August 29, 2023 • 53 mins
Today Norah is joined by masterful singer-songwriter, Alynda Segarra aka Hurray For The Riff Raff. Though a Bronx native, Alynda found a grounding music community in New Orleans, and through songwriting and performing, they evolved into the passionate and powerful musician they are today. The stillness of the pandemic inspired them to write. You’ll hear some of those songs in this episode, and Norah and Alynda come together on a heartfelt Lucinda Williams duet. Recorded 6/12/23.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, I'm Norah Jones and today I'm playing along with
Alinda Cigara aka Hooray for the riff Raff.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm just playing long wey, I'm just playing in lone weezy.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hi. Welcome to the show. I'm Norah with me as
always as Sarah Ora.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Here I am. I like how you always point to
me as.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
If we're on TV.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
It makes me feel so welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
You're welcome to Spain.
Speaker 6 (00:34):
We're here.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We're in Spain right now. Our bea beautiful The episode
was recorded in Brooklyn, but our intros recorded in.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
The intros from around the world. Our guest today is
the very soulful and profound singer songwriter Alinda Cigara aka
Hooray for the riff Raff.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yes, I'm so in love with the music. I've been
listening to Hooray for the riff Raff for a long
time and their voice is just breathtaking to me.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yes, they're from the Bronx, but you're gonna hear all
about how they ended up in New Orleans. Their sound
evolved into sort of a beautiful, powerful style that's really moving,
and their songs and lyrics are so expressive or heart wrenching.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, or kind of punk rock just yes, yeah, in
just the right way.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Alinda's truly a masterful songwriter.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yes, definitely. I'm really excited about this episode. We had
a great time. This was my first time meeting them
and we felt really like it felt like old friends.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah, it's very natural.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
It was fun.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
They found inspiration in COVID times and wrote some music
and you're going to hear some of those songs in
the episode, and you're going to hear about their most
recent projects. And there's also a surprise duet cover.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Oh Yes day too.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yes, please enjoy and don't forget to like and subscribe to.
Nora Jones is playing along like and we'll keep the
music going.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Hey, please enjoy today's episode with my friend Melinda Sagara. Hekay,
hooray for the refraf.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Okay, I take my shoes off of course.
Speaker 7 (02:19):
Why do won't do? Rooted Dungrin bloom in Jasmine, Dadline
(02:45):
Nutshepe Fox Glover in a game, Rooted Dundrum.
Speaker 8 (02:53):
I can hear you speaking, you can feel me breathing,
break my head, Open.
Speaker 9 (03:18):
Money and Glory, Nikki Boys.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
Limestone near the glade.
Speaker 10 (03:28):
Boo boobis bercade oed Dan drim.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Well.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I can't look back.
Speaker 6 (03:38):
I lost it all on.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
This one with Cherag.
Speaker 11 (03:45):
Don't turn your back on the main lamb. Don't turn
your back on the main lamb. Don't turn your bag
on the main lamp, roted Dan drem Ya.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I wake up in a.
Speaker 10 (04:16):
In a field of corn, just Stirner. I describe your boy,
or spirit find me.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Or spirit got me.
Speaker 12 (04:33):
I'm addicted to the.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
To the higher violence.
Speaker 12 (04:41):
Full Moon made book.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Should be called perfume.
Speaker 13 (04:47):
Wrap your limbses around me.
Speaker 6 (04:50):
This won't be over soon.
Speaker 11 (04:54):
Don't turn your back on the main lamp. Don't turn
your back on the main lamp. Don't And you're beg
on the main land.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Road.
Speaker 14 (05:05):
It don't here. Not everything that.
Speaker 9 (05:24):
Is going, and I don't know what it's gonna take
to carry on.
Speaker 14 (05:35):
Not everything.
Speaker 15 (05:38):
Is going, and I don't know what it takes to
carry on, or I don't know what it takes.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
To carry on.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
Oh my god, that's like my favorite version of that.
