For close to forty years, Linda Ronstadt has been an ultimate gold standard for a great many female singers, especially those in the country and roots-rock fields. Without Linda, we'd be almost certainly deprived of such illustrious heavyweights as Trisha Yearwood, Sheryl Crow, Lucinda Williams, Tift Merritt, and many others. And the five-year period between 1969 and 1974, when Linda was on the Capitol label, is where her reputation as a country and roots-rock icon was established, on four albums--1969's HAND SOWN, HOME GROWN; 1970's SILK PURSE; 1972's LINDA RONSTADT; and her 1974 commercial breakthrough HEART LIKE A WHEEL. Now all those four albums, plus five extra goodies, have been combined on THE BEST OF LINDA RONSTADT: THE CAPITOL YEARS, something that Ronstadtphiles have been itching for, to quote one of Linda's best known songs, for "a long, long time."

HAND SOWN, HOME GROWN, released in the spring of 1969, is arguably the very first alternative country album ever released by a female artist; and for all its crudeness, it has held up quite well, with Linda varying her repertoire between the pure folk-rock of Dylan ("Baby You've Been On My Mind") and the California honky-tonk of "The Only Mama That'll Walk The Line" and "Break My Mind." The latter two are examples of where Linda would give current "Redneck Woman" Gretchen Wilson a run for her proverbial money in terms of a tough-mama image.

SILK PURSE, released in early 1970, is largely remembered for its cover of Linda frothing with pigs, and for the fact it remains her only album to be recorded in Nashville. It is almost straight-ahead country. Out of this album, however (one that Linda has always said she hates), came the country-rock classic "Long, Long Time" (a #25 hit in late 1970), along with a juiced-up rendition of "Lovesick Blues."

LINDA RONSTADT, released at the beginning of 1972, found her moving much closer to the country-rock aesthetic, and doing it with the cream of the crop of the L.A. country-rock session mafia, including four guys--Don Henley; Glenn Frey; Randy Meisner; and Bernie Leadon--who would go on to form the Eagles with Linda's blessing. Covers of contemporary songs like Jackson Browne's "Rock Me On The Water" and Neil Young's "Birds" stand proudly alongside honest renditions of such country songs as "Crazy Arms" and Patsy Cline's 1961 classic "I Fall To Pieces"; half of this album was recorded live at the Troubadour in Los Angeles in the summer of 1971.

HEART LIKE A WHEEL, released late in 1974, broke Linda to a huge audience and cemented her place in the pop music pantheon, a place that she has never relinquished. No other female singer has proven as capable of mixing straight-ahead rock with the traditional spirit of country as Linda did on this album, where a straight-ahead rocker like "You're No Good" (a #1 hit) stands with a straight-forward country classic like "I Can't Help It If I'm Still In Love With You" (a #2 country hit, and one that gave Linda her first Grammy [Best Female Country Vocal]).

But this collection doesn't stop with just the four albums. There are the five previously unreleased tracks. From the HAND SOWN sessions there is "It Won't Be Easy", which sounds like a cross between Indian raga and bluegrass; from the SILK PURSE sessions is an unused Nashville version of "He Darked The Sun" (the one on SILK PURSE itself is more folk-rock, while this previously unreleased one is straight C&W); "Can It Be True?" was the theme song to the 1971 film MARRIAGE OF A YOUNG STOCKBROKER; and in the same 1971 Troubadour performances that made up the self-titled album, there is a wonderful live version of "Long, Long Time", plus "(Get Up) Kate", a composition by Glenn Frey that finds the future Eagle duetting with Linda on a hard-rocking number about James Taylor's younger sister.

All these tracks, particularly those from HEART LIKE A WHEEL, have been constantly copied in some form or another since at least the late 1980s in Nashville by a staggering number of female artists there, for the obvious reason that Linda is a legend in the country-rock field. But nobody has ever been able to duplicate what Linda pulled off during that fertile period of 1969-1974; and very few (Trisha Yearwood being among those few) have even come remotely close. Whatever one might think of her other endeavors in the areas of big-band, Mexican mariachi, or adult contemporary, this 2-CD collection should leave no doubt as to the place Linda holds as one of the single most influential female singers of all times.

