Where The Wind Calls Home

A self-described song-hunter,” the folklorist Alan Lomax traveled the Mississippi Delta in the 1930’s and 40s, armed with primitive recording equipment and a keen love of the Delta’s music heritage. Crisscrossing the towns and hamlets where the blues began, Lomax gave voice to such greats as Leadbelly, Fred MacDowell, Muddy Waters, and many others, all of whom made their debut recordings with him.

Born Lillie Mae Jones on May 19, 1929, the woman who became Betty Carter was an American jazz singer known best for her improvisational technique, scatting and other complex musical abilities that demonstrated her vocal talent and imaginative interpretation of lyrics and melodies. Vocalist Carmen McRae once remarked: "There's really only one jazz singer―only one: Betty Carter." Carter was born in Flint, Michigan, and grew up in Detroit, where her father, James Jones, was the musical director of a Detroit church and her mother, Bessie, was a housewife. As a child, Carter was raised to be extremely independent and not to expect nurturing from her family. Even 30 years after leaving home, Carter was still very aware of and affected by the home life she was raised in, and was quoted saying: “I have been far removed from my immediate family. There's been no real contact or phone calls home every week to find out how everybody is…As far as family is concerned, it's been a lonesome trek…It's probably just as much my fault as it is theirs, and I can't blame anybody for it. But there was…no real closeness, where the family urged me on, or said…'We're proud'…and all that. No, no…none of that happened.”

A 4 disc set by Mercury Records all jazz vocal classics with some outstanding vocalists. Sarah Vaughan, Dinah Washington, Patti Page, Helen Merrill, Shirley Horn, Chet Baker, Nina Simone, Louis Armstrong, Abbey Lincoln, Oscar Peterson, Ernestine Anderson, Thelma Grayson, Morgana King and a few others, all have more than a few numbers on the 4 discs, all accompanied by the big band orchestras that were popular back then, great horns, stand up bass. If you don't recognize more than a few of these songs, even done by others, you my friend have been living under a rock or perhaps just listening to rock. "Take the A Train', 'Satin Doll', 'I Get A Kick Out of You', 'Mame', 'Stardust', 'The Man I Love', 'Oh Lady Be Good', 'See See Ryder, 'Honeysuckle Rose', 'Love for Sale', 'Willow Weep for Me', "Ain't Misbehavin', 'Sweet Lorraine', 'Frankie & Johnny', 'Taking a Chance on Love', 'Sweet Georgia Brown', 'Unforgettable', 'Mack the Knife', just a few of the 100 vocal classics on these discs. Just listening to the lyrics to these songs is a gas, "Got me a big date waiting for my cat, putting his shine on so he can look dap" (from Doodlin' by Sarah Vaughan). Takes me to a time I will spend a few weeks in, when I perfect my time machine and get me some stylish clothes, and more than a few hats, to fit right in. The hoodies can stay home.

Rock and Roll Hall of Famer Linda Ronstadt takes readers on a journey to the place her soul calls home, the Sonoran Desert, in this candid new memoir.