Linda Ronstadt
By now, Linda Ronstadt has crossed enough musical borders to earn frequent-flyer miles. In recent years she has recorded big band music, traditional Mexican songs, Afro-Cuban material and a country CD. Now with Winter Light, she returns with her first pop album in four years. For the most pail, these are songs of the loved and the lonely, written by old reliables like Jimmy Webb and lesser knowns like Canada's Anna McGarrigle. If some of the material is familiar—Burt Bacharach's "Anyone Who Had a Heart" was first done by Dionne Warwick back in 1964—Ronstadt's soaring soprano cushioned in gentle orchestrations makes for a collection that is distinctively her own. Ronstadt is traveling in safe territory this time, and this recording will doubtless be relegated to Lite-FM radio playlists. But she is worth hearing, as always, and this new album only enhances her reputation as an accomplished interpreter of classic pop music. (Elektra)
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