When I told my friend Jeff that Capitol was finally getting around to giving Linda Ronstadt's solo albums the reissue treatment, he whined that her beloved, influential masterwork Heart Like A Wheel should be commemorated with its own deluxe edition given its importance to her catalogue. And while I think Jeff's idea is fantastic, I myself had been bellyaching over the wholesale deletion of A Retrospective, the double LP released by Capitol after she jumped ship and went on to unprecedented commercial success for another label. To my delight, Capitol has taken A Retrospective and gone one better by simply putting all four of her solo recordings for them into one package, three of which had for "a long, long time" (ahem) only been available as imports. Oh, yeah, along with some previously unreleased bonus tracks & alternate takes, which is why I suspect many would buy this in the first place. (But they're really stretching it with the inclusion of Kate, recorded live at the Troubadour in 1971, where Linda is essentially a glorified backup singer. Not that I'm complaining, as it's the nastiest groove I've ever heard her tackle this side of Little Feat.) The pops and crackles of the old vinyl have been replaced by an audible tape hiss from the original master sources, but these albums -- particularly her eponymous record in its entirety -- are better than I remember; still, there's no doubt about it: Her pre-Peter Asher albums were unformed & unfocused. Listening to them without the benefit of hindsight, no one would ever guess that this pouty-lipped pop singer with a penchant for hoop earrings & posing in pig pens would ever take a seat alongside Streisand & Aretha as one of the greatest songbirds this country has ever produced.

If there is any criticism, I would say the booklet is a little disappointing, starting with a title a little too similar to other such anthologies (see: Rhino's best-of package from a few years ago). I recall the original LPs listing the musicians for the geeks like me who want to know that stuff, so if you're wondering who that harmony singer is on Kate & Anna McGarrigle's Heart Like a Wheel, you're not going to find it in this booklet. (It's Maria Muldaur, btw.) But with the embarrassment of riches offered up on both of the discs that comprise this package, The Best Of Linda Ronstadt: The Captol Years earns every one of its five stars.

SERVING SUGGESTION: Judy Collins' Wildflowers.

A huge "THANK YOU" to the powers that be at Capitol Records and most of all to superstar singer, LINDA RONSTADT for reissuing her first four [fine] studio albums in one crystal clear remastered sound package with a few "bonus" tracks included. These Cd albums can still be purchased as single entities, but, the sound on this compilation easily eclipses those. Collectors' and die hard fans' dream project and word to the wise at Capitol Records would be that the next Ronstadt project should be a similar two disc set featuring all three out of print Stone Poneys albums with "bonus tracks", all/any unreleased recordings from the vaults, plus all the sought after rare Linda recordings from movie soundtracks and obscure non-album singles["She's A Very Lovely Woman"-etc.]she recorded and issued while contracted to the label. Though all three Stone Poneys albums were briefly reissued[no bonus tracks/historical notes]circa 1995-96, copies soon sold out and fans are now paying ridiculous prices[up to $100.00 per cd]for highly coveted early Linda Ronstadt music. RONSTADT's artistic influence has been felt deeply within the three generations of musicians who have followed in her musical steps since her much celebrated groundbreaking "Heart Like A Wheel" album in 1974. That album alone would be quite the jewel if issued on an SACD Hybrid edition. Honors for the ultimate Queen Of Country Rock have been overdue for a long, long time.

Linda Ronstadt was such a phenomenon by the mid-70s that people tend to forget that she wasn't exactly a critical darling in her earliest years as a performer and recording artist. For some reason, one critic's remarks have stuck in my memory lo these many years. It was in the old HIT PARADER magazine (before it went all heavy metal) and it was in one of those "women in music" articles that apparently have always been and always will be--or at least for as long as women are perceived of as "the other." And I recall it was written by one of the Ellens (Sander or Willis, I can't remember which). Anyway, she made reference to Janis Joplin and Grace Slick as "rare and distinctive stylists" and then mentioned Linda whom she deemed "something less than that." Those who became ardent Linda fans in the 70s will likely find that remark appalling--and in truth, it did seem a little waspish to me too even then(likely why I remember it). At the time--the late 60s--I considered Linda to be an up-and-coming talent, maybe still a tad rough around the edges, but she definitely had something.

But I'll admit, Ellen Whoever,did have something of a point. Linda mainly sang pretty: Grace and Janis, in their different ways, attacked their material ferociously. And the "Queen Bees of San Francisco," as someone once referred to them, definitely embodied the spirit of 60s rebellion more than Linda did. It did kind of make sense that Linda finally emerged as a star in the 70s, when music was a bit less outre and out there. And by then, she was a bigger star--and a more emblematic 70s star--than Grace (who DID start to get a little more "commercial" by then) or Janis (even if she had lived much beyond 1970) ever could have been.

And ultimately Linda became more of a conventionally "good" singer too. Then again, while Slick and Joplin certainly had distinctive vocal styles, calling such powerful singers "stylists" was, looking back on it, actually a strange choice of words. Song stylists, as I understand the term, are usually non-singers who learn to give dramatic or otherwise intriguing readings to their material. I'm not sure who in the history of rock'n'roll would qualify as more of a "stylist," maybe a "chanteuse" like the Nico of the Velvets and CHELSEA GIRL era.

