Hurray for the Riff Raff | ||
| Allmusic Biography : Hurray for the Riff Raff is the brainchild of Alynda Segarra, a singer/songwriter of Puerto Rican descent whose musical imagination was first sparked by hardcore punk while she was a child in the Bronx. Segarra later gravitated toward American roots music, settling in New Orleans around 2007. There, she formed the first incarnation of Hurray for the Riff Raff. Over the course of several independent releases, she honed her voice, playing with several strands of folk music and developing an idiosyncratic, all-encompassing Americana that could be heard on Small Town Heroes, her 2014 debut for ATO Records, and came to full fruition on 2017s The Navigator. By the time The Navigator saw release in spring of 2017, Segarra had been using the name Hurray for the Riff Raff for a decade. Raised on New York punk and alternative folk, she left home at the age of 17, spending some time hopping trains across America before she wound up in New Orleans. In the Big Easy, she started performing music on the street, eventually playing with the Dead Man Street Orchestra around 2007. She broke away from them quickly, releasing an EP called Crossing the Rubicon that very year. It, like 2008s self-released full length It Dont Mean I Dont Love You, was credited to Hurray for the Riff Raff and, at the time, Segarra was collaborating with bassist David Maclay and drummer/violinist Yosi Pearlstein. These musicians cycled out of the lineup rather quickly, with Segarra firmly established as its central figure after the self-released 2010 album Young Blood Blues. Segarra compiled highlights from her two self-released records for 2011s Hurray for the Riff Raff, an album that appeared on Loose Music in the spring of 2011. Around this time, Hurray for the Riff Raff began gaining traction, earning play on BBC Radio and getting a write up in The Times. Look Out Mama, a third album funded by Kickstarter and produced by Andrija Tokic, appeared in 2002 -- Loose released it in Europe, and Born to Win did in the U.S. -- it was accompanied in 2013 by a collection of covers called My Dearest Darkest Neighbor. By this point, all the activity was enough to earn the attention of major labels, and Hurray for the Riff Raff signed with ATO. Small Town Heroes, their first record for the label, appeared in 2014 to good reviews; it earned strong word of mouth over the next two years. During this time, Segarra relocated to Nashville and expanded her vision for Hurray for the Riff Raff on The Navigator, a 2017 concept album that was quasi-autobiographical and partially inspired by David Bowies The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars. Upon its March 2017 release, the album was greeted with critical praise. | ||
 | Album: 1 of 8 Title: It Dont Mean I Dont Love You Released: 2008-04-08 Tracks: 10 Duration: 41:07 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Meet Me in the Morning (02:29) 2 Daniella (04:03) 3 Fly Away (02:56) 4 Skin & Bones (04:34) 5 Junebug Waltz (04:42) 6 Here It Comes (05:17) 7 Dance With Death (04:46) 8 Bricks (03:30) 9 Baby Blue (05:08) 10 Amelias Song (03:37) |
 | Album: 2 of 8 Title: Young Blood Blues Released: 2010-03-01 Tracks: 10 Duration: 43:10 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Is That You? (03:47) 2 Slow Walk (03:17) 3 Lately in Dm (04:52) 4 I Know You (02:54) 5 Young Blood Blues (06:23) 6 Too Much of a Good Thing (05:29) 7 Take Me (03:46) 8 Calmly (04:41) 9 Little Things (03:40) 10 Salis Song (04:21) |
 | Album: 3 of 8 Title: Hurray for the Riff Raff Released: 2011-03-21 Tracks: 11 Duration: 45:13 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Meet Me in the Morning (02:29) 2 Is That You? (03:49) 3 Slow Walk (03:19) 4 Daniella (04:05) 5 Take Me (03:49) 6 Little Things (03:42) 7 I Know You (02:56) 8 Too Much of a Good Thing (05:32) 9 Junebug Waltz (04:44) 10 Salis Song (04:24) 11 Young Blood Blues (06:24) |
 | Album: 4 of 8 Title: Look Out Mama Released: 2012-04-17 Tracks: 10 Duration: 38:36 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Little Black Star (03:08) 2 Look Out Mama (03:25) 3 Ramblin Gal (03:18) 4 Whats Wrong With Me (03:51) 5 Ode to John and Yoko (05:52) 6 Lake of Fire (03:42) 7 Riley (04:51) 8 Go Out on the Road (04:18) 9 Born to Win, Part One (02:51) 10 Somethings Wrong (03:20) |