I love playing with you.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, that song is so cool. The flowers, it's the flowers,
it's so beautiful.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
They're very punk. It's so yeah, these specific ones. Yeah,
like I was looking through this. It was just like
a book of of like North American flowers, and I
was like, there's a flower called naked Boys. That's so cool,
you know.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, that is cool. And what's chimiko perfume?
Speaker 5 (06:43):
That's like. So I was looking at this book called
Plants of the Gods. I think it's like, all, I
don't like do psychedelic drugs, but like obviously everyone I
am around it talks about them all the time.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Everyone does.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
Yeah, but it was a book all about like all
about psychedelic drugs, and they talked or you know, plant
medicine I should call it is a more respectful way, yes, okay,
But there was like all this stuff about the people
who first like kind of introduced like psychedelic mushrooms to
the Western world, and the Shamans would wear this stuff
(07:19):
called chimiko perfume. Oh yeah. So it was just like
I was on this plant journey.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I can see that I can sell, but it's such
a great way to describe them all, you know. It's
just so cool to have all this in a song.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Yeah. It felt really like I love a lot of
like herbal medicine, you know. And in the pandemic, Like
the early parts of it, I was very much like
I can't be around humans, but all these plants are
like here and they're like within my body and they're
trying to heal me and comfort me.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So that's great. Yeah, that's a good thing to turn to. Yeah,
totally beautiful. Do you live in New Orleans? Yes?
Speaker 5 (08:00):
And how long have you lived there since? I left
here when I was seventeen and I got there when
I was like eighteen.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Okay, long time there your adult life.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
Yeah, I spent a couple of years in Nashville and
I was just like what am I doing? And I
went back. But New Orleans definitely has like very powerful
plants and trees, you know, and just vibes.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Have you spent a lot of time there?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Not a ton, but a little oh wow. Yeah, it's
a special place.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
It's really like it's all the extremes, you know, the
lows are very wow, life changing, and then the highs
or like this is the most beautiful parade with like
you know, beautiful weather. But that's where I started really
playing music, was on the street there.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
On the street. Yeah, I read an article that talked
about you were busking and do you call it busking?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, okay, busking in New Orleans, playing on the street.
And I had this weird flashback memory to walking kind
of where the boats are at the edge of the quarter,
the French Quarter, and there's like this tree in this
little park and I had this like flashback to seeing
someone there once and I was just like, I love
(09:18):
their voice.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
And I'm like, was that you.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
I don't know that that would be cool though, Yeah,
it would be cool. In my mind I saw you like, yeah,
you know, forever ago, but I don't really know.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
Yeah, I mean where we would play? Would we would
play on Decatur? It's really funny. There's like politics of
musicianship and it's like Royal Street is where it's like
that's when you're like grade A. Really, so when I
first started, we were like, we're not good enough for Royal,
so we should start on Decatur where everyone's like drunk. Yeah,
(09:50):
it's so funny, and then you like graduate till you're
like playing on Royal Street. But I would play banjo
with like a jazz band and stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So you did a lot of did you do a
lot of old songs at first? Or were you always writing?
Speaker 5 (10:05):
I would write a little bit, but it was mostly
old songs. I loved, like early blues songs. I was
really obsessed with, like the Blues Women with Billie Holiday,
with Bessie Smith. When I found Bessie Smith, I was
just like, this is the most badass yeah, first and ever,
and I just like loved that lyricism. I think I
(10:25):
learned like a lot of my songs are very simple,
but kind of like the Blues is like deceptively simple.
It's like it's not actually you know.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, it's not as simple as you think. Yeah, it's
very deep.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Yeah. And since that's how I started to play, I
never really felt like, oh, I want to show off
my musicianship. Instead, it was like I just want to
like get into a groove, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, it's the best way.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
What brought you to New Orleans? You grew up here
in the Bronx Yeah wow.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
And I just felt like I couldn't survive here. I
was kind of like being real with myself, being like
I don't think I'm going to finish high school. I
don't think I'm going to like be able to get
a good job. I was very confused, like what do
I do? And I was friends with all these like
punk kids in Tompkins Square Park, and they were all
(11:15):
these kids that were like, come hop a freak train
with us. Wow.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
So I was just like, well, that's what all my
heroes did, so because I'll just go do that. And
it like wow, it felt very normal. And now that
I'm like thirty six, I'm just like, what are you
talking about? It's so scary to me. It's so scary,
you know, but your brain like doesn't understand danger at
that age. So I was just like, okay, of course,
(11:39):
extra scary.
