Tucsonβs Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Linda Ronstadt, back in the spotlight partly because Selena Gomez is set to star in a biopic about her, sings the praises of her hometown in a New York Times article published Tuesday.
Her list of five favorite places to visit in Tucson contains no surprises, but she describes her connections to them in intimate and intricate details.
At Mission San Xavier del Bac, for instance, she recalls lighting candles with slide guitarist/songwriter Ry Cooder; and seeking respite, mid-recording-session, with fellow chanteuse Emmylou Harris, with whom she dueted on 1999βs βWestern Wall: The Tucson Sessions.β
That album was recorded at the Arizona Inn and Ronstadt tells the paper, βItβs my favorite hotel in the world.β
She cites the history, lore and landscaping, in addition to the hotel's Audubon Bar & Patio with its piano, βand the fireplace and sunlight that illuminate her favorite guest room.β
Ronstadt, 77, has long lived in the San Francisco Bay Area but says she stays at the inn when visiting.
She also lists artisanal baker Don Guerraβs Barrio Bread β βI always go there straight from the airportβ for her go-to order, the Cubano with sesame seeds; Mission Garden, the ode to more than 4,000 years of local agriculture, with Indigenous, Spanish, Chinese and Mexican plots; and the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, which she lauds for feeling βrefreshingly untamed,β the Times writes.
βYouβre not looking at some perfect geometry imposed on the desert,β Ronstadt says of the animalsβ habitats at the Desert Museum. βNature hates perfect geometry.β
Those are the top five attractions of βLinda Ronstadtβs Tucson,β as the article is titled.
But she spreads some love for other spots, too, in this city where she was born and raised β El Minuto Cafe, Hotel Congress, the Fox Tucson Theatre βwhere her father used to perform as Gil Ronstadt and His Star-Spangled Megaphone,β and the 1927 Temple of Music and Art,Β which she says is βjust magic.β
As for San Xavier Mission, she reveals, βIβm an atheist, but I baptized my children there,β as she feels magic behind its walls, too.
Sheβs βadjusted the patron saintβs prayer-charm-studded blanket βto make sure heβs comfortable.ββ
βAtheist or not, she finds something sacred there. To borrow from the Latin choral classic on her recently rereleased Christmas album: Life is full of βmysteriumβ,β writes the author of the Times article, Abbie Kozolchyk, who was also born and raised in Tucson.