Elizabeth Ward Land: The Songs of Linda Ronstadt

The evenings performance is based on a new album from Broadway vocalist Elizabeth Ward Land - Still Within the Sound of My Voice: The Songs of Linda Ronstadt - which has been released on CD and digital. Touching on genres including rock, country, folk, big band and mariachi, Elizabeth Ward Land finds her perfect vocal match in this salute to the great Linda Ronstadt. The concert version we are bringing to The Mansion was honored with the 2020 Bistro Award for "Outstanding Tribute Show

On Still Within the Sound of My Voice: The Songs of Linda Ronstadt, Elizabeth uses her sterling voice and creative arrangements to explore songs from each genre of Ronstadt's storied career, winding from effervescent pop ("Heat Wave") and driving rock ("You're No Good") to sophisticated standards ("Falling in Love Again") and Latin classics ("Frenesí"). Tracing her own life through the songs from Ronstadt's vast catalogue, the album lets Elizabeth interpret works from some of our country's greatest songwriting legends, including Dolly Parton ("Pain of Loving You"), Jimmy Webb ("Still Within the Sound of My Voice"), and Anna McGarrigle ("Heart Like a Wheel").

Still Within the Sound of My Voice began as a creative challenge. "I wanted to tell the stories of my life using the music of one of my favorite singers," says Elizabeth. "When I first began exploring this project, trying to decide which singer to choose, I thought about all the genres of music I loved to sing: rock and roll, country, folk, Broadway, the Great American Songbook. Then I listed the singers that I loved that shined in each category. The one vocalist that kept showing up in every single genre was Linda Ronstadt. As I explored her remarkable career and life, I realized how much we had in common. Then the show and its narrative began to unfold."

"Like Linda, I absolutely love to sing harmony," says Elizabeth. "So we made sure to feature this throughout the concert. 

"As the show grew and changed, and took off on a life of its own," she explains, "I knew I wanted to go into the studio to record it. In the show, I talk about Linda Ronstadt and how her diagnosis of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy has taken her singing voice from her, and what the loss of her voice must feel like. I think about her every single day when I go to sing, when my voice is miraculously still there. How would I cope, if I lost the sound of my voice? At my age, I don't take this for granted. So, I took the plunge and assembled the whole original gang at Michael Croiter's Yellow Sound Lab in December 2021, and, over the course of a few days, we managed to get all the material recorded. I am so happy that we did!"

This will be an evening you will certainly never forget!