CD Odyssey Disc 1328: Hurray for the Riff Raff

Since I don’t expect I’ll be writing a review tomorrow, let me wish you all an early Merry Christmas! I’m looking forward to a nice relaxing holiday after what has been a long, and at times stressful, 2019.

I’m also looking forward to ending my self-imposed exile from the record store. I try not to buy any new music immediately before Christmas so I can treat myself after, but it’s been two weeks of pure hell.

Disc 1328 is… The Navigator

Artist: Hurray for the Riff Raff

Year of Release: 2017

What’s up with the Cover? Our heroine chills out, French Existentialist style. Whenever I look at this picture I always think she’s wearing a beret, but it is just an outline of her head. It just looks like an outfit that should include a beret.

I imagine that the morning after this picture was taken Segarra road that bike down to the local café where she sat all morning writing poetry and watching pigeons chase each other about the plaza.

How I Came to Know It: I told that story back at Disc 1244, but the short version is my friend Randall brought one of the songs on this record (“Pa’lante”) to a music listening night. It was great, but I promptly forgot about it until Ethan Hawke pulled a copy of the record out of his bag on Amoeba Records’ Youtube show, “What’s In My Bag?” Together, Randall and Ethan convinced me to give Hurray for the Riff Raff a proper investigation.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Hurray for the Riff Raff records and they are both amazing. The other one (“Small Town Heroes”) is 5-star perfection and so narrowly beats out “The Navigator” for first place.

Ratings: 4 stars

“The Navigator” is a record where Hope and Struggle agree to shake hands and put aside their differences to make some great art. Those two have done it plenty of times before of course, but in the hands of gifted singer-songwriter Alynda Mariposa Segarra (aka Hurray for the Riff Raff) they do a better job of it than usual.

For this record, Segarra leaves the country charm of 2014’s “Small Town Heroes” mostly behind her, embracing a more urban, pop-oriented sound, accented with a healthy dollop of Latin rhythms. The new sound is the right fit for her subject matter, which includes the swirling chaos of bustling city life, and the widening gyre that storms inside the human heart trying to find its way through it.

“Living in the City” is an anthem for anyone who has ever lived in a city, but it had a special resonance for me, coming as I do from somewhere small and sleepy. Segarra’s love song to urban life captures the combination of community and isolation that comes from living shoulder to shoulder with a lot of other people who you don’t know all that well. Segarra finds a path of brassy bravado that walks the line between these two worlds, and ultimately bridges them:

“I got her a cane

and Big Danny is wasted

He said I'm the sweetest thing

that he's never tasted

Mariposa's singing love songs

All in her dark apartment

Fourteen floors a'birthin

And fourteen floors a'dying

Not sure who the cane is for, but I imagine it is some neighbour in need – maybe Mariposa when she’s not singing those love songs and needs to negotiate her way downstairs to pick up the mail.

As for Big Danny, I can see him crystal clear in my mind’s eye, an older dude making comments that border on inappropriate, but Segarra’s delivery makes it clear she takes no offence. It is fourteen floors of teeming humanity. It’s city life rich and varied; a little bit shared and a little bit distant, just the way we urbanites like it.

On “Hungry Ghost” you get the inner exploration of that hurricane (n.b. – I always think that first line of “Living in the City” is “hurricane” rather than “her a cane” which seems possible, given Segarra's often livin' in the city of New Orleans. Frankly I’m still not sure, and the internet was entirely unhelpful. But I digress...

Anyway, “Hungry Ghost” is the inner life amidst all that concrete:

“I've been a lonely girl…

But I'm ready for the world…

I've been a heart for hire…

And my love's a funeral pyre…”

Segarra’s vocals are vulnerable here, but she’s certain of purpose. She looks like she’s about five feet tall and 90 pounds but you get the impression you’d be safe walking the dark streets of either the Bronx or Bourbon Street with her at your side.

The album all comes together on “Pa’lante” which is Spanish for “forward!,” (if Google Translate is to be believed anyway). “Pa’lante” is two songs in one, the first half expressing the sentiment of just getting by, and the second translating that into a call to action. City life can wear you down, and an honourable life can be elusive, and hazy to define even when you find it. To which Segarra says, unequivocally, “go forward!” Stop worrying; we’ll get there.

While we’re getting there, it is nice to have a record as sublime as “the Navigator” to serve as our soundtrack. The city might have a heart of concrete, but what makes it beat are the hopes and dreams of the people that inhabit it.

