7. Linda Ronstadt

Like various other artists on this list, Linda was known for recording in multiple different genres and multiple different styles across her prolific career. But she did so much within the country genre that she would be very deserving to get an induction in the Country Music Hall Of Fame. Growing up in Tucson where her parents surrounded her with a variety of music sounds in their house, she moved to Los Angeles in 1964 with two of her friends. The three of them created a folk-rock band called The Stone Poneys which was signed to Capitol Records.  After their trio broke up, she released her first solo album, which has been called the first alt-country album by a female recording artist. Even though she was firmly in the L.A. folk-rock scene, touring with acts like Neil Young and The Doors, it still took a couple of years before she began getting a string of hits. In 1974, she released what is considered to be a masterpiece album; “Heart Like A Wheel”. She got a couple pop hits and a couple country hits off of it. From there, she would firmly stay in the pop realm for more than a decade. On the country side, she would get a handful of more hit songs, especially when she teamed up with Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton (two legendary ladies already in the Country Music Hall Of Fame) in the 1980’s to create “Trio”, a super-group of talent. Add these accomplishments on top of the millions of records she was selling, the country music scene that she was opening to a mainstream audience, and the underappreciated songwriters that she was helping to showcase, and you begin to see why Linda Ronstadt deserves a spot in the Hall.