Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III | ||||
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Studio album by The Stone Poneys | ||||
Released | April 29, 1968 | |||
Recorded | 1967-68 | |||
Studio | Capitol (Hollywood) | |||
Genre | Folk rock | |||
Length | 27:18 | |||
Label | Capitol | |||
Producer | Nik Venet | |||
The Stone Poneys chronology | ||||
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Linda Ronstadt chronology | ||||
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Singles from Linda Ronsatdt,Stone Poneys and Friends,Vol. III | ||||
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Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | [1] |
Linda Ronstadt,Stone Poneys and Friends,Vol. III is the third and final studio album by The Stone Poneys,released on April 29,1968. Singer Linda Ronstadt would release her first solo album the following year.
While ostensibly a Stone Poneys album,Vol. III represents a transition and a shift in focus from the first two releases by the band,formed in 1965 as a harmony group with Ronstadt as an occasional soloist,to the singer's solo career. Billing Ronstadt as the lead singer (in concert bookings as well as on the third album) was demanded by Capitol Records executives and encouraged by producer Nik Venet,who all saw her potential as a solo artist with the recording and subsequent success of "Different Drum," a single from the previous album. The song,'featuring Linda Ronstadt',was backed by outside musicians instead of her bandmates Kenny Edwards and Bobby Kimmel –creating tensions in the band that would worsen,irrevocably damaging morale. Edwards quit the group during the recording sessions for their third album,following a brief tour in early 1968;and Kimmel would leave later that year. [2]
The new direction meant augmenting the trio with extra musicians,and downplaying Edwards' and Kimmel's songwriting contributions in favor of new repertoire in a different musical style. Rather than the folk rock of the first two Stone Poneys albums,most of the songs on Vol. III are in the country rock style that would mark Ronstadt's subsequent work. This is particularly true of the two songs released as singles,"Some of Shelly's Blues" and "Up to My Neck in High Muddy Water".
All three band members were pictured on the covers of the first two albums,while only Ronstadt appears on this front cover. The back cover photo shows her among a group of friends and neighbors (including musicologist Charles Seeger and singer-songwriter Tim Buckley) in front of the house on Hart Avenue in Santa Monica,California,that was a communal residence for some of them,including Ronstadt (Seeger and Buckley lived nearby). [3] [4]
The album was released in April 1968 in the LP format by Capitol in both monaural and stereophonic editions (catalogue numbers T 2863 and ST 2863,respectively),and on 8-track tape (8XT 2863). A Capitol CD reissue appeared in 1995 (catalogue number 80130). The volume number in the title uses a Roman numeral rather than the Arabic numeral used on the previous release.
Several of the songs from Vol. III appear on subsequent compilations,including Stoney End on Pickwick Records in 1972 and Different Drum in 1974,the latter album a Capitol release credited solely to Linda Ronstadt. In 2008,Raven Records in Australia issued a 27-track CD,The Stone Poneys,comprising all the tracks from the band's first two albums, The Stone Poneys and Evergreen,Volume 2 ,plus four tracks from the third album.
Vol. III includes only two Bobby Kimmel-Kenny Edwards compositions. For the remaining tracks,Ronstadt sought out material by such well-regarded songwriters as Tim Buckley and Laura Nyro,as well as songs by writers represented on the first two albums,like Michael Nesmith,and Steve Gillette and Tom Campbell,who composed the short song fragments that open the album.
The Stone Poneys' only charting success with this material was the single "Up to My Neck in High Muddy Water",which reached No. 93 on the Billboard Hot 100. The Greenbriar Boys had originally recorded the song for their 1966 album Better Late than Never! [5] –the album that also introduced Ronstadt and the band to the Mike Nesmith song "Different Drum",their major hit single from Evergreen,Volume 2.
Nesmith's "Some of Shelly's Blues" was a non-charting single for the band. Nesmith is best known as a member of The Monkees,who recorded this song in the 1960s,although their version would remain unreleased until the early 1990s. Nesmith included his version on his album Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash (1973). The song also was the opening track on The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's 1970 album, Uncle Charlie &His Dog Teddy ;and reached No. 64 on the Billboard singles chart in 1971,as one of two follow-up singles to their biggest hit,"Mr. Bojangles". The following year,the Dirt Band backed Earl Scruggs in a cover version on I Saw the Light with Some Help from My Friends, [6] an album on which Ronstadt also appears;and it also appears on their 1982 live album The Dirt Band Tonite. [7] Mary McCaslin recorded two Vol. III songs,including "Some of Shelly's Blues" for her 1981 album A Life and Time. [8]
Several other now-familiar songs also appear on this album. "Let's Get Together" –also known as "Get Together" and sometimes credited to its writer's stage name,Dino Valenti –was first recorded by the mainstream folk-pop band the Kingston Trio in 1964. Best known from the Top 5 hit in 1969 by The Youngbloods (who originally released it in 1967),the song is widely regarded as a quintessential hippie/flower power appeal for peace and brotherhood. It was recorded in the 1960s by many other artists,including Judy Collins,Jefferson Airplane and The Byrds. In 1965,a version by We Five reached No. 31 on the singles charts,as a follow-up to their major hit "You Were on My Mind".
