Search - Linda Ronstadt :: Different Drum

Cami P. from DENHAM SPGS, LA
Reviewed on 3/1/2007...

Great album, country blues and rock combo

Terrific Compilation Of Linda' s Early Years!

Barron Laycock | Temple, New Hampshire United States | 08/04/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I remember first hearing Linda Ronstadt's amazing voice come crashing out of the radio sometime in the late sixties as the lead vocalist for the folk-rock group, the Stone Ponies. Her distinctive melodic scream of a vocal style is so distinctive it is hard not to compare with Roy Orbison, whose hit song of "Blue Bayou" she later covered. It is hard to not appreciate a voice so singular and versatile, even if it is most usually delivered with a fevered wail. I once saw her in a small venue in Lenox, Massachusetts in a small amphitheater setting, with the audience sprawled over an expansive lawn that gradually rose above the covered stage area. She was so good with just her guitar and small group that it is difficult to describe her in words short of superlatives such as phenomenal. All of her seminal work is included here for you casual enjoyment, from "Different Drum" to "Rock Me On The Water", from "Stoney End" to "Some of Shelly's Blues", and all the others, including "Long, Long Time", "Hobo", "In My Reply", "Different Drum", "Will You Still Love Me tomorrow?". This album give us all of Linda's early formidable hits, many recorded with the Stone Poneys, and all her in a definitive and fairly comprehensive play list that anyone would want to have to ensure an accurate representation of her volumes of work, from dozens of hit albums recorded and released over more twenty years of popular work. This is an essential album for your collection, and one I have both in the house and in the car. For easy listening as I zoom down the highway. Other than the Beach Boys, on the one hand, or Jackson Browne on the other, nobody articulates the southern California folk rock style as well or as consistently as Linda Ronstadt, the little woman with the big, big voice. Enjoy!"

Linda's StonePony hoofprints

Robert S. Estes | Santa Rosa, Ca | 06/23/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Collectors of Linda Ronstadt know she recorded mid '60s on Tower, a subsidiary of Capitol, and joined up with Stone Poneys, a folk-rock group in the genre of Pozo-Seco, Mamas & Papas, a toe-dip into what would become the popular singer-writer self confessional of the late '60's '70s.

Stone Poneys were a part of the LA folk/rock acts like Hearts and Flowers and Buffalo Springfield that got signed during that time.

Stone Poneys had a huge hit, "Different Drum", written by then Monkee Mike Nesmith. A classic top 40 hit still played today, but Stone Poneys released two albums worth seeking out.

It was with Stone Poneys that Linda found herself out front due to her evocative ringing voice. After Stone Poneys failed to sell, Linda was signed to Capitol as a single.

This somewhat hard to find CD has odds and ends of Linda with Stone Poneys and her first nudge at solo. It has the only CD version of the Stone Poneys " Up to My Neck in High Muddy Water", a mostly likely solo by Linda and the inch towards her fine Capitol LPs. It has the rare recording of her version of Nesmith's "Some of Shelly's Blues".

Linda has plenty of CDs and greatest hits collections, but this is the only one to get these rare songs.

It is her at her most plaintive best."