Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice

Release Date: September 6, 2019
Runtime: 95 minutes
Rating: PG-13
Studio: CNN Films
Director: Rob Esptein & Jeffrey Friedman
Cast: Linda Ronstadt; Bonnie Raitt; Dolly Parton; Emmylou Harris; David Geffen; Jackson Browne; Cameron Crowe; JD Souther

**Spoilers (in form, not content)**

Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice celebrates the life and career of an artist who is popularly referred to as the “Queen of Rock.” This CNN Films release smoothly Cliffs Notes all of the major ticking points of Ronstadt’s domination of the music world of the 1970s, crafting a dynamic tribute to the girl from Tucson with the voice sent from heaven above before Parkinson’s Disease catastrophically muted it and stopped her career in 2011.

Born into a family, not musical by trade but by passion, Ronstadt found her way to Los Angeles and the city’s burgeoning music scene in the early 1970s. After scraping by a living as the frontwoman of the Stone Poneys (with bandmates Bobby Kimmel and Kenny Edwards), Ronstadt made a go for it as a solo artist, eventually exploding into the mainstream with her 1974 blockbuster album “Heart Like A Wheel.” From this point on, she was a superstar, blazing a trail for woman in the notoriously male-centric music industry, notably becoming the first female rock singer to sell out large scale arenas around the world: a feat which, until that time, was usually reserved for the likes of Mick Jagger, to whom Ronstadt is likened several times throughout the film.

Filmmakers Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman do a commendable job of recapping Ronstadt’s groundbreaking career, even though their format adheres to typical documentary tropes: talking heads and archival footage. But when those talking heads are Bonnie Raitt, David Geffen, Jackson Browne, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, among others, it makes the luminosity of Ronstadt’s talent and influence on rock and roll all the more bright. Seen contemporaneously in bookending segments of the movie, Ronstadt narrates the story of her early life in Tucson and her career, which saw seminal hits such as “You’re No Good,” “Blue Bayou,” and “When Will I Be Loved,” all of which are heard in Ronstadt’s glorious voice.

After her time as a solo powerhouse in the 1970s was more-or-less over, Ronstadt branched out (which she was perpetually wont to do as evidenced by her extraordinarily varied musical repertoire) to Broadway, in the acclaimed Joseph Papp production of Gilbert & Sullivan’s “The Pirates of Penzance” (which I clearly recall watching on TV when I was a youngster, possibly my first intro to the singer). As the 1980s progressed, Ronstadt worked on popular collaborations with Aaron Neville, as well as with fellow sisters-in-song, Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Through interviews with Parton, Harris and Raitt, the film makes clear the esteemed sisterhood that these women formed as badass rock chicks in an industry that, at that time, was most definitely a man’s world.

Listening to that unmistakable crystalline voice and understanding the passion from which it came makes the trajectory of Ronstadt’s life and career all the more heartbreaking. Thankfully, Epstein and Friedman choose to not dwell on the tragedy of Ronstadt’s diagnosis of Parkinson’s Disease, which left her unable to sing. Instead, it is acknowledged and spoken about rather matter-of-factly at the end of the film by Ronstadt herself. In a beautiful touch, Epstein and Friedman elect to close the film with Ronstadt’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremonial induction song where Parton, Harris, Raitt, Carrie Underwood, Stevie Nicks, and Glenn Frey (who, along with fellow Eagle, Don Henley, was an early musician in Ronstadt’s touring band) the stage in a stunning rendition of “When Will I Be Loved.” This climactic moment allows the viewer who may or may not be familiar with this remarkable talent, to appreciate the music with which Ronstadt gifted the world and the artistry that propelled her into the stratosphere.