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23The land of my ancestors was for a long time considered the back end of nowhere. To the colonial authorities in Mexico City in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Sonora was savages and cactuses, the desolate northwest rim of New Spain, a blank slate to occupy with soldiers, missionaries, miners, and cattle. Later the Americans saw it as a wild corner of their western frontier, which they were itching to settle and subdue. They envisioned a land of cowboys and Indians, minus the Indians. To t he In d ige n ous S o nor a ns, of cou r se, i t wa s the cen t er o f eve r y-thing, their home and world, in the foothills of the western Sierra Madre mountains and the desert plains and valleys below, among the rivers and streams whose fitful meanderings had etched the stony landscape and made human habitation possible.Music filled my grandfather’s life. He got the love from his parents, nurtured it in Sonora and Tucson, and expressed it richly all his days. It was the same with my grandmother. The itch to make music is a marker that unites generations of Ronstadts. It’s one of those stub-born traits we have, like those circus families where everybody from baby to grandma can twist themselves into pretzels and nearly fly. Introduction by Linda Ronstadt from Feels Like Home (Heyday Books),her new memoir of growing up in the culturally rich Sonoran borderlands. Grandpa passed the musical flame to my aunt Luisa Espinel Ronstadt. She traveled through Spain, learning its regional folk songs and dances, studying their origins, and collecting a repertoire. To that she added the Mexican songs she had learned from her Sonoran family. She brought her show, “Song Pictures of Spain,” to high schools, churches, recital halls, and, in 1927, the Edyth Totten Theater in Times Square.In 1946, my aunt Luisa published a book, Canciones de Mi Padre: Spanish Folksongs from Southern Arizona. The title page said they were “collected from her father, Don Federico Ronstadt y Redondo.” In the late 1980s, I borrowed my aunt Luisa’s title and made two records of old Mexican songs from the nineteenth century to the 1940s that I had learned from my own father. I performed them in traditional Mexican dress in a show that toured the country. It was a wonderful experience. Aunt Luisa beat me to it by about fifty years.F F FWe at Putumayo hope you enjoy these songs that were influential during Linda’s childhood and while exploring her Sonoran heritage.

From Linda’s personal collection and Feels Like Home book (Heyday)

7Linda writes, “The great Chicano musician and songwriter Lalo Guerrero grew up in the old barrio of Tucson. Lalo wrote lots of hits from the 1940s through the ’60s. Lalo was a great bandleader and Mexican American activist, a defender of farmworkers’ and women’s rights. He was a good friend of my dad’s, and they sang together often. The two of them serenaded me at my bedroom door on my third birthday.”She continues, “In the 1990s he wrote ‘Barrio Viejo,’ a lament for his vanished community. The version he sang on Ry Cooder’s album Chávez Ravine, in 2005, can tear your heart to pieces.” This collabo-ration with guitarist Ry Cooder was recorded shortly before Guerrero’s death at the age of 88. “The old neighborhood,” sings Guerrero, “Only rubble remains / Of the happy homes / Of the happy fami-lies / Of those people that I loved / They say we were poor / Well, I never noticed / I was happy in my world / Of that neighborhood that I adore / Old neighborhood, old neighborhood / I’m old too.”1. RY COODER with LALO GUERREROBarrio ViejoPhotograph courtesy of Mark and Dan Guerrero

9Linda writes, “My brothers, Peter and Mike sang this beautiful huapango folk song with me on my record Mas Canciones. We learned the harmonies as kids from a record by Trío Tariácuri, three brothers who were beloved musicians in Mexico for decades, starting in the 1930s.” Originally released in 1991, Mas Canciones (More Songs) was the follow-up to Linda’s 1987 groundbreaking Canciones de Mi Padre. Mas Canciones focused more on trio and ensemble singing than its predecessor. The trio format, with its tight vocal harmonies accompanied usually by two acoustic guitars and maracas (or a third guitar), has long been immensely popular across Latin America. Hidalgo-born songwriter Nicandro Castillo, who began his career in the 1930s, wrote “El Sueño” (The Dream). Linda, Peter and Mike sing hauntingly “Whoever listens to my singing will say that I am very happy / And I sing to distract myself from this passion that I feel / And that I can’t forget / I go to bed thinking of you, and in my dream you are with me / And I feel so happy, dreaming that you are with me.”2. LINDA RONSTADTEl SueñoMas Canciones album cover photo by William Coupon

