Episode Transcript
[00:00:14] Speaker A: Welcome back to the Nathan's and Roncast. This is one of your hosts, Michael G. Ronstadt. And you're sitting outside in Cincinnati, Ohio in the crisp 30 degree weather on my porch.
We're back with Titchy no Hosa and part two of the interview, she talks about Germany. She recorded a record while living in Germany. She comes back to Texas and has to re establish all her connections. She talks about cowboy music, Elko, Nevada, we have some stuff in common there. And she goes deep into her song Canto de la Montana, which is a dream inspired song, kind of about her granddaughter's dream, I guess, and a flying horse, all that stuff. She goes deep into a song about a heart transplant and we talk about donating our brains, I don't know why. And then Lynn Tisha's husband chimes in a few times. So if you hear someone else, that's who that is.
Without any further delay, here is part two of our wonderful interview with Tish Hinojos.
[00:01:22] Speaker B: Germany was, you know, I never actually, yes, I lived there. That was my, you know, address. But I also, I never really left Austin either. I always kept an apartment in Austin and I'd go back and still do recordings in Austin at Marvin Dykhaus Studio and living in Hamburg as I was living from 2005 till 2013, just playing locally, you know, I used to tour and play there, but then once I was actually living there, I got to know a lot of local musicians and you know, some of them I became very close with and I recorded on some of their records. And my friend Mo Jacz from Berlin produced my 2012 record called after the Fair. I was excited about that. I was ready to try something new and different with somebody new, not being Marvin and me in the studio. Even though Marvin did fly out and played some parts on the record. But, you know, he was not the producer. So it was really interesting hearing the perspective of how I was produced by a German producer, you know, in Germany. It was a very fun experience and I love that record. It didn't, it just made a few waves over here, but you know, I still love it and it's, it's different, it's different than my other records, you know. But yeah, coming back when I left Germany, it was a whole different time. For one thing, I'd been not touring very much in the US or even in Texas. So I had to kind of start, take a few steps back and start over again. Getting out there and just playing some local gigs and kind of reintroducing myself to the music community and all that kind of stuff. And it was a transition for sure, you know, because I had never really completed what, you know, musically connecting or doing music really great in Germany, then coming back to Austin and then having been missed for like almost 10 years. And so I had to kind of start rebuilding in Austin again. So I was like, ah, you know, what did I do? But I'll have to say I did love my German years because just on a. On a personal level of getting to actually live in Europe and learning the ways of European culture, just the way they get around going to language school, learning some German and getting to be in my neighborhood and being a local, you know, going and shopping at my little grocery store down the street and all that kind of stuff. And actually, for me, it was also a big kick. Cause I lived right in the old neighborhood where the Beatles had developed all their music. It's called St. Pauli, the Reeperbahn and the red light district. That's where all the ships are and the harbor and all that. So it was just really cool, always walking those streets there. And, oh, there's actually some of the clubs are still there and just going. Having a drink at one of their old favorite haunts. Like, I'm going, wow, this is where Paul and John sat.
This is so cool. And I made some wonderful friends and wonderful musician friends while I lived there. But it was different. It was wonderful getting to know new musicians and new culture and all that. But I'm very comfortably back in. In Texas and now in Arizona, too. So now I. I'm. Now I can be closer to my Tucson musician family and friends.
[00:04:02] Speaker C: That's wonderful. Yeah.
[00:04:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:03] Speaker C: You know, I was curious. Two of the other songs that you shared with us, Wild Wild west and then Canto de la Montana, they're so descriptive, beautifully descriptive of the open skies of the west and just beautiful landscapes that I relate to fully because I was born in Tucson and, you know, I miss mountains and rattlesnakes. I live in Cincinnati, Ohio.
[00:04:23] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:04:24] Speaker C: But, yeah, I miss thorns, cacti, scorpions. Scorpions, rattlesnakes, everything. Mountain lions. All those things that could hurt you. And I. I miss seeing open skies. You only see it in October out here, the big skies. I didn't understand some terms about, like, October skies or, you know, or when the. When the clouds are just extra beautiful. It's always beautiful in the west, so of course you'd write beautiful imagery. So I was curious, you know, however you want to connect us. I wanted to talk a little bit About Wild, Wild west, because that's all in English and Canto de la Montana is in Spanish. And we'd love to hear a little bit about what each song describes and what you're trying to talk about.
