sing us your favorite tune

Dolly, Linda, and Emmylou :: Pain of Loving You

For a few years of my childhood, my Mom sang in a trio. It wasn’t a big deal — just Mom and her two best friends, Bette and Etta, getting together once a week to sing songs in three-part harmony. Except for one hilarious performance of Sister Suffragettes at the Rhodes College student open-mic night, they never sang in public.

In the summer, though, their ‘rehearsals’ at our house were the *best.* Seriously southern: iced tea, fans roaring, the three of them laid out on the front porch laughing hysterically in between ironic renditions of Stand by Your Man and It Takes a Woman (from Hello, Dolly), as well as rousing versions of torch songs like No More Genocide in My Name (Holly Near) and K.T. Oslin’s 80s Ladies. I *loved* it when the trio practiced; I’d run around turning their songbook pages, just to have an excuse to be near them.

What they sang most were songs from Trio, a collaboration between Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt. By osmosis, I learned every word. And then I sort of forgot about all of it — that album, Mom’s trio, the porch rehearsals. Years later, though, in college, I overheard a girl I barely knew humming one of the Trio songs at a party. Almost automatically, I joined in. She freaked out, called her friend over, and the three of us stood out on a snowed-in St. Paul porch singing half the fucking album in drunken three-part harmony.

The Pain of Loving You is one of those brilliant songs about being miserable. And please allow me to admit, in my sentimentality, that I’ve maybe never been happier than when listening to my Mom and her friends laugh through it.

The Pain of Loving You
Dolly, Linda, and Emmylou (homepages, fan site)

joshua said on friday, april 04th, 2008

melissa said on saturday, april 05th, 2008

VJ said on sunday, april 06th, 2008

Tina said on monday, april 07th, 2008