By: Emily R. Zarevich, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Burlington Local-News.ca
She collaborated with Neil Young and Dolly Parton. She helped found The Eagles. She starred in The Pirates of Penzance, a hit adaptation of a Gilbert and Sullivan comic opera. She dated Jim Carrey. According to American Songwriter Magazine, she sold over 100 million albums in the span of a fifty-year career spanning country, rock, Mexican folk, pop, and jazz. Linda Ronstadt is the woman who did and tried everything. How is one supposed to condense such an adventurous and eventful life into just two hours?
On Friday, January 16, 2026, at the Drury Lane Theatre, local singer Karen Coughlin and her accompanying band decided to emulate Ronstadt’s spirit and just try it, in a tender-hearted tribute show titled The Linda Ronstadt Show: Her Songs, Her Story.
If you’re younger and not part of the record album generation, and you don’t know who Linda Ronstadt is, the show is a romp nevertheless, and all the music is fresh and new. If you did grow up collecting records and you do know who Linda Ronstadt is, the show is both riveting and nostalgic. Karen Coughlin gets into character and fully assumes the role of Ronstadt in order to portray not just Ronstadt’s diverse vocal range but also the bubbly, quirky, and talkative personality that made the singer so universally liked by fans and colleagues alike back in her performing days.
Coughlin’s band was made up of locally sourced talent. Joining her on stage were Ed Mortenson on the drums, Bruce Tournay on the piano and vocals, Alex Harrison on the guitar, and Steve Skingley on the bass. The band came together to deliver such renowned Ronstadt hits as “When Will I Be Loved” and “You’re No Good,” songs that explore the emotional spectrum of romance and relationships. Ronstadt’s speciality was singing and producing songs that address the universal joys, anxieties, and disappointments surrounding love. Coughlin and the crew made it a point to put together a lineup that respectfully represents Ronstadt’s signature style.
The audience at Drury Lane was made up mostly of Burlington’s older folk, and they were well-pleased with the ensemble, as they remembered Ronstadt’s heyday fondly. In the darkness of the cabaret theatre, mouths sang along, feet tapped in time to the rhythm, and giddy voices whispered happy reminiscences of concerts and radio shows past between songs. All these reactions indicate that Coughlin and the band achieved their objective in recreating the atmosphere led by Ronstadt, in the days when her stage presence was unmatched, and her fanbase rivalled Taylor Swift’s.
The concert served as a fundraiser for a cause that is currently affecting the life of Linda Ronstadt, who turned 79 last year and has been officially retired from singing for years. In the year 2013, she received a diagnosis of Parkinson’s disease, which effectively brought her lengthy performing career to a halt. To honour her and her musical legacy, Drury Lane Theatre sold Linda Ronstadt merchandise post-show to raise money for Parkinson Canada. On the stage, for the last song, Karen Coughlin stepped away from the microphone and allowed the original Linda to sing, through the means of an old recording, symbolically giving her back her voice.
The second showing of The Linda Ronstadt Show: Her Songs, Her Story will be on January 17, 2026, at 8:00 p.m., before it moves on to The Regent Theatre in Oshawa on February 13, 2026. After its closing in Burlington, Drury Lane Theatre will prepare to stage its 45th Annual Music Hall, a guaranteed laugh fest for Burlington Broadway lovers, which will be performed in February as well.
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