[00:05:03] Speaker B: Yeah, that's good, Michael. Thanks. Well, my connection to Western and country. Well, I say Western music, cowboy music started with my Taos days. Because, first of all, I got signed. Michael Martin Murphy was the big star living in Taos. And so certainly through my musician friends and stuff, I got connected with him, too, and we got along well. He hired me to be his backup singer, and I went on the road with him some and went to Nashville. He's the one that introduced me to all these people in Nashville. So he's really big into the Western scene, cowboys and cowboy music, which is really strictly what he's doing now for the last, like, 20 years or so. But my cowboy friends that I got to know from New Mexico were the ones that inspired some of my early cowboy songs. Like, in the real West, Philmont is the big Boy Scout ranch out there in New Mexico in Cimarron. And a lot of the cowboys from there there would come in to dance at the honky tonks and stuff in Taos. And that's where I got to know these real. The real live, working cowboys from the Philmont Ranch. And anyway, so it was through that that I really started seeing through the eyes of loving and understanding cowboy music. And so over the years, I think it's. It's been that I started getting hired or getting booked, I guess, to play at the big Western music conferences and all that kind of stuff. They call it cowboy music festivals and all that and. Yeah. Cause on my record, one of my friends from Taos wrote a beautiful song called the Voice of the Big Guitar. And that's definitely like, beautiful, beautiful cowboy song. And I think that's kind of what connected me to the whole cowboy culture, too. So the west, to me has. You know, whether I've liked it or not, it's just always drawn me. You know, San Antonio is not west. San Antonio is a. You know, it's a city. You know, it's got Mexico, Mexican influence a lot. And of course, cowboy culture, too, with the rodeo and all that. But to me, you know, my real west was really just out west, like New Mexico, Arizona, the big beautiful Western states, Montana and Utah and Idaho and all that. And, you know, getting to travel so much as I did throughout my career, just anytime, just driving across those big plains and the huge mountains, the Tetons and all that stuff. It's like, wow, we have an amazing western, you know, western country out here. So, yes, that remains. And then my Spanish music that I've put in boxes, my two Spanish records, Aquela Noche from 92 or 91, something like that. And that was a very spontaneous record. It's only my guitar player, Marvin, our percussion player Arturo Garza, and me in a little club in Austin, and people still buy that record a lot. It's a very acoustic, kind of raw sounding record. And then later, I actually did a studio record for Rounder called Frontejas, taking the word frontera and Tejas. And I did a bunch of, like, polkas and traditional songs and I wrote a few songs. And that's where all the accordionists in Texas came and played on that particular record. Santiago Jimenez Flaco had already played on some of my records before that. And then I got to know, like, six more amazing accordionists from Texas. So it's a very accordion driven record. And I love it. I still love it. Yeah. So taking my course through, you know, I'd like to do another all Spanish record. That's maybe my next thing. Because I've written several songs in the last couple of years that haven't really fit into, like, this record that I just put out. I'm thinking a Spanish record and maybe, Michael, maybe we can make one.
[00:08:17] Speaker C: That would be an honor. I would love that.
[00:08:18] Speaker B: Wouldn't it be cool? Wouldn't it be cool?
[00:08:20] Speaker D: Yeah.
[00:08:21] Speaker B: You guys harmonize with me so well. And your Spanish is so good that, you know, it's like. That could be really beautiful.
[00:08:26] Speaker C: Okay.
[00:08:27] Speaker B: Kind of cowboy. Cowboy and Mexican, you know?
[00:08:30] Speaker C: Yes. Oh.
[00:08:31] Speaker B: So. So anyway, that's. I'm hoping that's going to be, like, around the bend after this, after this record, but we can talk about that in the future.
[00:08:38] Speaker C: Definitely.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:08:39] Speaker C: It's. Well, you know, growing up with Sons of the Pioneers in Tucson, I remember seeing them when I was really little. They played a small club out by three points or something like that. I can't remember. It was some of the original lineup. And they do everything from stuff in Spanish to the typical cowboy music that my dad would sing to. I think they did some jazz. You know, it was. It was amazing to watch. They just played music.
[00:09:00] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:09:01] Speaker C: The cowboy culture, A la Tuxonensis, you know, like, it would be, you know, like that culture always had a blend. And actually Ronstadt Generations. We were lucky enough to be the main headliner for the Southwestern component for the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada. One year.
[00:09:17] Speaker B: Oh, you were. I played Elko. I love Elko, but I'm so glad that y'all have done that. That's wonderful.
[00:09:23] Speaker C: 2012, they treated us like royalty. I've never felt famous except for that one week in my life. When you pass people's shops and they go, come stop in shop. I want to show you what I have here. Like, we. It was. We were so noticeable. We led a Ronstadt cooking class. We did everything. I mean, that's cute. We were asked to sign things at a bakery at seven in the morning. Like, it was ridiculous. I think that's all I wanted to feel of fame. But it was amazing. Overused word, amazing. But it really, truly was outstanding and an honor.