The Laura Nyro song that closes Vol. III –from her 1967 debut More Than a New Discovery –was also the title track of Barbra Streisand's first Top 10 album in five years,1971's Stoney End ,and a single of Streisand's version reached No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100. Peggy Lipton also recorded "Stoney End" for a 1968 single.
"Morning Glory" –from Tim Buckley's second album, Goodbye and Hello (1967) –was renamed by Ronstadt and appears as "Hobo" on Vol. III. [9] Cover versions (with the original title) also appeared around the same time on Blood,Sweat and Tears' first album, Child Is Father to the Man (1968);and on McKendree Spring's 1969 debut album. [10] A live performance of the song in 1968 by Fairport Convention was included as a bonus track on the 2003 reissue of their debut, Fairport Convention .
The other two Tim Buckley songs come from his debut, Tim Buckley (1966). During her brief time with Capitol Records,Mary McCaslin recorded "Aren't You the One" around the same time as the Stone Poneys,using the same producer (Venet);it appears among other previously unreleased material on her 1999 release Rain:The Lost Album. [11] (Buckley's original title was "Aren't You the Girl".)
Ronstadt is well known in the music industry for including very meticulous credits on her albums,particularly with regard to musicians. (For example,her first two "Greatest Hits" LPs feature credits for all the songs on the inside gatefold cover panels.) On Evergreen,Volume 2 ,a total of 22 musicians were listed,including nine in the string section. However,despite the "and Friends" of the title,there are no credits on the inside sleeve or back cover of Vol. III,and allmusic lists only the three band members in its entry for the album. [12]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Fragments: Golden Song" / "Merry-Go-Round" / "Love Is a Child" | Steve Gillette / Tom Campbell / Steve Gillette | 1:40 |
2. | "By the Fruits of their Labors" | Bob Kimmel, Ken Edwards | 2:05 |
3. | "Hobo" (originally titled "Morning Glory") | Tim Buckley, Larry Beckett | 3:00 |
4. | "Star and a Stone" | Kimmel, Edwards | 3:33 |
5. | "Let's Get Together" | Chet Powers | 3:10 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Up to My Neck in High Muddy Water" | Kathy Wakefield, Robert Yellin, John Herald | 2:35 |
2. | "Aren't You the One" (originally titled "Aren't You the Girl") | Tim Buckley | 2:30 |
3. | "Wings" | Tim Buckley | 3:00 |
4. | "Some of Shelly's Blues" | Mike Nesmith | 2:10 |
5. | "Stoney End" | Laura Nyro | 3:35 |
Region | Date | Format | Label | Ref. |
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North America | April 1968 | LP | Capitol Records | [14] |
Linda Maria Ronstadt is an American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin music.
Stone Poneys were a folk rock trio formed in Los Angeles, consisting of Linda Ronstadt on vocals, Bobby Kimmel on rhythm guitar and vocals, and Kenny Edwards on lead guitar. Their recordings include Ronstadt's first hit song, a cover of Mike Nesmith's "Different Drum". Even at this early stage, Ronstadt was showcasing her performances of an eclectic mix of songs, often from under-appreciated songwriters, requiring a wide array of backing musicians.
"Different Drum" is a song written by American singer-songwriter Michael Nesmith in 1964. It was first recorded by the northern bluegrass band The Greenbriar Boys and included on their 1966 album Better Late than Never! Nesmith offered it to his group the Monkees, but the producers of the TV show turned it down, though he did perform a short comic version of the song in one episode.
Hand Sown ... Home Grown is a studio album by American singer Linda Ronstadt. It was originally released by Capitol Records in March 1969. Although Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III credited Ronstadt, Hand Sown ... Home Grown was the first studio album that solely credited her. The album consisted of 11 tracks, many of which were covers that fused the country rock and folk genres. The album received a positive response from critics following its release.
