Trio II is the second collaborative studio album by Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt, and Dolly Parton. It was released on February 9, 1999, by Asylum Records. Like the original Trio album, Trio II was produced by George Massenburg. It peaked at number four on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart and number 62 on the all-genre Billboard 200. "High Sierra" was the only single to chart, peaking at number 90 in Canada on the RPM Country Singles chart. "After the Gold Rush" won Best Country Collaboration with Vocals at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards while the album itself was nominated for Best Country Album. The album has been certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.
The origins of Trio II began in 1993 when Linda and Emmylou were planning to record an album together featuring writers and singers that they loved, such as the McGarrigle sisters and Alison Krauss. Dolly was invited to sing with them on a few tracks, but she had been too busy. About six months later Dolly reached out to Linda and Emmylou to say that she wanted to do it. Linda felt like the album could be a second Trio project. Emmylou, remembering how hard it had been to arrange their busy schedules during the production of the Trio album and for its promotional campaign, strongly urged Linda to not commit to a second Trio album. They both felt that if Dolly was on the album, but not able to promote it, that they wouldn't be able to promote a full-blown Trio album without her. Emmylou also remembered the discrepancies in the three women's taste during the recording of the first album, but Linda loved what they had created the first time and wanted to repeat it, so she fought for that. When Linda spoke to Dolly again, Dolly made it clear she was only interested if it was a full Trio album. Against Emmylou's urgings, Linda gave in to Dolly's request because she loved their sound as a trio and thought it would be great for all three of them to promote the record together.
Dolly had given Linda her personal word of honor, but the night before recording was to commence Dolly sent a fax to Linda and Emmylou stating that there had been trouble with the production of the infomercial for her Beauty Confidence cosmetics line and she needed ten more days to work on it. When Dolly finally arrived, Linda and Emmylou had a private conversation with her. They asked her if she could really commit to three weeks of time at the end of the album for the promotional tour and stressed that the release date had to be solidified. Dolly again gave them her word, saying, "I get so many irons in the fire, sometimes I burn my own ass."
The recording of the album was well underway, with only Dolly's vocals still needing to be recorded, when she canceled again. Dolly eventually did record her vocals, with Linda and producer George Massenburg working around the clock to make the deadline for the album's fall release. With only two songs left to mix and the promotional campaign for Trio II about to begin, Dolly released Heartsongs: Live from Home in September 1994 and had plans to release her autobiography My Life and Other Unfinished Business in October, further hindering her ability to join Linda and Emmylou to promote a new Trio album. She told Linda and Emmylou that she felt Heartsongs would sell well and help the Trio record sales, but Linda and Emmylou did not agree. The decision was made to shelve the Trio album in favor of a solo album from Linda. Dolly's vocals were mixed out at her request. Linda released Feels Like Home in March 1995, featuring five tracks from Trio II (sans Dolly's vocals); "Lover's Return", "High Sierra", "After the Gold Rush", "The Blue Train", and "Feels Like Home".
Billboard noted in the October 24, 1998 issue that Asylum Records planned to release the Trio II album in early 1999, noting that the tracks had been "in the can for quite some time." A week later in the October 31 issue, Billboard reported that "Dolly Parton has temporarily shelved a second Trio album." Billboard officially announced the album in the January 9, 1999 issue with the headline "Asylum Ends Wait for Trio's 2nd Set."
Recording The album was recorded at The Site in San Rafael, Marin County, California.
Dolly had previously recorded "Do I Ever Cross Your Mind" twice. She first recorded it with Chet Atkins in 1976 for his album The Best of Chet Atkins & Friends and he recorded a solo version for her 1982 album ?Heartbreak Express.
?Dolly also recorded a version of "After the Gold Rush" for her 1996 album, Treasures, featuring harmony vocals by Alison Krauss and Suzanne Cox.
?The album was released February 9, 1999, on CD and cassette.
?Though scheduling conflicts would not allow for an extended concert tour, Dolly, Emmylou, and Linda did a short promotional tour to support the album. They reunited for the first time on the February 9, 1999 episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno where they were interviewed and performed "High Sierra". On February 11 they appeared on Today and were interviewed before performing "High Sierra". The following day the group appeared on The Rosie O'Donnell Show and were interviewed in addition to performing "When We're Gone, Long Gone". Two weeks later on February 26, they were interviewed on CBS This Morning and performed "High Sierra". A month later on March 24, they appeared on the Late Show with David Letterman and performed "After the Gold Rush". The following day, Dolly was filling in as host for Kathie Lee Gifford on Live with Regis and Kathie Lee. Linda and Emmylou joined her for an interview and to perform "After the Gold Rush". During this appearance Dolly makes mention of how she "screwed up" the album's original release back in 1994.
?The album was nominated for Best Country Album at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards in 2000 and "After the Gold Rush" won Best Country Collaboration with Vocals. The album was also nominated for Vocal Event of the Year at the 33rd Annual Country Music Association Awards in 1999. "After the Gold Rush" was nominated for Vocal Event of the Year at the 35th Academy of Country Music Awards in 2000 and Vocal Event of the Year at the 2000 CMT Music Awards (known as the Country Weekly presents the TNN Music Awards at the time). Its music video was nominated for Video Event of the Year at the 1999 CMT Video Awards.
?The album was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America on November 15, 2001, for shipment of 500,000 copies.
Personnel Larry Atamanuik – drums Robby Buchanan – piano, acoustic piano, Helen voices, synthesizers, Rhodes synthesizer, B3 synthesizers David Campbell – strings Mark Casstevens – acoustic guitar David Grisman – mandolin Emmylou Harris – lead vocals, harmony vocals Roy Huskey Jr. – bass, acoustic bass Carl Jackson – acoustic guitar Dennis James – glass armonica ?Ken Keith – steel guitar Jim Keltner – drums ?Alison Krauss – fiddle Jim Keltner – road case David Lindley – autoharp Edgar Meyer – acoustic bass Dean Parks – electric guitar, acoustic guitar, mandolin Dolly Parton – lead vocals, harmony vocals Linda Ronstadt – lead vocals, harmony vocals, strings Leland Sklar – bass John Starling – acoustic guitar Helen Voices – synthesizers
Production ?John Brenes – production archivist ?Nathaniel Kunkel – recording George Massenburg – producer, recording, mixing Linda Ronstadt – string arrangement, mixing Gail Rosman – production assistant Doug Sax – mastering Kevin Scott – recording assistant Janet Stark – production assistant John Starling – associate producer
Other personnel Lynn Bradley – art direction, design Michael Hagewood – art administration ?Kosh – art direction, design ?Ira Koslow – Linda Ronstadt management
