluegrass than she would move on to later, but the effect of her clear, sharp voice on all these songs is simply electrifying.”