Motherhood Moves Ronstadt To Lullabies
Linda Ronstadt already ranks with the most versatile singers of her generation. You name it, she’s sung it country rock, hard rock, mountain folk, opera, big-band jazz, Broadway show tunes, Motown R & B, mariachi, Tex-Mex and ethereal psychedelia. But she had never made an album of lullabies until now.
That’s right lullabies, but not your traditional kind. Her new album, “Dedicated to the One I Love,” takes vintage pop songs and transforms each into a lullaby by jettisoning electric instruments in favor of flute and harp and by stacking lush vocal harmonies in the manner of Brian Wilson and the early Beach Boys.
A noted chameleon, Ronstadt admits to singing “about whatever’s on my mind the most at a given point.” These days, it’s her two children - a 2-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl. “I started singing these songs to my kids,” she says, noting how the disc took shape with such reworked hits as the Shirelles’ “Dedicated to the One I Love,” the Ronettes’ “Be My Baby” and “Baby I Love You,” the Everly Brothers’ “Devoted to You,” the Beatles’ “Good Night” and the Beach Boys’ “In My Room.”
The result is magical - a calming sonic soother for children and surely more than a few adults, especially if they’re fans of vocal layering.
“It really is meant to be for children,” Ronstadt says, “though a lot of my friends have called up to say they play it for themselves. A lot of them say they like it the same way they liked the Nelson Riddle record I made - that it’s very romantic. So, who knows?”
She credits Wilson with showing her how to stack the harmonies that make the music so dreamy. They had worked together a few years ago, and Wilson’s lessons stuck with her. “He showed us how he did those Beach Boys parts, which is three parts with five passes on each part, unless he had four parts, in which case he sometimes put three or two on the internal parts so things didn’t get stacked up too thick. So he showed me how to do that and I just loved it.
“I started doing it myself two records ago on ‘Winter Light,’ with the song ‘Don’t Talk,’ which is a Brian Wilson song. ‘Don’t Talk’ is really what started this whole thing, and it also made me think about baby music. My little boy wasn’t born yet, but I remember thinking that (‘Don’t Talk’) was how I felt about my little girl when she was a newborn baby. When I first held her, I thought, ‘Don’t talk, put your head on my shoulder.’ It was an overwhelming moment of completely loving something and not being able to have any protection from it at all - that you’re totally giving in to it. So it was ‘Don’t Talk’ that started it and made me want to do the layers of vocals.”
Some of the harmonies are also provided by the underrated Valerie Carter. “She’s singing with me on ‘Dedicated to the One I Love’ and ‘Be My Baby.’ … I really feel she’s my singing sister. She’s wonderful to sing with. She sang with me, along with Emmylou Harris, on my last record, too.”
Ronstadt has a busy summer, since she’s putting together a show with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, which includes Marvin Hamlisch - the same group that backed James Taylor last year.
“I’ll do a few songs from this record, but mainly I’ll do things from Nelson Riddle, Jimmy Webb, Burt Bacharach and Randy Newman,” she says. “And some of my rock ‘n’ roll stuff, too. I’m bringing my rock ‘n’ roll band rhythm section, and they’ll play with the orchestra. I’m very excited by it.”