Linda Ronstadt, Dolly Parton & Emmylou Harris

Three voices, two albums

Trio was never a permanent band but a collaboration of three solo stars. The three first tried to make an album in the mid-1970s, but schedules and different record labels stopped it, and some of the material surfaced on solo records. Dolly Parton was born January 19, 1946 near Pittman Center, Tennessee; Linda Ronstadt, born July 15, 1946 in Tucson, Arizona, had been lead singer of the Stone Poneys and entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014; Emmylou Harris was born April 2, 1947 in Birmingham, Alabama. They share a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, awarded in 2019.

Trio was recorded between January and November 1986 at The Complex in Los Angeles, Woodland in Nashville and Ocean Way in Los Angeles, produced by George Massenburg, and released on March 2, 1987 on Warner Bros. It reached 6 on the Billboard 200 and number one on the country albums chart for five weeks, went platinum and sold about four million copies worldwide. "To Know Him Is to Love Him" reached number one on the country chart, and "Telling Me Lies", "Those Memories of You" and "Wildflowers" followed. It won the 1988 Grammy for best country performance by a duo or group and was named ACM album of the year.

Trio II was recorded in 1994 at The Site in Marin County, California, with Massenburg and John Starling, but the sessions stopped near the end of mixing. In 1995 Ronstadt remixed five tracks without Parton's vocals for her album Feels Like Home. After Parton and Harris left their labels, Trio II came out as originally recorded on February 9, 1999 on Asylum. It reached 62 on the Billboard 200, 4 on the country albums chart and went gold. The singers made a short promotional run on television, including Late Show with David Letterman on March 24, 1999, and never mounted a tour. The Complete Trio Collection (Rhino, September 9, 2016) added twenty unreleased and alternate takes, and the albums entered the Grammy Hall of Fame.