Tu Solo Tu, Linda

Linda Ronstadt is an incredibly fortunate singer.

She is blessed with a voice that can carry any style of music with the same seeming effortlessness. She has fans who will gladly follow wherever her musical interests take her, knowing that she will always deliver a flawless performance of whatever material she chooses to explore.

Ronstadt has sung rock, country, folk, big band, jazz, lullabies -- you name it. In Canciones De Mi Padre (Songs of My Father) she turns her talents to the traditional Mexican music she heard growing up. Ronstadt's childhood and youth were spent in Tucson, Arizona, where she heard as much Spanish spoken and sung as she did English. I recall reading an interview in which she says that during her childhood, she assumed that she was Mexican and that Tucson was a city in Mexico.

Canciones De Mi Padre is, in some ways, Ronstadt's return to her roots. All of the songs on the CD are in Spanish, and to my ears Ronstadt's pronunciation of the language is at the level of a native speaker. Most of the songs have deep roots in Mexican folk music of various traditional styles, but all are filtered here through mariachi, the music that most immediately comes to mind when you think "Mexican." Ronstadt's natural affinity for this music is abundantly evident; just listen to those "yips" and "ay-ay-ays."

The CD contains 13 songs. Liner notes consist of the lyrics for each song, with English translation, and brief comments by Ronstadt. I like the way she pays tribute to Mexican and Mexican-American recording artists of the past, particularly the female norte and tejana singers of the 1930s and 1940s.

The tracks are:

Por Un Amor (For A Love). Slow, languid.

Los Laureles (The Laurels). Ronstadt's notes say this is ranchero is a mariachi standard dating to the 1920s. It's quite tuneful.

Hay Unos Ojos (There Are Some Eyes). Another slow one, it's said to be a folk dance number bearing Cuban influence that dates to just after the Mexican Revolution of 1910.

La Cigarra (The Cicada). Fast, rollicking, with plenty of those "ay-ay-ays." Ronstadt calls it a huapango.

Tu Solo Tu (You Only You). Ronstadt says this is a famous cancion ranchera.

Y Andale (Get On With It). Joining Ronstadt on the vocals for this one is one of her young nieces. This is said to be a drinking song, and, indeed, you can easily picture the patrons of some cantina swinging their cervezas or shots of tequila to the rhythm.

Rogaciano el Huapanguero (Rogaciano). For this moody, haunting song, Ronstadt harmonizes with two of her brothers.

La Charreada (The Charreada). This is one of my favorite tracks from the CD. The song really demands a lot of the singer, alternating between long, drawn-out notes and verses meant to tumble rapidly from the mouth. Ronstadt easily handles it all. A charreada is something like a rodeo.

Corrida de Cananea (Ballad of Cananea). This corrido or story song is my favorite track of all. It tells of a man who goes to Agua Prieta and is arrested there for some unspecified reason, "Al estilo americano, Come un hombre de delito, Todos con pistola en mano" (in the American style, as though I were a criminal/All of them with pistol in hand). Ronstadt tells about her brother, the chief of police in Tucson, singing the song in his police car with drunks that he would pick up.

La Barca de Guaymas (The Boat from Guaymas). The words and music of this song have a distinct yearning feeling to them. According to Ronstadt it was written around 1916, and she remembers her father playing it on the piano.

La Calandra (The Lark). This one is also a favorite of mine. It has a lighthearted, airy quality to it. (The combination of the theme and melody may make you think of "Una Paloma Blanca," which in turn may put Slim Whitman into your mind. Sorry to have mentioned it.) Ronstadt calls this one a son jarocho from the 1900s, arranged here in the style of a huasteca. A son is a folk song that was usually danced with heels on a board, she says.

El Sol Que Tu Eres (The Sun That You Are). A very slow ballad; I imagine people nodding off around a campfire as its sung, following a long day (at the charreada?). Ronstadt notes that the song may be more than 100 years old.

If you 1) have heard mariachi music and you like it, and 2) like Linda Ronstadt or simply enjoy superb singing, then you will like this CD. Ronstadt, of course, has gone on to make many more albums since this one, in other genres, but I am most interested in hearing the follow-up she did called Mas Canciones. I'm sure I would enjoy it every bit as much.

(In the interest of full disclosure I must reveal that I once had a crush on Linda Ronstadt. This is somewhat embarrassing because I think that any kind of celebrity worship beyond appreciation of the celebrity's talents indicates a lapse of rationality at best, and a losing touch with reality at worst. I even traveled sixty miles to see her in concert, back in the days when she sang "torchy rock," as Time magazine dubbed it. This by someone who is not really a concert goer. I must say that if anything were to re-kindle that crush it would be the photo on this CD, showing Linda in a beautiful Mexican blouse and long skirt, posing with flowers and a male mariachi player. That mariachi player could be me! If I could play guitar, that is. And sing. And speak Spanish. And look good in a sombrero. Really, this photo of her is my exact image of "wicked Felina," the Mexican maiden in that great Marty Robbins song, "El Paso," which you may read about in the excellent review I did of the Marty Robbins/Johnny Horton CD:
http://www.epinions.com/musc-review-4B67-299216FF-3A04799A-prod3 )