 | Album: 5 of 8 Title: Live at 2012 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival Released: 2012-05-30 Tracks: 21 Duration: 56:18 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% AlbumCover | 1 Little Black Star (live) (03:24) 2 Stage Banter 1 (live) (00:14) 3 Look Out Mama (live) (03:23) 4 Slow Walk (live) (03:04) 5 Stage Banter 2 (live) (00:31) 6 Take Me (live) (03:18) 7 The Junebug Waltz (live) (05:38) 8 End of the Line (live) (04:14) 9 Stage Banter 3 (live) (00:22) 10 Ophelia (live) (03:15) 11 Small Town Heroes (live) (04:08) 12 Whats Wrong With Me (live) (04:32) 13 Stage Banter 4 (live) (00:16) 14 Lake of Fire (live) (03:57) 15 Stage Banter 5 (live) (00:20) 16 St. Roch Blues (live) (05:01) 17 Born to Win (live) (03:25) 18 Stage Banter 6 (live) (00:31) 19 Be My Baby (live) (02:51) 20 Stage Banter 7 (live) (00:23) 21 Time Is on My Side (live) (03:22) |
 | Album: 6 of 8 Title: My Dearest Darkest Neighbor Released: 2013-07-01 Tracks: 14 Duration: 55:37 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify AlbumCover | 1 Delta Momma Blues (03:48) 2 Fine and Mellow (03:37) 3 My Morphine (04:05) 4 Black Jack Davey (03:11) 5 Western Cowboy (04:42) 6 Jealous Guy (03:27) 7 Just A Heart (03:34) 8 Angel Ballad (06:06) 9 Cuckoo (03:34) 10 People Talkin (03:52) 11 River (04:48) 12 Goin Away (02:19) 13 Im So Lonesome I Could Cry (04:34) 14 My Sweet Lord (04:00) |
 | Album: 7 of 8 Title: Small Town Heroes Released: 2014-02-11 Tracks: 12 Duration: 44:04 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify TrackSamples Wikipedia Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Blue Ridge Mountain (02:33) 2 Crash on the Highway (02:45) 3 Good Time Blues (An Outlaw’s Lament) (05:17) 4 End of the Line (03:38) 5 The New SF Bay Blues (04:01) 6 The Body Electric (02:50) 7 No One Else (03:17) 8 St. Roch Blues (05:09) 9 Levon’s Dream (03:50) 10 I Know It’s Wrong (but That’s Alright) (02:58) 11 Small Town Heroes (04:28) 12 Forever Is Just a Day (03:18) |
| Small Town Heroes : Allmusic album Review : 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". Segarras 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 cant 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/Deliahs gone but Im 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. | ||
 | Album: 8 of 8 Title: The Navigator Released: 2017-03-10 Tracks: 12 Duration: 40:40 Scroll: Up Down Top Bottom 25% 50% 75% Spotify Allmusic AlbumCover | 1 Entrance (01:43) 2 Living in the City (03:16) 3 Hungry Ghost (03:25) 4 Life to Save (02:56) 5 Nothing’s Gonna Change That Girl (04:00) 6 The Navigator (03:07) 7 Halfway There (02:11) 8 Rican Beach (03:32) 9 Fourteen Floors (04:13) 10 Settle (02:57) 11 Pa’lante (05:53) 12 Finale (03:21) |
| The Navigator : Allmusic album Review : On her previous five albums as Hurray for the Riff Raff, singer/songwriter Alynda Segarra subscribed to an audacious, far-reaching definition of Americana, but shes never been as ambitious as she is on 2017s The Navigator. A pseudo-autobiographical concept album partially inspired by Segarras first listen to David Bowies The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust, The Navigator follows the journey of Navita, a Puerta Rican folk-punk who discovers her identity and sharpens her politics as she journeys through the boroughs of New York City. Although Segarras story is relatively easy to parse, the pleasure in The Navigator lies not in the narrative but rather its ideas. While the album may open with "Living in the City," a song that makes a conscious nod to her early influence Bob Dylan, Segarra expands her musical palette considerably, finding space for spectral strings, gospel choirs, barrelhouse piano, and percolating funk. All of these flourishes give The Navigator a lush, enveloping atmosphere, but theyre not merely flair: Theyre an indication of how Segarra pulls from several different American traditions to create a vibrant, modern Americana. Certainly, this album feels richer than previous Hurray for the Riff Raff records, which all benefitted from the stripped-down aesthetic that often signifies authenticity in Americana, but this broadening of Segarras scope hardly constitutes pandering. The Navigator is nothing if it isnt a bold risk, a record that attempts to carve out a new kind of Americana, one where the past informs the present instead of the present preserving the past -- and one where the political is personal, too. | ||