[00:09:55] Speaker B: It is.
[00:09:55] Speaker C: You know, they don't really feature southwestern components as often, and so it was kind of cool that that year they brought us in. So kind of special, you know, so. So those festivals are unique. You know, they're.
[00:10:06] Speaker B: They do. Elko is wonderful. And you know, there's other ones, but that's the. That's kind of like the biggie.
[00:10:12] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a. We got a taste of it. Yeah.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:10:15] Speaker C: But, you know, I think the cross cultural things. My dad, Michael J. Ronstadt, you know, passed away 2016, and you were good friends with my dad, but I don't know if you ever knew Buckshot Dot.
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Is she Tucson?
[00:10:26] Speaker C: Tucson. Benson area cowboy poet. And my dad wrote a song called North Wind that Aaron and I put on our 2017 release, Hang on for the Ride. And the song North Wind, we. We put as, I think the first. I can't remember what track. It doesn't matter. But basically that song was one that my dad wasn't sure people liked, but Buckshot Dot liked it enough to put it in her book about cowboy poets.
[00:10:49] Speaker B: Wow.
[00:10:49] Speaker C: So my dad is credited as a cowboy poet with his lyrics in one of her books. And you can always find it, I'm sure, if it's still around, at the Singing Wind bookstore in Benson. That was a really cool bookstore that we used to play music at.
[00:11:01] Speaker B: So I've heard about it.
[00:11:02] Speaker C: You know, my dad wasn't a working cowboy unless you count doing water wells and installing them in the desert. A part of cowboy fodder. He was very good at that. He even had, you know, the Motorola brick phone on his belt early on, you know, because he's like, you know, what if I'm going to get stranded in the desert? But he, he knew about, you know, all the things that cowboy culture knew about because he grew up in Tucson when it was a little more wild and woolly and. Oh, yeah, and he was the baby of the family, but, you know, he truly was that. You know, I would never call me and Petey fully. Like, we didn't grow up with that fully. Right. You know, we grew up with it, but not in the way my dad did.
[00:11:38] Speaker B: Exactly.
[00:11:39] Speaker C: So it was an honor to be there. And I think that's the blueprint that gives me the sense that, like, just mix it all up, right? You know, for career good or worse, you know, whatever it might be. I feel like, do what your heart wants. And I want to ask you about Canto de la Montana first. It's kind of about a dream, and I loved the imagery that I was hearing, so I would love to hear you tell everyone about it, because we're going to share it with some folks.
[00:12:03] Speaker B: So, you know. You know what? Maybe I was influenced by my granddaughter. My granddaughter's 5 years old, and she is the wildest, craziest little dancer and fantasy girl. She makes up stories, you know, like crazy. And I think maybe I was inspired by her because it is kind of a. It's kind of a. Kind of a wild dream about, you know, my flying horse and I fly through the stars, and my dress is made of silver. My hacienda is made of gold. You know, my boots are made of the beautiful colors of the ocean. And then I remember all these memories of the beauty of my. Whoever my person is that I'm talking about, you know, me being in love and listening to the laughter and, you know, it's kind of a love song about a ranch and the beauty. And then. And then I'm not sure exactly why I made the third verse about now I'm flying out here on my horse without you. It made poetic sense in Spanish.
Well, because all stories have to come to an end, I guess, is what I meant. You know, this fantasy is over now. I'm just flying on my little winged horse out here by myself. But I remember all these tales and the stories and the beauty of la hacienda and your love and, you know, how you loved me. That kind of thing. It's kind of reminiscing about a love story and using my granddaughter's fantasy.
[00:13:16] Speaker D: That's beautiful. By the way, one of the tracks that I really loved off your new album was Colton's Perfect Heart.
[00:13:22] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.
[00:13:23] Speaker D: Where did the idea. So it's a heart transplant song, right?
[00:13:26] Speaker B: Yes. It's an amazing story, and it's a true one. I was recovering from hand surgery. So I was sitting on the couch kind of. I just come back from the hospital, and I was a little bit dopey. And so I'm sitting there and I'm kind of channel surfing, and I just turn on one of channels that's doing one of these life interest stories or, you know, like, you know, one of those cheerful stories on a news thing, like, oh, look at this story that happened. And it was about this. Yes. A family who lost a 10. I guess a kid, a 10 year old, 12 year old, 15 year old, we don't know, and they donated his heart. And then later, at some. At some family event, this guy shows up. The mom's sister arranged for it for this guy to come, and he brought a stethoscope, and he had col. He had Colton's heart. And he had tried. They had tried several hearts before that didn't take. But then Colton's really was the one that worked. So it happened in Willis, Texas, down outside of Houston. Interesting story. And the story just stole my heart, first of all. And then I immediately just started writing down the verses for it There in the hospital. No, I wasn't in the hospital. I was at home. It was just day surgery.
