Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions

After collaborating on Trio and Trio II, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris recorded this project in Tucson, Arizona, Ronstadt’s birthplace and a town connected with both singers. Whereas Trio expressed their affection for older country music, this album reaches towards a more contemporary folk-and-country sound.

Its song choices are fascinating: Jackson Browne, Leonard Cohen, Andy Prieboy, Emmylou herself, Rosanne Cash, Sinéad O’Connor, Bruce Springsteen and Patty Scialfa are among the writers represented. Ronstadt and Harris sing these varied songs with striking power. Ronstadt’s incisive performance of Prieboy’s ‘Loving the Highway Man’, her reading of Browne’s ‘For a Dancer’, and the contrast between the two voices on Cohen’s ‘Sisters of Mercy’ are especially memorable.

Greg Leisz, Bernie Leadon and the other musicians support the singers with a simple, beautifully judged sound. Nothing gets between the songs and those two extraordinary voices.