In 1987 Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris released a collaborative album, Trio. The album reached platinum certification in the U.S. for sales of one million copies, and had total worldwide sales of approximately four million.
This year at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, Trio unites three of Australia’s most exciting female vocalists — Jess Hitchcock, Fanny Lumsden, and Alice Keath — for a unique celebration of the iconic album by the same name. Inspired by the legendary human-nightingales Dolly Parton, Linda Ronstadt, and Emmylou Harris, these vocal powerhouses and queens from a new generation will harmonise their distinct voices in a tapestry of the songs that made Trio. Expect soaring vocals, poignant lyrics, and an undeniable onstage chemistry that will leave you spellbound. It’s a must-see event for music lovers of all eras.
Jess Hitchcock is a Melbourne-based Indigenous singer-songwriter who has stirred the Australian music and performing arts scene as a genre-defying force. Her powerful voice and knack for storytelling has seen her shine across pop, country, folk, opera and music theatre, sharing the stage and studio with some of Australia’s favourites. One of Jess’s most notable collaborations is with legendary Australian singer-songwriter Paul Kelly. Together they performed and recorded Paul’s song, Everyday My Mother’s Voice, earning standing ovations across the nation. You can occasionally find Jess in Paul’s band on vocals and percussion. Jess has also collaborated with Archie Roach,Tina Arena and Kate Miller-Heidke.
Jess spoke to Glam Adelaide about Trio, how the collaboration with Fanny and Alice came about and what she loves about performing across multiple genres and right across the country.
“I absolutely love being challenged in music and especially through singing. It’s really exciting to just try new stuff, and one of the things I love about singing in so many genres is the opportunity to collaborate so much with so many different artists and musicians. It just brings me so much joy.”
Last year at the Cabaret Festival, Jess was featured in numerous performances. We asked Jess what cabaret means to her.
“I think cabaret, for me, (and I get asked the same question a lot about opera as well) is its ability to tell amazing stories and a platform to share these stories. Cabaret has this really amazing niche where we can pull out the funny and the sad all in one performance and make people go from laughing belly laughs to absolutely sobbing. It’s a little bit more personal and the journeys that we go through are more personal. Even when cabaret is able to mimic other performers like the show that I’m doing, it’s still ourselves and we’re still bringing something of our personal story and journey to every note.”
Dolly Parton’s music is full of story-telling and strong narrative, which resonates strongly with Jess.
“I love how story-driven and narrative-focused Dolly’s music is. I think that’s something I love about country music – there are really strong emotional connections to every story. Then there’s also the fun stuff about loving your ute and your truck and stuff like that. But there’s also these real moments of sort of profound clarity in terms of what you want to say in a song that doesn’t beat around the bush. It just tells you how it is lyrically. I love that just honest recounting of stories. Dolly’s songs are very much that. This album, Trio, has covers in there as well. They’re able to just bring their flavour to it. But Dolly, Emmylou Harris, and Linda Ronstadt make it sound like it’s their own songs. With Fanny and Alice and myself, we’re hoping to recreate that for ourselves and our audiences as well.”
Jess shared with Glam how the collaboration for Trio came about.
“Trio is an album that I’ve always really loved. Then there’s three powerhouse women that lived very separate existences in the music world and then came together to make this songbird album. I was speaking with my manager, and she said we should definitely find a platform to do this album at some point, and the Cabaret Festival would be perfect – It’s my favourite festival of the year. It showcases so many different genres of music; It’s not just one thing. Fanny is a dear friend of mine who obviously is a huge country star in her own right, and I’ve worked with Alice previously because she also works with Paul Kelly and she’s a fantastic harmony singer. So we just came together and it all just fell into place. We can’t wait to bring it to Adelaide. We’re not mimicking these women, we’re still our own voices singing these songs. But we are going to be telling their stories amongst all of the music that they sang together.
“We wanted to stay authentic to the way that this album was created – I haven’t seen this album recreated by anyone. We are honouring what they have already created, and they created something really beautiful.”
Trio will be performed for one night only as part of the Adelaide Cabaret Festival – Thursday 19 June, 7pm in the Dunstan Playhouse.
“I think audiences are going to experience three powerhouse women singing in beautiful harmonies. We don’t often get to hear such tight-knit harmonies on stage and the blend is just going to be incredible. We’re also going to hear stories about Emmylou, Dolly and Linda and what led them towards creating this album. You’re also going to hear from us as three women in the music industry who have also come together in our own right to recreate this beautiful album.”
Trio
Adelaide Cabaret Festival 2025
Dunstan Playhouse, Adelaide Festival Centre
Thursday 19 June at 7.00pm
https://cabaret.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/whats-on/trio
Photo credit: supplied by Adelaide Festival Centre and Adelaide Cabaret Festival
More News
