'Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice': Hailing Rock's Great Grownup

Throughout, the brown-eyed beauty avoided the trap of a music culture she considered inherently hostile to women, who often, she warns, “lose the ability to focus on themselves as a person rather than as an image.” She was part of a breakout generation including Carly Simon, 74, Carole King, 77, and Joni Mitchell, 75 — in fact, “the queen,” as fellow singer Bonnie Raitt, 69, called her. “She was like what Beyoncé is now."

Joyously collaborating in the group Trio with Emmylou Harris, 72, and Dolly Parton, 73, Ronstadt toured without all that behind-the-music baggage. As Parton says in the film, “Linda could literally sing anything.” The performers’ rich harmonies rivaled Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, recently featured in the fascinating, darker hit documentary David Crosby: Remember My Name.

In that film, Crosby, 78, a man of unsheathed ego and bad-boy behavior, gives a heartfelt apology to all the women he hurt or (like his wife) led into addiction. In contrast, the grounded Ronstadt was a unifier. And yet, Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice is not without heartbreak. Parkinson's disease silenced Ronstadt's singing career. For viewers, there will be tracks of tears — but this is no tragedy.

In the end, Ronstadt sits on a couch, surrounded by family and singing along in a barely audible voice. There is sadness that the sound that brought so much joy has been taken from this musician. But there is also a sense that she is so much more than the music and the performance: she is a generous grownup sustained by rich family and collegial relationships. This is the rare music documentary that concludes in hope and fellowship, and a deeper understanding of a woman who broke barriers and reached international heights without burning bridges or setting herself on fire.