11Los Cenzontles recorded this version of the classic ranchera “Palomas Que Andan Volando” (Pigeons That Are Flying) as a tribute to legendary Mexican singers Antonio Aguilar and Flor Silvestre. The song was composed by Jalisco-born mariachi musician and composer Donaciano Rodriguez but was most associated with Antonio Aguilar who first recorded it in the early 1960s. Aguilar started singing on Mexican radio in 1950 and during his long career recorded over 150 albums and starred in over 100 films. The lyrics are sung from the perspective of a prisoner in a Guadalajara jail who longs for the pigeons who bring news of his loved ones. “How sad my life is / Without hope and with no one / Crying over my sorrow and pain / And remembering my mother.”3. LOS CENZONTLESPalomas Que Andan VolandoPhotograph by Armando Quintero from Feels Like Home book (Heyday)

1213Linda’s youngest brother Michael was also a talented musician and songwriter and he sang on Canciones de Mi Padre, along with sev-eral other members of the Ronstadt family. “Whenever we needed an extra part, I would just get a brother or cousin,” she told the Arizona Daily Star shortly after Michael’s passing. In Feels Like Home, Linda writes, “For years Mike had a family band, Ronstadt Generations, with his sons, Mikey and Petie, that recorded and toured far and wide, performing traditional and orig-inal songs of the Southwest and old family songs from Mexico. My favorite song of his is ‘Canadian Moon,’ which tells how much the desert can haunt you with homesickness even when you are luxuri-ating in the cool northern green of the Canadian West.” This is a previously unreleased version of “Canadian Moon” per-formed by Michael’s son’s band P.D. Ronstadt & The Co. Linda’s nephew Peter Dalton Ronstadt, her cousin Bobby Ronstadt, and Bobby’s granddaughter, Katie Arellano, are singing “I’ll always go back to those deserts I love / But I love that Canadian moon.”4. P. D . R O N S TA D T & T H E C O .Canadian MoonLinda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris teamed up in 1999 to record the album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions. Nominated for sev-eral GRAMMY awards, the album featured renditions of songs by Jackson Browne, Leonard Cohen, Sinéad O’Connor, Patty Griffin and many others. Widely acclaimed, the Los Angeles Times called Western Wall an “adventurous, rewarding ride.” Bruce Springsteen wrote “Across the Border” for his 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad. The Ronstadt & Harris version features Neil Young on harmonica and both of Linda’s brothers, her sister, her cousins, and her niece on backing vocals. The song’s theme makes it an apt addition to this collection. “Tonight, my bag is packed / Tomorrow I’ll walk these tracks / That will lead me ‘cross the border / Tomorrow my love and I / We’ll sleep ‘neath auburn skies / Somewhere across the border / We’ll leave behind my dear / Pain and sadness we’ve found here.”5. LINDA RONSTADT with EMMYLOU HARRISAcross The Border

