An inimitable singer and interpreter of other people’s songs with a singular voice, as well as a few songwriting credits to her name, Linda Ronstadt hasn’t released a new album since 2006 due to being diagnosed with progressive supranuclear palsy.
To call that a tremendous loss for music lovers is an understatement. Nevertheless, we do have all the incredible music she recorded stretching back to the late 1960s through her celebrated rise to pop superstardom in the 1970s and continuing through her daring musical explorations of the 1980s (including operetta, standards, country, and Spanish language recordings).
Ronstadt concluded the 1980s with 1989’s Grammy-winning album “Cry Like A Rainstorm—Howl Like The Wind” (Iconic), newly reissued in a 35th anniversary edition on translucent blue vinyl. The album provided Ronstadt with her biggest hit single in years, the Aaron Neville duet “Don’t Know Much” (previously recorded by Bette Midler in 1983 under the title “All I Need To Know”). Neville also joins Ronstadt on “I Need You,” “When Something Is Wrong With My Baby,” and “All My Life.” Written by Karla Bonoff, “All My Life” is significant because it reunited the singer and songwriter for the first time since 1976’s “Hasten Down The Wind.” Tearjerker “Goodbye My Friend,” also written by Bonoff, closes the album. “Cry Like A Rainstorm…” is also notable for reuniting Ronstadt and singer/songwriter Jimmy Webb (whom the singer also covered on her 1982 “Get Closer” album), on the songs “I Keep It Hid,” “Adios,” and “Still Within The Sound of My Voice.” Thirty-five years after it was first released, “Cry Like A Rainstorm—Howl Like The Wind” sounds as timeless as ever.
On “Trio,” the Grammy Award-winning collaborative album that brought Ronstadt, Dolly Parton, and Emmylou Harris together, the threesome covered Linda Thompson’s song “Telling Me Lies” (from her 1985 “One Clear Moment” release). Thompson, a legendary and longtime fixture on the British folk scene, gained even greater fame via her musical collaborations with her ex-husband Richard Thompson (the six albums they recorded together includes the highly acclaimed “Shoot Out The Lights” from 1982). She also released a few solo recordings, but eventually had to stop singing due to being afflicted with spasmodic dysphonia.
Thompson’s “Proxy Music” (StorySound) is one of the most inventive and wonderful albums of 2024. Beginning with the title, which is a reference to the multiple artists who perform these Thompson originals, acting as her proxy, if you will, including out singer/songwriters John Grant and Rufus Wainwright (performing “John Grant” and “Darling This Will Never Do,” respectively). The album’s cover, an homage to the 1972 self-titled debut album by Roxy Music, is a perfect illustration of Thompson’s brilliant sense of humor. Other amazing guest artists lending their talents include Thompson’s son Teddy (“Those Damn Roches”), her daughter Kami (“The Solitary Traveler”), Rufus’ sister Martha Wainwright (“Or Nothing At All”), as well as English folk acts Eliza Carthy (“That’s The Way The Polka Goes”) and The Unthanks (“Three Shaky Ships”). Very highly recommended!
