Linda Ronstadt

Singer Linda Ronstadt has canceled tour dates for the rest of the year to recover from surgery she had this week, her agent said. Ronstadt's agent, Shelly Schultz, would not provide details on the surgery the 60-year-old singer underwent Tuesday in Tucson, but said it wasn't cancer. "It wasn't an emergency, but it came about rather quickly, so she decided to do it sooner rather than later," Schultz said. "It's surgery, it's completed, and she's fine."

The quick assumption about this collaboration is that Ronstadt teamed up with Cajun music historian and singer Ann Savoy for an exploration of the music of Southwest Louisiana. But though there are Creole and Cajun touches on this album (in stores today), for the most part the women immerse themselves in the folk music of other regions, from the Kentucky bluegrass of Bill Monroe to the Celtic balladry of Richard Thompson.

Singer Linda Ronstadt, bundled up in layers of clothing with a fuchsia rebozo wrapped around her neck, immediately apologized for her "annual Christmas cold" after taking the stage Wednesday at the Orange County Performing Arts Center as headliner for "Fiesta Navidad." "So if you hear some very strange notes, don't be surprised," warned Ronstadt, who was about to tackle the daunting vocal challenges of the Mexican mariachi music she has embraced as part of her family heritage.

Linda RONSTADT mentions a movie and its director during her performance, the Vegas crowd boos, throws drinks and defaces posters, and it is the artist who is escorted off the premises ["Ronstadt Causes Ruckus in Vegas," July 20]. Glad to see that free speech is appreciated and valued in Sin City. John Zavesky Riverside This is not a free speech issue! Ronstadt is free to make political speeches when she is not being paid to sing. What if airline pilots were to include personal political speeches during their in-air announcements?

Three days after Linda Ronstadt was booed in Las Vegas for putting politics in her songbook, she was cheered in Los Angeles for keeping on message. Ronstadt sang to a full-house Universal Amphitheatre on Tuesday night, and the crowd reserved its longest and loudest ovation for her endorsement of filmmaker-provocateur Michael Moore and his documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11." Before closing her show with the song "Desperado," Ronstadt was handed a bouquet of flowers.

Three days after the dust-up in the desert, Linda Ronstadt said she had no regrets about using her concert microphone to amplify the politics of filmmaker Michael Moore and his big-screen polemic "Fahrenheit 9/11." "I think it was a modest thing I did," the 58-year-old singer said Tuesday as she reflected on a Saturday night show at the Aladdin Casino and Resort in Las Vegas that ended with a portion of the audience reacting angrily to her comments.

Linda Ronstadt not only got booed, she also got the boot after lauding filmmaker Michael Moore and his "Fahrenheit 9/11" during a performance at the Aladdin hotel-casino in Las Vegas. Before singing "Desperado" for an encore Saturday night, the 58-year-old singer called Moore a "great American patriot" and "someone who is spreading the truth." She also encouraged everybody to see the documentary about President Bush.

Southern California ushered in the year 2000 with a series of New Year's Eve concerts that reflected the region's profound influence on pop music through the past four decades. From Brian Wilson playing in Redondo Beach and Los Lobos serenading Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles to the Red Hot Chili Peppers moshing at the Forum and the Eagles performing for a well-heeled crowd in L.A.'s newest arena, the local shows were a musical map of local history.

Producer John Boylan's missive concerning the virtues of Linda Ronstadt while slamming Van Halen as a "band who influenced nobody" is laughably wrongheaded (Letters, Sept. 5). Ronstadt is a wonderful country and country rock singer, but anybody remember the awful "Mad Love" album, where she tried to hop on the new wave bandwagon? That record sounded like a suburban housewife trying to be hip by affecting a punk sound and was largely laughed at by the local punk community. However, Eddie Van Halen didn't influence or impress anybody but thousands of guitarists all over the world.