Linda Ronstadt Connects with Her Familial Roots on Canciones de mi Padre: Mariachi- and Ranchera-Based Album Is in the Grammy Hall of Fame, Features Beautiful Production by Peter Asher and Rubén Fuentes
Experience the 1987 Cultural Milestone in Audiophile Sound: Strictly Limited to 3,000 Numbered Copies, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 33RPM LP Plays with Wondrous Detail, Clarity, and Warmth
Mitsubishi X-86 16-bit / 48kHz digital master to analog console to lathe
Linda Ronstadt brings it all back home on Canciones de mi Padre. Following on the heels of three consecutive records on which she interprets pop standards, Ronstadt’s first all-Spanish language album connects the iconic singer to her childhood in Arizona and her family’s roots in Sonora, Mexico. It quickly went double platinum, won a Grammy Award, and kicked off a series of Spanish-based records she’d release over the next five years. For these and many other reasons, the 1987 set — the biggest-selling non-English album in American history — became a cultural milestone and one of the most cherished works in her catalog. 
Sourced from the original analog master tapes, mastered by engineer Krieg Wunderlich (assisted by Colby Gustafson), strictly limited to 3,000 numbered copies, pressed at Fidelity Record Pressing in California, and housed in a Stoughton gatefold jacket, Mobile Fidelity’s 180g 33RPM LP of Canciones de mi Padre presents the Grammy Hall of Fame album in audiophile sound. The lively production, co-helmed by longtime Ronstadt collaborator Peter Asher, is revealed with extraordinary detail, depth, and clarity. The quiet surfaces and groove definition of the vinyl greatly improve upon the quality afforded by prior editions. 
Mirroring MoFi reissues of other Ronstadt albums, the vocals — often the most difficult instrument to faithfully portray — resonate with superb openness and naturalism. Ronstadt’s wide-spanning range and phrasing — vibrato, hiccups, shivers, dramatic holds, quick-fire passages — come across with rich tonality and image with you-are-there accuracy. Ditto the various harmony vocal parts and contributions of the nine-person chorus. Suffice it to say the string, brass, and woodwind instruments that give Canciones de mi Padre such liveliness and flair streak far, high, and wide across the soundstage.
For Ronstadt, this project was incredibly personal. Her authentic exploration of traditional mariachi fare stemmed from her heritage and youthful memories. Ronstadt grew up singing along to Mexican songs with her family as her dad spun records on the turntable on Sunday afternoons. As Ronstadt reflects in a short essay printed on the back cover: 
Side One:
Por Un Amor
Los Laureles
Hay Unos Ojos
La Cigarra
Tú, Sólo Tú
Y Ándale
Rogaciano El Huapanguero
Side Two:
La Charreada
Dos Arbolitos
Corrido De Cananea
La Barca De Guaymas
La Calandria
El Sol Que Tú Eres