Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III

Updated on Jan 01, 2024

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Released April, 1968 Length 27:18 Release date April 1968 Label Capitol Records		Recorded 1967-68 Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III (1968) Stoney End (1970) Producer Nick Venet Genres Folk rock, Country rock

Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III (1968) Hand Sown ... Home Grown (1969) Artists Linda Ronstadt, The Stone Poneys Country rock albums Different Drum, Hand Sown Home Gr, Greatest Hits - Volume 2, Feels Like Home, Prisoner in Disguise

Linda Ronstadt, Stone Poneys and Friends, Vol. III is the third and final studio album by The Stone Poneys, released in April 1968. Singer Linda Ronstadt would release her first solo album the following year.

While ostensibly a Stone Poneys album, Vol. III represents a transition and a shift in focus from the first two releases by the band, formed in 1965 as a harmony group with Ronstadt as an occasional soloist, to the singer's solo career. Billing Ronstadt as the lead singer (in concert bookings as well as on the third album) was demanded by Capitol Records executives and encouraged by producer Nik Venet, who all saw her potential as a solo artist with the recording and subsequent success of "Different Drum," a single from the previous album. The song, 'featuring Linda Ronstadt', was backed by outside musicians instead of her bandmates Kenny Edwards and Bobby Kimmel – creating tensions in the band that would worsen, irrevocably damaging morale. Edwards quit the group during the recording sessions for their third album, following a brief tour in early 1968; and Kimmel would leave later that year.

The new direction meant augmenting the trio with extra musicians, and downplaying Edwards' and Kimmel's songwriting contributions in favor of new repertoire in a different musical style. Rather than the folk rock of the first two Stone Poneys albums, most of the songs on Vol. III are in the country rock style that would mark Ronstadt's subsequent work. This is particularly true of the two songs released as singles, "Some of Shelly's Blues" and "Up to My Neck in High Muddy Water".

All three band members were pictured on the covers of the first two albums, while only Ronstadt appears on this front cover. The back cover photo shows her among a group of friends and neighbors (including musicologist Charles Seeger and singer-songwriter Tim Buckley) in front of the house on Hart Avenue in Santa Monica, California, that was a communal residence for some of them, including Ronstadt (Seeger and Buckley lived nearby).

Release data

The album was released in April 1968 in the LP format by Capitol in both monaural and stereophonic editions (catalogue numbers T 2863 and ST 2863, respectively), and on 8-track tape (8XT 2863). A Capitol CD reissue appeared in 1995 (catalogue number 80130). The volume number in the title uses a Roman numeral rather than the Arabic numeral used on the previous release.

Several of the songs from Vol. III appear on subsequent compilations, including Stoney End on Pickwick Records in 1972 and Different Drum in 1974, the latter album a Capitol release credited solely to Linda Ronstadt. In 2008, Raven Records in Australia issued a 27-track CD, The Stone Poneys, comprising all the tracks from the band's first two albums, The Stone Poneys and Evergreen, Volume 2, plus four tracks from the third album.

Album credits

Ronstadt is well known in the music industry for including very meticulous credits on her albums, particularly with regard to musicians. (For example, her first two "Greatest Hits" LPs feature credits for all the songs on the inside gatefold cover panels.) On Evergreen, Volume 2, a total of 22 musicians were listed, including nine in the string section. However, despite the "and Friends" of the title, there are no credits on the inside sleeve or back cover of Vol. III, and allmusic lists only the three band members in its entry for the album.