00-hurray_for_the_riff_raff-small_town_heroes-2014-erp.nfo
Artist | Hurray For The Riff Raff
Title | Small Town Heroes
Genre | Folk/Rock Format | Album
Source | CDDA Time | 44:03
Label | ATO Records Store | 2014
Catalog | AT00212 Rip | 2015
Bitrate | 210 kbps Size | 69.41 MB
Freq | 44.1 kHz Encoder | Lame 3.98.4
01. Blue Ridge Mountain 2:33
02. Crash On The Highway 2:45
03. Good Time Blues (An Outlaw's Lament) 5:17
04. End Of The Line 3:38
05. The New SF Bay Blues 4:01
06. The Body Electric 2:49
07. No One Else 3:17
08. St. Roch Blues 5:09
09. Levon's Dream 3:50
10. I Know It's Wrong (But That's Alright) 2:58
11. Small Town Heroes 4:28
12. Forever Is Just A Day 3:18
New Orleans-based indie folk outfit Hurray For The Riff Raff were
formed by singer/songwriter/banjo player Alynda Lee, a Bronx-raised
Puerto Rican troubadour who left home at 17 to ride the rails and
eventually landed in the Big Easy. After honing her skills on the
washboard with a gang of train-yard musicians called the Dead Man's
Street Orchestra, she picked up the banjo that a close friend had
given her and began writing her own songs. While Lee,
drummer/violinist Yosi Pearlstein, and bass player David Maclay
served as the foundation for Hurray For The Riff Raff's signature
blend of folk-blues and Southern gothic Americana, the trio was
often rounded out by a rotating cast of accordion, guitar, organ,
and musical saw players. The band self-released its first two
full-lengths, 2008's "It Don't Mean I Don't Love You" and 2010's
"Young Blood Blues". An eponymously titled third full-length arrived
in 2011 on the Loose Music label. "Look Out Mama" arrived in 2012,
followed by a move to ATO Records in 2014 for "Small Town Heroes"..
On the title cut of "Small Town Heroes", Alynda Lee Segarra, the
mastermind (and sometimes sole member) behind ramshackle New
Orleans-based folk ensemble Hurray For The Riff Raff, wrestles with
the fallout of a relationship gone sour over a single finger-picked
guitar paired with the slow, distant freight train hum of a Hammond
B-3, and reaches a simple, well-weathered conclusion; 'I tempted
fate, and I acted smart/I grew some callous on my heart'. Segarra's
take on the Big Easy, and dusty, boxcar Americana in general, is
hardly groundbreaking, but her sonorous and soulful voice, and her
ability to weave a real sense of place and emotional authenticity
into well-worn folk motifs make for a compelling listen, especially
when she peppers the familiar with a pinch or two of subversion.
Both "Crash On The Highway" and "The Body Electric" are built upon a
foundation of tumbleweed-strewn, dust bowl fatalism, but the former
turns tragedy into amusing tour diary fodder ('We can't make it to
our gig on time'), and the latter offers a up a smart, feminist take
on the traditional murder ballad ('Like an old sad song, you heard
it all before/Deliah's gone but I'm settling the score'). Throughout
it all Segarra struts her stuff without the slightest bit of
arrogance (most of the arrangements are spare, but never willfully
so), offering up a confident, yet ultimately amiable set of
millennial-informed, urban crafted, Woody Guthrie-inspired,
contemporary hobo-folk anthems that play fast and loose with genre
tropes without losing the essence that makes them universal.
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