"PD Ronstadt & the Company" features cousins Peter Dalton Ronstadt, Michael G. Ronstadt, Bobby Ronstadt and Katie (Ronstadt) Arellano, with Alex Flores on sax, Sam Eagon on bass and Brian Matyjasic on the drums.
"Never on Time" with lead vocalist Tim Ronstadt, Charlie Ronstadt on drums, Lupe (Ronstadt-Quiroz) Brown on vocals, guitarists Mike Hartshorn and Tyler Kinzer (married into the Ronstadt family) and Alex Salce, bass player Shawn Henderson and Tom Kinzer on drums.
Michael J. Ronstadt had an idea a decade ago to get all of the musical Ronstadt cousins, siblings, nieces and nephews together on a single stage for an evening of family music.
It never happened.
But some good ideas are worth hanging onto, waiting out the circumstances and conflicts until the timing is just right.
On Oct. 23, five ensembles of Ronstadts, four generations in all if you count the baby in Katie (Ronstadt) Arellanoβs belly, will fill the historic Fox Tucson Theatre stage for βThe Ronstadt Family in Concert: An evening celebrating a musical dynasty.β Linda Ronstadt, who lives in San Francisco and is battling Parkinsonβs Disease, will not be performing, although she will be part of the multimedia presented during the concert.
βI wanted to kind of emulate the show that he envisioned,β Bobby Ronstadt said of his late cousin, Michael, who died in 2016.
Goodman said that he and Bobby Ronstadt first started talking about a Ronstadt family concert not long after his organization had hosted a fundraising concert with the Phoenix flamenco ensemble Β‘FlaMΓXico! in 2019. About 700 people loosely filled the Fox that night, raising nearly $80,000 for Jewish Family & Childrenβs Services, which for the past 80 years has provided counseling services for victims of trauma and services for families and the elderly.
Goodman thought a Ronstadt family concert would be a great fundraising follow up, especially after his organization added refugee resettlement to its services. Working with the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and under the auspices of the U.S. State Department, JFCS to date has helped 55 refugees primarily from Afghanistan to resettle in Tucson and is now getting refugees from the Middle East, South America and Ukraine.
βWe are all about people being safe and helping people with challenges in life,β said Goodman, who became chairman in 2019.
His idea for the Ronstadt family was βto get however many groups there are of Ronstadts β¦ on one stage,β Goodman said.
He reached out to Bobby Ronstadt, who was on board from the start.
βThere has never been a showcase of all the family groups,β Ronstadt said, adding that the chance for all of the Ronstadts to share the historic Fox stage was exciting.
βThe Fox is a very special venue,β he said. βI find it exciting that we all get to play.β
Ronstadt reached out to his musical family members from both sides of the family β his uncle, Gilbert, who was Michael and Lindaβs father; and his father, Edward, who had a dozen children including Bobbyβs youngest brother, Tim, who will be part of the concert.
The Fox concert will feature five Ronstadt ensembles β the Kiko JΓ‘come Trio featuring Lindaβs older sister Susieβs son Kiko JΓ‘come; Lindaβs niece Mindy Ronstadt; the Ronstadt Brothers, Michaelβs sons Michael G. and Peter Dalton; PD Ronstadt & the Company, with the Ronstadt brothers, Bobby Ronstadt and Bobbyβs granddaughter Katie (Ronstadt) Arellano; and Never on Time, with Tim, his child Charlie Ronstadt, his niece Lupe (Ronstadt-Quiroz) Brown and two nephews by marriage, Mike Hartshorn and Tyler Kinzer.
βOur family tree is actually a forest,β Bobby Ronstadt joked, noting that there are 110 descendants of patriarch Federico Ronstadt, who came to Tucson when he was 14 in 1882.
Throughout the familyβs 140-year Tucson history, music has been an anchor. Family gatherings always included family members βtuning up the guitarsβ and singing songs mostly in Spanish. In βFeels Like Home: A Song for the Sonoran Borderlands,β Linda Ronstadtβs just-released memoir with co-writer Lawrence Downes, she recalled that her father would sing the lead, joined by her aunts and uncles, then the cousins and friends.
βThe music never felt like a performance, it simply ebbed and flowed with the rest of the conversation,β she wrote.
Until COVID, Bobby Ronstadtβs niece hosted βThird Sundayβ family potlucks that always ended with music.
βBy the end of the night we would be in the living room singing and βVolver, Volverβ would be the last song weβd sing,β he said.
The ranchera song has been a Ronstadt family tradition for decades and it will be the finale of the Oct. 23 concert. All five Ronstadt ensembles will share the stage along with family members called up from the audience to perform the song made famous by Vicente FernΓ‘ndez.
The Fox concert will be the first and probably only opportunity to see all of the Ronstadts on one stage, Bobby Ronstadt said.
βItβs really a once in a lifetime because I donβt think it would happen again,β he said. βItβs going to be the first and only concert like this.β
βThis event has turned into, in my mind, a Tucson historic event,β added Goodman. βYouβve got the Ronstadt family and their history since the 1880s in Tucson. And you have the JFCS, which has been here 80 years. And then you have the Fox Theatre, a historic theater.β
The show is at 4 p.m. at the Fox, 17 W. Congress St. Tickets are $46-$75 through foxtucson.com
Photos: Tucson-native, Grammy-winner Linda Ronstadt