Hinojosa: Not Just Any Sweetheart of the Rodeo

Tish Hinojosa has a honey of a smooth, country-croonin’ voice, and at McCabe’s on Friday, this sweet Texan indulged in homespun “cowboy romanticism” in such songs as “It’s the Way of Life in the Real West” and “Voice of the Big Guitar.” A real dude-ranch dream, right?

But Hinojosa isn’t just any old sweetheart of the radio. There is an unavoidable dollop of what some would consider political correctness in her music too, and her frequent bilingual excursions, celebrations of border crossings by the Latino hopeful, and between-song references to heroes like Jesse Jackson might land her in trouble in a few honky-tonks back home. There are more undercover illegal immigrants than little dogies being driven in lovely songs like “Border Trilogy,” from her “Homeland” album, which doesn’t just mix American country and Mexican music styles, but makes the real connection between them clear.

Anyone who might enjoy a less theatrical Linda Ronstadt or a folkier Rosie Flores would no doubt be delighted by her 3-to-1 ratio of English to Spanish songs: some traditional Mexican ballads, some honky-tonk, some pop. Hinojosa herself is a real-- como se dice en espanol? --border-crosser.