Simple Dreams: A Musical Memoir

Linda Ronstadt was born in 1946 to a modest family outside Tucson. From an early age, she, her brother and sister began making their own music, eventually performing their own shows in the folk and Mexican traditions of the area. By the time Ronstadt was in community college, she realized the music scene in LA was where she wanted to be, just in time for the folk revival that was sweeping the nation. Despite some setbacks with her first band-the Stone Poneys-she quickly found her niche as a soloist with the new record label run by David Geffen. Soon she was touring with Neil Young, and soon after that was a major figure in her own right. By the time she retired in 2009, Linda Ronstadt had spent four decades as one of the most popular singers in the world. But throughout her career, as she writes, she stuck to one simple dream: to perform good music authentically. In her debut as a writer, she describes her journey with the same subtlety and gracefulness with which she has sung, so beautifully, longingly, and honestly.