14Linda recalls, “When I introduced Jackson Browne to Eugene Rodriguez and his cultural organization Los Cenzontles, I felt they would hit it off. Jackson and Eugene soon teamed up to write this beautiful song, about a family divided by the border and our unjust immigration laws.” The song originally appeared on Browne’s 2021 album Downhill From Everywhere. One of the world’s great songwriters, Jackson Browne is also a con-summate musical explorer who has collaborated with Habib Koite (Mali), Lakou Mizik (Haiti), folk super-group The Chieftains (Ireland) and many others. Los Cenzontles (“The Mockingbirds” in the indigenous language Nahuatl) are from the San Francisco Bay Area city of San Pablo, California and have worked diligently to bring Mexican regional folk music to wider audiences. On “The Dreamer,” Browne sings in English and Spanish, “Where do the dreams go? / Born of faith and illusion / Where there’s no road and no footprint / Only desire that whispers to the heart.”6. JACKSON BROWNE with LOS CENZONTLESThe Dreamer15Linda writes: “‘Naninan Upirin’ is one of the traditional songs that are part of the repertoire of Los Cenzontles’ youth group, Los Cenzontles Juvenil. They start young, absorbing deep traditions and rhythms, and learning to sing in both Spanish and Mexican Indigenous languages, of which there are sixty-eight. ‘Naninan Upirin’ is a son abajeño from the P’urhépecha Indigenous people living in the Michoacán region.” The P’urhépecha, previously known as Tarascan, was one of the Pre-Columbian empires of Mesoamerica. Centered in the northwestern region of Michoacán, Mexico, they are now known for their many folk arts as well as their music and dance traditions. The song was written by Atilano López Patricio, a composer, musician, painter and artisan of the P’urhépecha traditions who has collaborated frequently with Los Cenzontles. Los Cenzontles and David Hildalgo of Los Lobos recorded this song on their 2008 collaborative album Songs of Wood and Steel. “Friends, how will I cut that flower? / That little growing flower / I would like to cut that flower / And plant it in my pot.”7. LOS CENZONTLES with DAVID HIDALGONaninan Upirin (How Will I Do It)

16 17“Dolly Parton and I both love this song and recorded it together,” writes Linda in Feels Like Home. “According to Ronstadt family rules, this was my sister’s song, because she was the first of us to sing it. But Suzy married three times, so it became mine.”The Appalachian folk song “I Never Will Marry,” which Ronstadt had first sung with Johnny Cash on his TV show in 1969, appeared on Ronstadt’s eighth studio album, 1977’s Simple Dreams. The album featured a number of hit songs, including covers of Buddy Holly’s “It’s So Easy,” Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou” (which was GRAMMY-nominated for Record of the Year), and Warren Zevon’s “Poor Poor Pitiful Me.” While less recognized than those other singles, the sweetly melancholic “I Never Will Marry” matches well with the broken-hearted Mexican ballads featured on this collection. 8. LINDA RONSTADT with DOLLY PARTONI Never Will MarryLinda Ronstadt released her third Spanish-language album, Frenesí (Frenzy), in 1992. This time, Ronstadt was inspired by her work on the film Mambo Kings to explore the Afro-Cuban styles that deeply influenced the music of Mexico and the rest of the Americas. Featuring romantic boleros, upbeat big band mambos, and elegant cha cha chas, Frenesí earned Ronstadt a GRAMMY for Best Tropical Music Album. Written by Puerto Rican singer Bobby Capo in 1952, “Piel Canela” (Cinnamon Skin) has been recorded by Nat King Cole, Jose Feliciano, Celia Cruz and countless others. “Let the infinite sky lose all of its star-shine / And the oceans wide lose all their immensity / But that gleam in your black eyes must always cheat time / As that cinnamon in your skin should always be / If the rainbow were to lose all of its beauty / And the flowers all of their perfume and color / Though sad, I would find each a minor tragedy / Compared to that of never being your lover / I care for you / So totally for you / And no one else but you.”9. LINDA RONSTADTPiel Canela

18Linda explains, “Eugene Rodriguez wrote this song about a migrant’s journey toward his dream. ‘Tomorrow, I go walking / There is noth-ing more for me here / That is why I am looking / For my future on the horizon.’ The rhythm is provided by the dancers’ feet.”“Voy Caminando” (I Go Walking) is from Loz Cenzontles’ 2009 album American Horizon. The song features David Hidalgo from Los Lobos on violin and blues/folk legend Taj Mahal on banjo. Lead vocals are provided by Hugo Arroyo, a San Pablo, California native who has been involved with Los Cenzontles since he was eight years old.10. LOS CENZONTLESVoy CaminandoChildren from Los Cenzontles Cultural Arts Academy performing a traditional son abajeñoPhotograph by Bill Steen from Feels Like Home: A Song For The Sonoran Borderlands (Heyday)