Different Drum is the first compilation album by Linda Ronstadt to be released by Capitol. Half of the tracks are taken from the second and third albums by The Stone Poneys; while the other half are from her first three solo albums.
And the Hits Just Keep on Comin' is an album by Michael Nesmith. Recorded for RCA Records, it was his fifth solo album after leaving The Monkees. The album was recorded and released in 1972; all ten tracks had been composed by Nesmith prior to and during his time as a member of The Monkees.
Pretty Much Your Standard Ranch Stash is American singer-songwriter Michael Nesmith's sixth album of his post-Monkees career. Released in September 1973, it was his final album for RCA Records and did not chart.
Bryndle was an American folk-rock band first formed in the late 1960s in Los Angeles.
Silk Purse is a studio album by American singer Linda Ronstadt. It was released by Capitol Records on April 13, 1970 and was Ronstadt's second solo studio album in her career. Silk Purse contained a total of ten tracks that experimented with country music. It included covers of songs by Hank Williams and Mel Tillis. Featured on the album were two singles. Among them was the song "Long, Long Time", which became Ronstadt's first charting single in the US and Canada. Silk Purse was given positive reviews from several publications including AllMusic and Cashbox. It was Ronstadt's first to make chart positions in Australia, Canada and the US.
Greatest Hits is Linda Ronstadt's first major compilation album, released at the end of 1976 for the holiday shopping season. It includes material from both her Capitol Records and Asylum Records output, and goes back to 1967 for The Stone Poneys' hit "Different Drum."
The singles discography of American singer Linda Ronstadt contains 80 lead and collaborative singles, four as a featured artist, eight promotional singles and eight other charted songs. Her first credited release was 1967's "Different Drum", which also included the Stone Poneys along with Ronstadt as a featured artist. Ronstadt's first pair of solo singles were released by Capitol Records in 1969. The 1970 release "Long, Long Time" was her first solo charting single. Her 1974 single "You're No Good" topped the US Hot 100, reached number seven in Canada and number 15 in Australia. Its B-side song "I Can't Help It " reached number two on the US Hot Country Songs list. It was followed by 1975's "When Will I Be Loved", which made the top ten on multiple charts in the United States and Canada, including topping their country surveys. It was followed by the US top five song "Heat Wave" and the US country top five song "Love Is a Rose".
Linda Ronstadt is an eponymous studio album by American singer Linda Ronstadt. It was originally released on January 17, 1972 via Capitol Records. It was third studio album in Ronstadt's solo recording career and featured ten tracks. The album mixed original material from new singer-songwriters, along with covers of country, folk and R&B songs. Two singles were spawned from the album including the charting song "Rock Me on the Water".
Evergreen, Vol. 2 is the second album from the Stone Poneys, released five months after The Stone Poneys. It was the most commercially successful of the Stone Poneys' three studio albums.
The Stone Poneys is the debut studio album by the Stone Poneys; other than the single of "So Fine" in 1965, this album marks the first official recordings by Linda Ronstadt.
Kenneth Michael Edwards was an American singer, songwriter, bassist, guitarist, mandolinist, and session musician. He was a founding member of the Stone Poneys and Bryndle and a long-time collaborator with Linda Ronstadt and Karla Bonoff.
Bobby Kimmel is an American musician and songwriter who currently performs with the acoustic folk group I Hear Voices. He has been recording and performing in concert for over 50 years and was a founding member of the Stone Poneys, along with Linda Ronstadt and the late Kenny Edwards.
Stoney End is a 1972 compilation album of previously released songs by folk rock band The Stone Poneys featuring singer Linda Ronstadt. It was released by Pickwick Records in the U.S. and Canada.
"Stoney End" is a song written by Laura Nyro and released in February 1967 on her debut album More Than a New Discovery. According to childhood friend Alan Merrill, Nyro originally intended the song, a gospel-inflected uptempo piece, to be performed at a slower pace. The best known recording of Nyro's album version of the song was a hit for Barbra Streisand in 1970.
John A. Ware is an American drummer and percussionist known primarily for his session and live performance work.
The albums discography of American singer Linda Ronstadt contains 29 studio albums, 37 compilation albums, one live album, one box set and two extended plays (EP's). Her first studio album was a dual credit with the Stone Poneys titled Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III (1968). In 1969, Capitol Records released her first solo studio album was issued titled Hand Sown ... Home Grown. Her 1970 studio album Silk Purse was her first make the charts in the US, Australia and Canada. Ronstadt's 1972 self-titled album made chart positions in the US and Japan.