Linda Ronstadt will release a new memoir, Feels Like Home: A Song for the Sonora Borderlands, on October 4 that focuses on her family connections to the culture and music of the Sonoran Desert region of the American Southwest and Mexico.
The October/November issue of AARP The Magazine features an excerpt from the book, which was co-written by Ernesto Lechter, along with a brief interview with Ronstadt.
Linda grew up in Tucson, Arizona, where her family’s home sat on a 10-acre plot that used to be part of a cattle ranch.
“I felt very connected to both my grandparents,” Ronstadt tells the magazine. “We still lived like ranch owners, with horses and chickens. It was their way of life, and it became my way of life too.”
Regarding her attachment to the area, she writes in Feels Like Home, “Wherever I’ve lived, wherever I travel, my soul is always winging it down the road, south over the border, back to my land and my roots in Sonora. I feel the pull like a summons from my father’s parents and their parents and grandparents, from a chain of ancestors, most of whom I never knew.”
Linda also notes, “[M]y sense of connection to my ancestors is strengthened by my own vivid sensory memories of Sonoran things they also knew and loved, particularly those involving music and food.”
The book also features recipes from Ronstadt’s family; the AARP article includes a meatball recipe from Linda’s grandmother.
In conjunction with the book, a companion album that Ronstadt curated titled Feels Like Home: Songs from the Sonoran Borderlands — Linda Ronstadt’s Musical Odyssey will be released this Friday, September 30. For more details, visit Putamayo.com.
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