Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (2019)

A few months before she turned eighteen, Linda Ronstadt (born 1946) left the isolated, ten-acre ranch near Tucson where she had grown up, moved to Los Angeles, and rented a beach house in Santa Monica. She went there to make music, and as it turned out, she succeeded far beyond anyone's wildest dreams. This movie about her life debuted at the Tribeca film festival in April of 2019, where it won the Audience Award for best documentary. Ronstadt went on to become the most gifted and successful woman artist of her generation, selling more than 100 million records that spanned an incredible diversity of genres — rock and roll, pop, soul, rhythm and blues, gospel, opera, country, choral, mariachi rock, folk ballads, American standards, classic Mexican music (“Canciones de Mi Padre" became this country’s bestselling Spanish-language album ever), and Broadway musicals. She was the first female artist in popular music history to accumulate four consecutive platinum albums. Ronstadt eventually had eleven platinum albums, and was the first artist to top the Pop, Country, and R&B charts simultaneously. She won 10 Grammy's. Her last concert was in 2009. In 2012 she was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and in 2014 she was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. As you would expect, this film incorporates archival concert footage, and interviews with music experts and artists, family, and close friends like Emmylou Harris, who at the end of the film remarks: "Nobody on the planet had a voice like Linda."

Dan Clendenin: dan@journeywithjesus.net