RIYL: Kathleen Edwards, Emmylou Harris, Patty Griffin
For nearly a decade, 32-year-old Lindi Ortega has been building a loyal fan base in her native Canada, releasing solid EPs and full-length albums full of charming folk and country songwriting. 2011 was a breakout year of sorts, with her “Little Red Boots” LP earning a Juno nomination for Best Roots/Traditional Album and Ortega herself being nominated for Best New Artist.
For her latest release, “Cigarettes & Truckstops”, Ortega relocated to Nashville and began to mine the often overlooked relationship between the blues and country after reading a Hank Williams biography. The results are impressive. Ortega creates an honest and unfettered style of country that brings to mind icons like Emmylou Harris while retaining an edginess that allows her to stay relevant to the here and now.
On the stellar title track, Ortega pens an affecting tale of longing that finds her boarding a bus to reunite with a lover in LA. She hits some beautiful minor notes in the chorus as she proclaims “I’d rather have you still beside me/ Then have you always running through my mind.” Overall there’s a good variety of moods on the album, with enough heel stomping honky-tonk to offset the slower paced songs.
Ortega fares best when she lets her beguiling voice roam free over sparse instrumentation, like on the touching “Heaven Has No Vacancy” and the equally mesmerizing “High”. On the latter she crafts a Lana Del Rey-style ballad flush with heartache, fast cars and pills. The resemblance to Del Rey is uncanny, especially as she coos the lines ‘Whaddya say honey, Wanna go for a ride?”, but Ortega’s voice conveys far more
depth than Lana’s more recent releases.
It probably goes without saying that Ortega is breath of fresh air in the stuffy and increasingly polished hit-making machine that is modern country. Ortega easily transcends the supposed limits of her genre, deftly avoiding clichés and creating an album that in no way makes the listener embarrassed to be listening to ‘country music’. That’s quite an accomplishment.
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For More Information Visit:
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http://www.lindiortega.com
http://www.facebook.com/lindiortegafans
http://www.youtube.com/lindiortega