Best tracks: Living in the City, Hungry Ghost, Nothings Gonna Change that Girl, Rican Beach, Pa’lante

CD Odyssey Disc 1244: Hurray for the Riff Raff

Welcome to the weekend, world! This next review is one of my best finds this year, although it took two people to get me there.

Disc 1244 is… Small Town Heroes

Artist: Hurray for the Riff Raff

Year of Release: 2014

What’s up with the Cover? Singer, writer and producer Alynda Lee Segarra takes a seat on an invisible chair located in the middle of Main Street, Small Town, USA circa 1950.

Ordinarily I’d be concerned for a young woman’s safety sitting in the middle of a street like that, but Segarra can take care of herself. She has also summoned some kind of protective circle festooned with the signs of the zodiac. Also circling her in a protective aura: a Puerto Rican flag, a yellow rose, a sun, a coin a hand and a bottle of tequila.

Most interesting is the symbol in the upper right – a circle with two arrows. This is hobo code for “hobos not welcome – get out fast.” Apparently Segarra used to ride the trains in hobo style, so this symbol would have come in pretty handy during that time of her life.

How I Came to Know It: I had thought I discovered Hurray for the Riff Raff through an episode of “What’s In My Bag?” starring Ethan Hawke. Hawke goes on about the band enthusiastically for some time (you can watch the Youtube clip here. The relevant section is 4:44 in but Ethan Hawke is so lovable and has such great musical taste that whole episode is worth your time.

However, as I was telling this story to my friend Randall, he reminded me that it was he who had brought a song to a music listening night from the band so Randall actually discovered them for me, then Ethan Hawke reminded me about them a month later. So it was Randall, and then Ethan. Maybe the three of us could all go get a beer and talk about music some time. Ethan – let me know when you’re available.

How It Stacks Up:  I have two Hurray for the Riff Raff albums and of the two, I have to put “Small Town Heroes” at #1.

Ratings:  5 stars

“Small Town Heroes” grew on me and grew on me fast. It only came into my collection a couple weeks ago but I spent most of the work week delaying writing this review, lingering on its multifaceted beauty.

The creative force behind Hurray for the Riff Raff is Alynda Lee Segarra, a New York born, New Orleans-based singer-songwriter who writes songs that remind you of a mix of Steve Earle, Gillian Welch, Hank Williams and Robert Johnson. Those are a lot of big shoes to fill but Segarra’s got the talent to manage it. She writes songs that will one day be classics in multiple genres, if there is any justice in the world.

It starts with Segarra’s vocals which have a country crooner purity, with a seasoning of bluesy grit that gives them emotional resonance. She is able to turn the grit on and off at will, giving the record considerable artistic range. “Blue Ridge Mountain” is old-time bluegrass, “The New SF Bay Blues” is first generation blues stripped down to just guitar and voice and “The Body Electric” is modern Americana, enhanced with violin and horn. The record is a love letter to everything that has come before. It could easily feel contrived, but the songs are so original and are performed with such gravitas that it just feels timeless.

The record features exceptional musicianship as well. The guitar work on every track is so great I had to check the liner notes to see who it was. As often as not, it is Segarra playing. She has a relaxed and easy hand that had me thinking of her previous life as a hobo, riding in a box car or strolling through corn fields. Fellow Riff Raffers and guitarists Sam Doores and A.P. Baer also deserve mention for their excellence.

Lyrically every song drew me in, whether she is lamenting gun violence (“The Body Electric”) or just pining for a lover (“The New SF Bay Blues”) she draws you in on a personal level, her words reaching through the speaker and putting their hand on your arm to get your full attention. On the title track Segarra tells the tragic story of a drug addict abandoned but not forgotten:

“Oh baby girl, where did you go

I threw you out where the cold wind blows

Are you in Vidalia with your no good mom

I just couldn’t watch you stick it in your arm.”

Segarra has a talent for wrapping tough and tender into a single concept, with lines like “a woman’s heart it’s made of solid rock” and “I tempted fate, and I acted smart/I grew some callous on my heart.” She brings her characters to life. Sometimes she makes you feel sorry for them, but even when down they never lack agency, even though it is sometimes employed against their own interests.

Usually I am excited to see what the Odyssey brings me next, but this time is different. As I wrote this I am listening to “Small Town Heroes” for a fifth time in a row all I want is have a sixth listen, and then a seventh. But the call of the CD sea is strong, and so I must reluctantly part from Hurray for the Riff Raff; I have a feeling I will be visiting with them often down the road.

Best tracks: They are all good