Linda Ronstadt thinks it`s pretty funny that anyone would still suggest she`s practicing cultural imperialism by singing traditional Mexican songs.
”When I was a little girl in Arizona, I thought English was the language you spoke in and Spanish was the language you sang in,” Ronstadt says. ”This is the singing tradition I came from. I heard this music long before I heard rock `n` roll.”
She keeps hearing it, which is why she has just recorded ”Mas Canciones,” her second album of traditional Mexican music-specifically, the popular music of northern Mexico, as distinct from the trio sound popularized around Acapulco.
”I was exploring a new pop album in the spring,” she says. ”But I found myself dreaming in Spanish. So finally I said, `No, sorry, this has to come first.` ”
Ronstadt describes her Spanish speaking vocabulary as rudimentary, but says the singing comes right back. ”My father was a crooner, and my family was always singing. In our house, music and performing didn`t only happen when you turned on the TV. When I was singing the harmonies with my brothers for this record, it was like a good night in our back yard.
”But recording the songs with musicians was different, because this music doesn`t use the same 6-8 as the European system. I knew how to feel the songs, not sing them with a band. So I actually ended up learning the singing through the dance steps.”
Not surprisingly, she loves live canciones shows, which she calls
”little festivals” of Mexican culture. She likes them even more since she moved from big halls with $50 tickets to rodeos and state fairs with a $10 tab.
Now she throws a dress in a suitcase and rings up a small band with a couple of dancers, a low-frills approach with great appeal to an artist who has long chafed at huge road-warrior tours.
”I like being close to the crowd because this is a show where the audience gets really involved,” Ronstadt says. ”You see an 80-year-old woman whose whole life is reflected in her face when we do a dance she remembers from her 20s.
”It`s a new experience for me. The audiences are enthusiastic, and they know the music so well that when they respond, it`s just right.
”I`m saying it isn`t quite the same as someone yelling `Boo-gie!` at a rock `n` roll show.”
Don`t take that wrong: She still loves a good three-chord rock tune. But the Mexican songs moved in on her, as standards did before them, and she says she must follow.
”When people say I`m doing this to make money, I laugh,” she says.
”I`m making a half, or a quarter, of what I`d make for a pop record.
”I`m doing this because I love the music. All the years I was doing pop songs, I`d be thinking I had sung songs which were as good or better when I was in the living room with my family.
”We`re losing this vocal tradition, like we`re losing so much regional music. Pop music may be the major thing the U.S. has exported, and the big reason was cultural diversity. Now there isn`t much left outside New Orleans. ”To make this record, I had to really search for people who still play this style. They`re almost all older musicians.”
She`s proud of the result, even though she has heard the suggestions about cultural theft.
”It`s the same sniping I hear about Paul Simon, and it`s beyond ludicrous. We all have radios. We`re all influenced. Paul has made the music he`s heard into a hybrid that`s authentically his own. He`s given recognition to its players. And he still gets this garbage.
”I heard Don Henley say it recently, while Don was promoting a show with Sting, who started off imitating Bob Marley. Which is fine. But it made me kind of disappointed in Don. It was beneath him.
”When I sing these songs, it`s my heritage. I grew up proud of my heritage. Where we lived, there wasn`t the sting of prejudice that other areas felt earlier when the migrant workers came in. It wasn`t until after World War II that you got your hand slapped in school if you spoke Spanish.”
Fortunately, a slap on the hand can`t drive music out of the head. So Ronstadt now hopes to continue her ”commando-style” one-nighters while figuring out a way to record again with Aaron Neville, Emmylou Harris, Flaco Jimenez and others.
”I could spend two years in the studio,” she says. ”But I could also use a rest-and convenience is big on my list right now. I`ll do what I can.”
