Silk Purse

Silk Purse is the second solo album by Linda Ronstadt, released in March 1970, a year after the release of her first solo set, Hand Sown ... Home Grown.^[1] It was recorded at Woodland Recording Studios in Nashville, the only Ronstadt album recorded in the country music capital, and it was produced by Elliot Mazer, who had previously worked with Richie Havens, Gordon Lightfoot, James Cotton, Rufus Thomas, Chubby Checker and Frank Sinatra^[2] and who had been recommended to Linda by her friend Janis Joplin.

History

The album featured songs in a more traditional country setting. Ronstadt later remarked that Nashville Country is very different than California Country. This album was also different in style and sound from Ronstadt's previous Folk Rock work with the Stone Poneys. Silk Purse includes interpretations of Hank Williams' rendition of "Lovesick Blues" and Mel Tillis' "Mental Revenge" and a version of the bluegrass traditional song "Life Is Like A Mountain Railway." Ronstadt also included a strange remake of the Gerry Goffin and Carole King "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?" that had been recorded by The Shirelles in 1962, and a harmony duet with Gary White on the Paul Siebel ballad "Louise," later covered by Bonnie Raitt. Included as well was a recording of a song White himself wrote, and Linda had to persuade her record company to get the ballad "Long, Long Time" on the album, which in due course, proved to be Linda Ronstadt's first chart single. After its recording, Capitol Records executives attempted to dissuade Ronstadt's from picking songs, like Long Long Time, which they considered too Country, even though Ronstadt had been attracted to ballads such as this and Heart Like A Wheel, which she later recorded.

Reception

Three months after the album's release, Rolling Stone's Alec Dubro reviewed Silk Purse in the magazine's June 25 issue. "Some of the material is raw imitation and some is more original, but none is very far from the soul of the singer," Dubro wrote. "It is Linda Ronstadt's voice that makes this record; she endows the songs with a feeling that she has shown since the first Stone Poneys' album, and she has developed her Country style considerably since her last album."^[5] Lester Bangs of Penthouse also reviewed the album: "Linda Ronstadt's vocal style is like her physical presence: brimming with passion and vulnerability, tremulous, yet possessed of a core of absolute strength."^[6]

Music critic Robert Christgau commended Ronstadt for her choice of tunes but noted "only occasionally—"Lovesick Blues" and "Long Long Time" are both brilliant—does she seem to find Kitty Wells's soul as well as her timbre."^[4]

Though released in March, Silk Purse did not debut on the Billboard Top LPs chart until October 1970, spending 10 weeks on the chart and peaking at a disappointing #103.^[7] This came on the heels of the late-summer showing of the single "Long, Long Time," which peaked at No. 25 on the Hot 100 singles chart.^[8] As a single, "Long, Long Time" proved to be a breakthrough of sorts for Ronstadt. The recording earned her a Grammy Award nomination in early 1971 for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Female, which she lost to Dionne Warwick for "I'll Never Fall In Love Again.^[9]

Track listing

1. "Lovesick Blues" (Cliff Friend, Irving Mills)  – 2:07
2. "Are My Thoughts With You?" (Mickey Newbury)  – 2:47
3. "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (Gerry Goffin, Carole King)  – 2:27
4. "Nobody's" (Gary White)  – 2:56
5. "Louise" (Paul Siebel)  – 3:25
6. "Long, Long Time" (Gary White)  – 4:21
7. "Mental Revenge" (Mel Tillis)-2:46
8. "I'm Leaving It All Up to You" (Don "Sugarcane" Harris, Dewey Terry)  – 2:21
9. "He Darked the Sun" (Gene Clark, Bernie Leadon)  – 2:40
10. "Life Is Like a Mountain Railway" (Traditional/Arr,: Elliott Mazer, Linda Ronstadt)  – 3:24

References