Vaqueros riding beside the Río Sonora near BanámichiPhotograph by Bill Steen from Feels Like Home: A Song For The Sonoran Borderlands (Heyday)

Credits Ry Cooder with Lalo Guerrero “Barrio Viejo” (Lalo Guerrero) from the album Chávez Ravine on Nonesuch Records ! Songs of Universal, Inc. / Songs of Universal Inc. OBO Barrio Libre Music " 2005 Rhino Entertainment Company, A Division of Warner Music Group. Linda Ronstadt “El Sueño” (Nicandro Castillo) from the album Mas Canciones on Iconic Artists Group ! Peer International Corp. " 1991 Iconic LR Masters LLC. Los Cenzontles “Palomas Que Andan Volando” (Donaciano Rodriguez) ! Peermusic III Ltd. " 2021 Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center. P. D . R o n s t a d t & T h e C o . “Canadian Moon” (Michael J. Ronstadt) ! Thun dering Rain Publishi ng (ASCAP) " 2022 P.D. Ronstadt & The Co. Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris “Across the Border” (Bruce Springsteen) from the album Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions on Iconic Artists Group ! Sony/ATV Pop Music Publishing OBO Eldridge Publishing Co. / Sony/ATV Pop Music Publishing " 1991 Iconic LR Masters LLC. Jackson Browne with Los Cenzontles “The Dreamer” (Jackson Browne, David Hidalgo, Eugene Rodriguez) on Inside Recordings ! Swallow Turn Music / Los Cenzontles Publishing " 2017 Inside Recordings. Los Cenzontles with David Hidalgo “Naninan Upirin” (Atilano López Patricio) from the album Songs of Wood & Steel ! Los Cenzontles Publishing " 2008 Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center. Linda Ronstadt with Dolly Parton “I Never Will Marry” (Traditional, Arranged by Linda Ronstadt) from the album Simple Dreams on Rhino Entertainment Company ! Normal Music " 2006 Rhino Entertainment Company, A Division of Warner Music Group. Linda Ronstadt “Piel Canela” (Bobby Capo) from the album Frenesí on Iconic Artists Group ! Edward B Marks Music Company " 1992 Iconic LR Masters LLC.Los Cenzontles “Voy Caminando” (Eugene Rodriguez) from the album American Horizon ! Los Cenzontles Publishing " 2009 Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center. Executive Producer: Dan Storper Song Selection: Linda Ronstadt & Dan Storper Liner Notes: Linda Ronstadt & Jacob Edgar Project Coordination: Guthrie StoltzfusDesign: Lisa Gonzalez Mastering: Lane Gibson Recording and Mastering, Charlotte, VTSpecial Thanks: Linda Ronstadt, Steve Wasserman (Heyday publisher),John Boylan (Linda’s manager), Lawrence Downes (Feels Like Home co-author), Bill Steen (photographer), Kalie Caetano and Janet Stark.A word about Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands by Linda Ronstadt and Lawrence Downes with photographs by Bill SteenFeels Like Home is published by Heyday, a nonprofit independent publisher in Berkeley, California. In her book, Linda Ronstadt evokes the magical panorama of the high desert and offers a personal tour built around music, meals and other memories of the place where she came of age. If her book were a radio signal, you might first pick it up on an Arizona highway, well south of Phoenix, coming into the glow of Ronstadt’s hometown of Tucson. It would be playing something old and Mexican, from a time when the border was a place not of peril but of possibility. Feels Like Home is available at fine bookstores, online or by visiting www.heydaybooks.com.DISCOVER THE WORLD WITH PUTUMAYO• Hear song samples from more than 75 albums.• Listen to the weekly Putumayo World Music Hour on demand and nd more than 100 radio stations that broadcast the show. • Listen to new playlists on Apple Music, Spotify and Pandora each week.• Watch global music videos.• View more than 30 multicultural books & activity sets for children.• Discover Putumayo world art & photography cards. andAlso check out the Putumayo pages onwww.p ut umayo.co m,