Lindi Ortega
Have you heard of her yet? Well
you should have, as she is pretty amazing. I saw her live for the
third time last weekend and she was as good as she ever was. She
leans toward old style country, albeit with a bit of an attitude.
She has a new album coming out in
a few weeks and you need to go buy it.
I wrote an article about her last
year, and I figure today is as good of time as any to reprint it,
“Lindi seasons her musical scores like a deranged chef whipping
up a culinary creation. A dash of country, a pinch of folk, a
sprinkle of rock, and a smidgeon of jazz! Last but not least, to add
a little spice, how about some vaudeville cabaret? No, this is not a
textbook recipe, but rather a mystical scribbling from an ancient
scroll. Lindi is enigmatic and enchanting with a voice that can be
cheeky and brassy or haunting and ghostly. Her music derives from the
metaphysical in a sphere that warps time and defies orthodoxy. This
madness is a pure passion that has never met the technicalities of
music theory.” That’s how Canada’s music magazine
Exclaim!
described Lindi Ortega early in her career.
An amazing voice and one heck of a songwriter, Ortega knocked
around for a decade before tasting any kind of real success on more
than a local level. Often referred to as Toronto’s best kept
secret, she released two albums, two E.P.s, and was the opening act
on a number of tours headlined by well known acts before she finally
received her first truly major label release. I’m hoping she is
poised to take her career to another level any time now, so it is a
great time to take a look at her work.
Ortega’s first large scale release was
Little Red Boots,
which along with her now signature little black dress has become her
on stage uniform. Now the two songs from this album I’d include on
a top ten list were actually first recorded on the
Drifter
EP, but in a much more simplified style with just Ortega on guitar
and vocals. This time around she had a big time producer in Ron
Lopata and an actual band.
Little Lie is a fun, high
spirited and rollicking sort of song where the singer justifies
telling a lie to her guy because “
Didn’t wanna tell you
anything you didn’t wanna hear” but she does try and tell
him if he bothers to look closer the truth will be clear. But it’s
a fun sing along sort of song, regardless of the theme. The second
song,
All My Friends, isn’t usually the type of
song you hear women working in the country genre (although not
completely within) sing. The theme is easily overlooked though as
it’s uptempo and deceiving, in somewhat way the previous song was.
It’s something you could have imagined Johnny Cash singing.
“
Cigarettes and wine are both comrades of mine/together we will
burn and we will drown/and I will sleep all night flirting with
suicide/it’s just my friend the pill that puts me down.”
Her second album
Cigarettes & Truckstops is equally
strong, albeit perhaps slower and ethereal. The opening track, the
title song of the album, is a slowly played out tale of a young woman
reaching out to her guy to let him know that she is working her way
towards California because she has decided,
“So I guess I gotta
tell ya that I’m comin out to meet you/That I really gotta see you
one more time/I’d rather have you still beside me/Than have you
always running through my mind/Oh look at California, I’m coming
for my love/I’m comin for my lover’s heart tonight.” It’s
the kind of message you wan to get from you girl.
On the other hand you really don’t want to hear her say
Don’t
Wanna Hear It. And if she does you certainly don’t want to
hear, with a raunchy band angrily behind her, her telling you that
you can get down on your knees and beg but it won’t change a thing
because she “
don’t need to hear another, sorry, sad, lame
excuse.” Ouch.
On her third album,
Tin Star, Ortega was brilliant start
to finish. She could have been due a toppermost simply based on this
album. While she had dealt early in her career with the trials and
tribulations of being an indie artist on the road, she really had
something to say about it on this album.
It starts with
Hard As This, which disguises
itself as a traditional break up sort of song, but it seems far more
than that to me. The lead guitar seems to echo out of the past with a
full, somewhat western, type of sound. And I just love the line, “
All
my love is wasted on a heartache in my chest.”
Gypsy Child is a great song about, well, being a
gypsy child, who is wandering around singing songs and how great it
is that her family supports and accepts who she is.
Tin Star
is as heartfelt a tune about what it is to be an entertainer hoping
to break into the big time. “
Oh you don’t know me/I’m a
nobody/I sing on the strip/For a few pennies/I got a busted
string/and a broken guitar/I’ve been singing for tips/down at the
local bar.” I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes her
signature song long after it stops being anywhere near factual.
She keeps the slow pace with
Lived And Died Alone.
Another love doesn’t work out for me sort of song. I don’t doubt
for a second Lindi Ortega knows what she is doing up on that stage,
especially in the small clubs she plays in now. When she stands up
there in her little black dress, red boots, and well, isn’t the
least bit hard on the eyes singing about how she can never find love,
you can see a fair amount of guys in the crowd holding back from
jumping up and down screaming “what about me, what about me”.
It’s yet another great song from the album, albeit being sung “
To
all those who have lived and died alone.”
I Want You is sort of an ironic song title,
because while it suggests it will be about one thing her greatest
desire with the song is “
I want you to want me”. A
little different meaning there. But it is as much of a rocker as
Ortega has recorded at this point and a real crowd pleaser. I’m
guessing especially when she sings, “
I can be bad. I can drive
you mad/Be the girl that you won’t forget/I want you to want me.”
As I said earlier, the album
Tin Star could suffice in
itself for a toppermost. It’s just that good, so much so I really
struggled what 6 to include from the album. You really need to go buy
it if you enjoy the roots/american sort of sound.
That said the last song, on both my list and the album, is called
Songs About. “
I’ll sing a song, straight
from the soul/Songs about loving and just letting go/Songs about
falling, songs about flying/Songs about laughing, songs about
crying/Songs about falling, songs about trying/Songs about loving,
straight from the soul/’Cause that’s what I know.”
Yeah, I’ll buy that.
