A seminal album in Linda's career

This album was the last of Linda's early country-folk-rock music before she began the transition to the mainstream pop-rock artist of the seventies that made her famous. The music is still fairly simple and raw, unlike the slicker music that came later, but the song selection gives clues about the future. The backing musicians became the Eagles soon after this album was recorded. Linda followed this album by recording Don't cry now, a fine country-rock album, then by the hugely successful Heart like a wheel.

The songs are mostly (perhaps entirely) covers. I fall to pieces (Patsy Cline), Crazy arms (Ray Price) and I still miss someone (Johnny Cash) are proof of Linda's enthusiasm for country music. They sit comfortably among the other songs here, including Rock me on the water (Jackson Browne), In my reply (Livingston Taylor), Rambling round (Woody Guthrie), Birds (Neil Young) and Rescue me (Fontella Bass).

If you like Linda's other early albums (Hand sown home grown and Silk purse), you will surely enjoy this one also. There really isn't much to choose between the three of them on quality.

Linda Ronstadt On The Way Up!

This is a lovely album by Linda Ronstadt recorded in the brief period after she had left the Stone Ponys and before she really burst onto the scene with "Long Long Time". The collection included here are really much more country and even blue grass than she would move to later, but the effect of that clear, sharp voice on all these traditional songs is simply electrifying. I had the opportunity to see her at a small venue in Lenox, Massachusetts called the Music Inn, a country summer place where the performer was up on a covered stage which was more an open platform covered by a roof than anything else, and the audience was sprawled out across an expanse of lawn that made a natural sloping amphitheater. Of course, Linda and the small group she had backing her were simply spellbinding.

Here she works her way through a number of great songs, putting her own special style to magical work. From Jackson Browne's early "Rock Me On The Water" to Willy Nelson's "Crazy Arms", from "I Won't Be Hanging Around" to "Crazy Arms", from an electrifying "I Stil Miss Someone" to "In My Reply", from Patty Cline's "I Fall To Pieces" to "Ramblin Round", this is terrific country work by a performer who was just starting to find her style and form. My favorite song is her interpretation of Neil Young's "Birds",along with a rip-roaring version of "Rescue Me", one of her first hits. This is an album that is essential for any real Linda Ronstadt fan. Enjoy!

Quietly devastating

Emotional rockabilly outing from Linda and most of the Eagles can't surpass the superior "Silk Purse", but does have a wealth of wonderful material and Ronstadt's pure, bright voice at the center. It's a lovely, sad, bittersweet effort, thrown a bit by a strident cover of "Rescue Me" at the very end. Otherwise, first-rate.