The Carter Family (1933) → Linda Ronstadt (1977)
Collecting Anglo-American ballads from Virginia's Clinch Mountains, The Carter Family cut 'I Never Will Marry' for Victor on June 17, 1933. Sara's lead, Maybelle's Carter Scratch, and the trio's plain harmony preserved an old lament in which a woman, having lost her only love, swears she will never marry—one of the wellsprings of country music.
Acoustic Folk / High Lonesome Harmony
On 1977's 'Simple Dreams', Linda Ronstadt invited Appalachian-born Dolly Parton to sing the old ballad with her. Stripping away the electric band, she reduced the arrangement to acoustic guitar and two voices, so that a singer at the summit of stadium rock returned to the oldest source of her own art.