Act2PV Puerto Vallarta Linda Ronstadt

Brenda renders her own interpretation of fondly well-known tunes made popular by Linda Ronstadt. That singer won eleven Grammys, three American Music Awards, two Academy of Country Music Awards and an Emmy Award, underlining the diverse love of music by this superstar. Brenda is a classically trained singer and pianist who has headlined Mexican venues. She is a terrific singer exuding a friendly camaraderie with the audience.

Gavino appeared on stage in glorious sparkily rhinestone spandex, and started the show with the 1967 chart topper, ‘Different Drum’ by The Stone Poneys, which served as Linda Ronstadt’s debut. Fernando Uribe twinkled on the keyboard accompanying Brenda with great talent. Her journey led into the composition, ‘Poor, Poor, Pitiful Me.’ The crowd swayed to the beat enjoying the fond memories of days gone past.

The pace slowed for ‘It Doesn’t Matter Anymore’, a beautiful composition dripping with sadness. She bounced back with the peppy and catchy ‘It’s So Easy’ […to fall in love. Here I go breaking all the rules]. Then she possessed ‘When Will I Be Loved’ [I’ve been put down. I’ve been pushed ’round]. Both these tunes were plaintive and Brenda’s voice reflected the sad anguish of desperately seeking love.

Brenda introduced the next number as her favorite of Linda’s and sang a gorgeous ‘Long, Long Time,’ a classic song with a critical love of the music and vocals. Stunning. Linda loved to cover many genres dipping into blues, jazz and R&B. Motown was within her reach and Brenda saluted this musical area with ‘Heatwave,’ which sent the crowd into a body-moving response to the voice, lyrics and strong beat in her background. She said she wished to break this string of sadness and spout out some joy, so she sang Smokey Robinson’s ‘Ooo Baby Baby,’ touching one’s heartstrings smoothly and sweetly.

For the second act, Brenda entered dressed traditionally Mexican, with a simple red flower adorning her hair. Linda is Latin on her father’s side of the family and Brenda reminisces about the family singing together including songs Ronstadt’s father sang around the house in Tucson, Arizona when she learned many of the standard Mexican tunes [some brought from Sonora, Mexico]. Linda learned from her grandfather, aunt and father world-class traditional Mexican folk songs. Brenda was born and raised in Jalisco, so her music arises from slightly different neighboring roots.

Even though not deemed a possible commercial success by the record company, Linda insisted on presenting native music in Spanish to the world. In 1987, she recorded ‘Canciones de Mi Padre’ [Songs of My Father] which included many of these tunes mixing Mariachi, Ranchera and Charro. The release sold more CDs in a foreign language than any other ever released in the USA. A portion of her show honors her background and her father who taught and guided her from an early age. She absorbed the mostly sad lyrics and sweet loving melodies. Brenda compared Latin music to darkness with some bright colors of pride and hope, so she chose a black dress embroidered with colorful small flowers.

Linda followed this smash top-seller with ‘Mas Canciones’ in 1991. Both albums took the entire world by storm and spread interest in Mexican music. She sang numbers in Spanish from both albums and conducted a grand tour with famous Mariachi across the United States. Brenda appeared in a casual outfit mirroring Linda’s look. One song was ‘Tu Solo Tu’ [You, only you], also a smash hit for Selena. ‘La Cigarra’ [The Cicada] is a well-known traditional song with Brenda singing higher and higher notes, exhibiting her wide vocal range. Although Linda lost her voice to illness, her outstanding music remains crossing generations of musical tastes.

She continued the pop hits with The Eagles’ ‘Desperado’ [Why don’t you come to your senses?]. This tune has a Latin edge to it that fits Brenda’s delivery entirely. ‘Blue Bayou’ is a soft perfect song for Brenda, seated at the big red piano, to include in her song list becoming her signature entry which she absorbs and then emits as emotional longing. The audience loved the presentation and gave her the top response of the evening. She soared to the farthest heights with clarity and precision. She delivered ‘Crazy’, written by Willie Nelson and made into an all-star classic by Patsy Cline. She has the fine ability to reach high notes and hold and swirl.

Then she bounced back with a finale of the declaration ‘You’re No Good’. But cries of ‘Otra!’ resounded through the room and she admitted that she and Fernando had not prepared an encore but would improvise for the crowd’s pleasure. She said she had a lovely song for the attendees, not a Linda song, but one thought to be beautiful. From ‘Grease’, she gave a marvelously touching ‘Hopelessly Devoted To You’.