Directing: B+
Writing: B
Cinematography: B
Editing: A-

Linda Ronstadt is one of my few gaping cultural blind spots. I was born in 1976, in the middle of her initial run of five consecutive platinum albums, a first ever for a female singer. But, most the first decade or so of my life, I was not allowed to watch TV or listen to anything but Christian music. My first-ever exposure to Ronstadt was her operatic performance in the filmed version of The Pirates of Penzance — probably a decade after it was first released in 1983. I certainly had no idea she had been such a huge pop star immediately preceding that venture, much less that it was her first major musical departure after massive success.

The documentary Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice very effectively fills in all those gaps. It’s the kind of film that is illuminating to younger people not as familiar with the singer and her body of work, and is a pretty fantastic nostalgia trip for those who are. God knows she is clearly beloved in the music industry, given the head-spinning list of huge names and stars procured by co-directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman for interviews: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, Don Henley, Aaron Neville, David Geffen.

This film does little in the way of plumbing the depths of who Linda Ronstadt really was and is as a person, but with a subtitle like The Sound of My Voice, it could hardly be accused of false advertising. Even if you aren’t that familiar with Ronstadt, if you have any musical ability or interest, you’ll want to be after seeing this. This woman was far removed from the stereotypically vapid pop star. She churned out eight hit albums over a decade, got tired of playing arenas with terrible acoustics, and then managed surprise hits with different genres at every turn. Three consecutive albums of traditional and jazz standards arranged by Nelson Riddle. Two country album collaborations as a trio with Dolly Parton and Emmylou Harris. Three collections of old Mexican standards her father used to sing, the first of which, Canciones de Mi Padre (1987), remains the best-selling non-English language album in American history. The list goes on.

And, much like discovering the incomparable voice of Judy Garland for the first time, The Sound of My Voice illustrates what a vocal powerhouse Linda Ronstadt was. Her talents were eclectic in a way never really seen in anyone else, certainly not to the same level of success in every seemingly left-turn venture. She also comes across as incredibly intelligent, a woman who knows herself, if strangely insecure about her own voice in the earliest years of her career.

Be warned, however: this movie has a truly bittersweet element to it. Ronstadt has not performed a concert since 2009, because so much of her former vocal ability has been lost as she lives with Parkinson’s Disease. Although tons of archival footage and recordings are included, only a few minutes of present-day footage of Ronstadt is included here, although her current-day voice narrates much of the film. Her clearly significant involvement, or at least cooperation, makes for an “authorized biography” feel that rarely makes the film anything less than fawning, and that does strip it a little of what feels like potential substance. One wonders if how little present-day footage is included has to do with some embarrassment or vanity on her part.

It certainly needn’t be that way. At the very end is a bit of a treat, although it is both moving and heartbreaking: what might very well be the last-ever recording of Linda Ronstadt singing. She’s in her Mexican living room, harmonizing with her cousin and her nephew. The powerhouse strength of her voice is completely gone, but it’s a lovely thing to see and to hear all the same.

Ronstadt was never a songwriter, but she amassed a history of taking other people’s songs, by artists more than willing to lend them to her, making them her own, and turning them into much bigger hits. What Whitney Houston did for Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” is what Linda Ronstadt did for countless other people’s songs. She has an unparalleled, earnest and pure talent, leaving a legacy worth examining, which this movie does with finesse.

Overall: B+