Another Linda Ronstadt doc is on the way. Following on the heels of 2019’s “Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice,” “Linda and The Mockingbirds” will focus on a particular chapter of the singer’s life. The project follows Ronstadt’s 2019 journey to Mexico with a group of young students. A press release announced that Shout! Studios and PCH Films will release “Linda and The Mockingbirds” digitally on October 20.
A grassroots org in California, The Mockingbirds, or Los Cenzontles, provides “the local community with a family-friendly setting for traditional arts education and cultural events,” the press release details. Ronstadt has been a patron of The Mockingbirds for 26 years. The doc “chronicles a road trip with Ronstadt, musician Jackson Browne, and a tour bus full of young singers, dancers, and instrumentalists to the small town of Banámichi in the Mexican state of Sonora, where Ronstadt’s grandfather grew up. There they meet up with their Mexican counterparts, the folkloric dance troupe Grupo de Danza Xunutzi, and put on soulful performances showcasing Mexican culture.”
“Because I was light-skinned and with a German surname, people didn’t suspect that I was Mexican. They’d make some kind of anti-Mexican remark… and I’d always get pretty hot about it,” Ronstadt says in a trailer for “Linda and The Mockingbirds.”
The film’s synopsis emphasizes that the doc also “takes on the subject of immigration. Through the personal stories of the Los Cenzontles instructors and students, the heartbreak of family separations, racism, and border politics are illustrated in emotional interviews.”
“You’re No Good,” “Blue Bayou,” and “When Will I Be Loved” are among Ronstadt’s biggest hits. She’s won 10 Grammy Awards.
Check out the trailer for “Linda and The Mockingbirds” below.