[00:14:27] Speaker D: Okay.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: Yeah. So I was at home, and I was sitting on the couch being a potato and, you know. Yeah. So I just took my pen out and started writing this thing. And. Yeah, so it's gonna. I think the message in it is really good. I don't know how often people forget or don't remember or, you know, the importance of filling out the thing on your driver's license about organ donation. So, you know, when I sing that song in the public, somebody always comes and talks to me about a story that they may have about something like that. Now there's a different thing, which I just. I learned from an audience member somewhere, that you can donate your brain. Who wants it, really? But it takes more paperwork than just.
Heaven knows, maybe I shouldn't donate mine. That could be scary that it takes more paperwork. So you can't just automatically donate your brain. So you have to. If you want to donate your brain, you have to actually go to the. Whatever donation. Whatever it's called.
[00:15:23] Speaker C: My jaws. My jaws open about that one. I'm sorry, I'm like, what?
[00:15:28] Speaker D: There's a lot on the album about. It's looking back. And even that track is a little bit, you know, end of one journey, beginning of another. Was that a conscious theme for this.
[00:15:38] Speaker B: Record about, like, rejourneying? You mean, like restarting Yeah, I mean.
[00:15:42] Speaker D: There'S a certain nostalgia of your career and of the landscape.
[00:15:46] Speaker B: Well, yeah, you're kind of right about that. And even in a guitar and a pen, I think the nostalgia is kind of there, like, because, I mean, I can't. I'm not going to live another 30 or 40 years. So I know that, you know, it's like, at what point am I going to really slow down? And I mean, yes, in some ways I can say, yeah, all the best years are behind me, but, you know, not necessarily true, because I still go on the road and have new adventures and meet new people and have amazing times. But, yes, it's not. It's not at the level or at the, you know, volume of what it used to be in past decades, but I think even in a guitar and a pen, I do it all again. Well, to a certain degree, I don't know that I want to do the whole thing all over again, but, yeah, certainly just, you know, in some ways, you just don't want for it to end, because even just remembering some of the funniest things and some of the art, you know, y'all know how it is. You have your road family, and then you have your home family, you know, and. And, you know, you can't ever, like, you know, you. You just want to keep reliving all those hilarious and funny stupid things that happen with. With your road guys and your family. It's like, well, we're probably not going to do that a whole lot more, you know, like, gonna do maybe another tour in Europe this coming year or, you know, maybe even into 26. But Marvin and I might probably go and maybe take our keyboard player Chip. You know, I'm approaching 70 here, and, you know, I just don't have the energy that I had when I was in my 30s. So if I go again, if and when. And I'm saying when, too, that touring, you know, we're gonna do a little more cushy, comfy touring, you know, we're not gonna.
[00:17:11] Speaker C: No concrete slab and roof for you.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: Yeah, we're not gonna sleep. We're not gonna sleep backstage in some ratty old couch anymore, you know? Yeah. You know, the clubs can, you know, whatever. Whatever clubs. But, yeah, we're planning for a little softer, softer travel. So the difference is that, you know, as we get older, you demand a little more comfort.
[00:17:39] Speaker A: Thank you for that wonderful interview, Tish. Now we want to share her song canto de la Montana from her newest album with a guitar and a pen.
[00:19:16] Speaker E: S.A.
[00:21:13] Speaker B: Davis.
[00:21:36] Speaker A: What a wonderful song that is. I'm feeling lucky today and very generous. So let's give you one extra song from the same album. This song is called Wild Wild West.
[00:21:58] Speaker E: Mile upon mile we travel the plains Stopping for water then riding again Searching the prairie for what may remain of the wild wild West Endless grasslands dance in the wind Big sky, Montana so true Wondering how it was way back when Wondering was all they could do Blessed open country Rivers and trees Tall purple mountains that make you believe God must be smiling to have made all these in the wild wild west Deserts and canyons and bright starry nights People who live on this land Tell their stories and legends alike each one a part of the plan Blessed open country Rivers and trees Purple mountains that make you believe God must be smiling to have made all these in the wild wild west in the wild wild west.
[00:24:30] Speaker D: This has been the second and concluding episode of our interview with Tish. Thank you to Tish for taking the time to speak with us. Come on back next week as we take a different look at the craft of songwriting and the musicianship behind the songs we love. I'm Aaron Nathans. Talk with you soon.
[00:24:45] Speaker C: Peace.