But I digress, let's just say that in the late 60s, Linda Ronstadt's pretty vocals weren't earning her all that much critical acclaim. And even though, she had a couple of hits along the way (both with the Stone Poneys and as a solo), she had yet to capture the public imagination either. What happened? What turned the tide for her? Well, this collection (a near complete compilation of her work for Capitol Records--i.e. the complete albums, a few outtakes, B-sides and live recordings) documents her artistic development about as well as you could hope. It brings you right up to her true breakthrough album HEART LIKE A WHEEL and gives a good intro to what was to come in her halcyon days, aka the "Asylum years."

Of course, it's not as clear cut a story as all that. The Capitol and Asylum years, as any fan with a historical bent knows, actually overlapped. Linda recorded DON'T CRY NOW her first record for Asylum (and the first one for long-term producer Peter Asher) in 1973, but she still owed Capitol one more album on THAT contract. That turned out to be HEART LIKE A WHEEL--and the rest is history.

And now that history is being re-packaged and re-sold to us, but given the complicated label changes, it cannot, by definition, be considered complete. In terms of production values and the overall sheen and slickness of the sound, HLAW was lightyears beyond the earlier Capitol stuff. As good and as heartfelt as much of the early Capitol stuff was, and as endearing as it all could be, HEART was your proverbial quantum leap forward. Except that technically, it really wasn't, because it had been presaged by the equally polished (though less hit-laden) DON'T CRY NOW (on that OTHER label).

So this history has a significant, if admittedly unavoidable, gap in it. Die-hard completists may want to interrupt Disk Two of this set and sneak DON'T CRY into the other drive. Call it "discus interruptus." Or at least make a mental note that CAPITOL YEARS is not the whole story.

Which is not to say that this compilation should not be eagerly greeted by older fans and newbies alike. It is, in fact, an excellent documentation of a singer who is "finding her voice." I know there are a lot of fans out there who actually prefer the earlier, more artless Linda, and they too have a point. The very young Linda Ronstadt always sounded achingly sincere. It's a trait that lend a certain poignancy to songs like "Different Drum" (a Stone Poneys song not included here) and "Long, Long Time" (included here in two different versions). There's that tug in her voice, coupled with an almost girlish enthusiasm, that is just so compelling--even if she don't think she had quite reached that "rare and distinctive stylist" level yet.

And there was so much good country on those early records. Sure she took some grief for the Stupefyin' Jones pose on the SILK PURSE cover, but the truly neat thing about the early Ronstadt was that she could bring a dollop of LA irony to her basically heartfelt C&W interpretations and have it all work. You could still be a hip rock'n'roller and dig her C&W tunes. The case could certainly be made that she did as much to make country cool as Dylan and the Byrd/Burrito axis. In fact, the role of women artists in establishing crossover has been largely neglected, but some of the best efforts were by Linda and her contemporaries like Buffy Sainte-Marie and Tracy Nelson. (And of course, Emmylou maybe just a year or two later.)

The country material included here is as close to classic as you could hope for. She acquits herself admirably on Hank Williams' "Lovesick Blues," and while her take on "I Fall to Pieces" may not have the stateliness of Tracy's, it nonetheless serves as a more than suitable homage to Patsy Cline. She was certainly never more playful or sassy as she appeared here on "The Only Mama That'll Walk The Line." And could anyone argue with her interpretation of "Crazy Arms"? It's just got just the right blend of heartbreak and emotional reserve, keeping it real but never maudlin.

Which brings us back to the HEART LIKE A WHEEL era. There are those who would argue that Linda lost something around this time. That it started to get a little too "El Lay" slick and laid back. Well, as Joni Mitchell, another notable LA denizen, once said, "something's lost, but something's gained." Linda was singing with more confidence and authority by this point. And when it came to the C&W material, she was harmonizing beautifully with Emmylou Harris on "I Can't Help It (If I'm Still In Love With You)." Keep in mind too, that the LA sound was still quite new at this point. I remember hearing "Heart Like a Wheel" and just being astonished that something could sound so clean and pure. The whole production seemed to glisten. It would be a few years before anyone would accuse its purveyors of being too slick, soulless, or formulaic.

Of course, with Ronstadt's later records, MAYBE a critic could argue "slick," but never "soul-less." Give the lady that. She's always had a lot of heart. And she continued to grow as a "rare and distinctive" SINGER.

I really looked forward to putting this in my CD player after opening it, but the first sounds out of my speakers were harsh. I hoped it would improve as I progressed through the albums, but it didn't. For whatever reason, they put a pantload of compression on these discs, as if they thought you might want to listen to them through an AM radio. While this won't bother the average consumer, they could have done it right and satisfied those of us who care about such things, and the average consumer would have still been happy - everyone would be happy. Suffice it to say that these discs are not intended for audiophiles. Too bad - this is some really good music.