Staff Reviews

Hurray for the Riff Raff - Small Town Heroes

Review by Tom Fenwick

The sound of traditionalist notions reshaping as Hurray for the Riff Raff question what it really means to be a folk troubadour in a modern world.»

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Hurray for the Riff Raff release 'Small Town Heroes,' its debut for ATO Records. The album features frontwoman Alynda Lee Segarra - who settled in New Orleans after leaving her native Bronx at age 17- with twelve new, original songs all written or co-written by Segarra, with support from a vivid cast of Crescent City musicians. Hurray for the Riff Raff 'sweeps across eras and genres with grace and grit,' never more so than on 'Small Town Heroes.' On the hedonist country lament 'I Know It's Wrong (But That's Alright)' Segarra sings to a forbidden love "I'll feed you watermelon off the vine," while on 'The Body Electric' she exposes the misogyny of the traditional murder ballad, and warns "Delia's gone, but I'm settling the score." Ultimately though, many of the songs embody that most magical and fated of American cities, New Orleans. Segarra bears witness to a wave of violence that struck the St. Roch neighbourhood in 'St. Roch Blues;' yearns for a night at BJ's Bar in the Bywater in 'Crash on the Highway;' and sings of her own Lower Ninth Ward home in 'End of the Line.'
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