Email this page  Print this page  del.icio.us  digg  yahoo!  Comments

Why we love linda?

La reina of American music, Linda Ronstadt, comes to Chandler, Arizona

Acclaim and honors will follow Linda Ronstadt when she performs Nov. 8 at the Chandler Center for the Arts.

BeBe Winans, Eden Espinosa, Wynonna Judd, Mariachi los Camperos de Nati Cano and Lucero performed in August during NCLR’s ALMA Awards show to honor Ronstadt as she received the Trailblazer Award for her contributions to American music, inspiring artists across generations and musical genres. She also is up for induction to the national Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In January 2009, Linda will appear on PBS in a four-part series titled Latin Music USA. She is featured as one of the leaders of a generation of Mexican Americans, raised on rock, R&B, and country music, who affirm their cultural identities through Chicano, Tejano and Latin rock.

This is one mujer who has nothing to prove to anyone. In total, she has released more than 30 solo albums, more than 15 compilations or greatest hits albums, and has collaborated with various artists on more than 120 other albums. Ronstadt has said that everything she has recorded on her own records: rock ‘n’ roll, jazz, rhythm and blues, gospel, opera, country, choral, and mariachi, is all music she heard her family sing in their living room, or heard on the radio by the age of 10.

Linda has sung it all, but Latinos most remember her for her best-selling Canciones de Mi Padre album in Spanish in 1987. The canciones were based on Ronstadt’s family tradition and musical roots in Tucson.

Like many Mexican Americans in Arizona, Ronstadt has said she is not fluently bilingual, but she has a fairly good command of  Spanish. This, along with intensive coaching from mariachi producer Ruben Fuentes, allowed her to sing the songs with no discernible accent.

But even if she does tongue-trip a little when rolling her R’s, a performance by this reina of American music in her own backyard will always be an event to remember.