Speaker 16 (11:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
So I kind of like wandered around like a little
like homeless kid for a while and then wow, other
kids told me that New Orleans was a great place
to be like a street kid, you know. And people
were saying, like, you can play music there on the street.
You don't need a permit or anything. And so I
was just like, oh, so I've always wanted to play music,
Maybe I should do that. I feel like I had
(12:04):
a lot of angels swiss me.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
You know, that's intense. So how long was that until
you landed there?
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Around when I was eighteen, So it was like a
year of kind of wandering and then even when I
got there, like I still was wandering around and not like.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
You didn't have a place.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Yeah, not domesticated until I was like nineteen, I think,
so where do you sleep? Abandoned buildings? And you know,
I was really lucky that I had a good crew
of other kids. But we formed a band, yeah, and
then that became like my family. It was actually like
very like wholesome. We were obsessed with learning songs and
(12:43):
that's like how I don't know, it's interesting, like my
relationship to music and having a band was that was
like family like safety and safety.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah yeah, well I mean it does sound like you
had a lucky run absolutely, and to be surrounded by
people who nurture each other, Yeah, that is that's like
the ultimate. Yeah, especially when you're out there so like vulnerable,
you know, I know, and it's really intense.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
Like the older I get, I think the more the
reality of the intensity hits me. It's like lately, I'm
like I feel all the feelings of that time now,
because back then I was just like I don't know,
like you're kind of high on like being a teenager
and like doing extreme things. But now I'm like that
(13:32):
was scarier that, you know, all of a sudden, I'll
feel it.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
Sometimes I still miss like that closeness with that band,
you know, because now everything is very professional, which is
normal and good. If you go back to your own
hotel room, yeah totally. I'm like, we're not all going
to sleep on the floor altogether and like share a sandwich. Yeah.
But yeah, I feel like now in my writing, those
(13:57):
days are coming up. I don't know if it's like
that for you, Like, yeah, all of a sudden, the
past has become a lot more of like my present
in my writing.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
It all comes out eventually, right, Yeah, totally. I just
want to go back now and let's you and sing
with you.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
I know, I know, I mean it's it's been a
wild ride. But when I started that first band that
I had, like they really encouraged me to write, and
then I started writing and just like making burned CDs
and so cool. Yeah, and then it's been like this
crazy ride where I'm still doing it. So I love
(14:35):
that you.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Somebody told you if you go to New Orleans you
don't need a permit to play music. Well, I like music.
I'll play I always wanted to play music. Yeah, yeah,
you had never played before that.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
I played like a little guitar in middle school and
I was obsessed with Hole and Nirvana.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Do you sing all the time?
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Like just I did as a kid. But once high
school hit that was when like, you know, the blues
like hit me in the way that like I just
got really shy, I got really insecure. And I my
dad he was a musician. Oh, he was like a
jazz musician and stuff. I didn't grow up with him,
(15:12):
but we would play a lot when I was really little.
And then when I hit high school age, like we
just went on these different paths obviously, you know. So
it was in me, but I kind of thought I
like missed the boat. I was like, oh, I didn't
go to school for it, and you know, so I'm
just glad that I realized seventeen is not too old
(15:33):
to learn, so oh it's not. At the time, I
was like, I didn't go to school for this. I
don't know how to play music, but.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
It's okay, Yeah, yeah it doesn't matter. I love them
that song Living in the City because I was thinking, yeah,
you grew up in the city.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Yeah, this really has the vibe. Yeah, that's like those
lyrics are definitely like characters from my past. It's kind
of like all of the characters of Tompkins Square Park
that I grew up. Yes, yeah, like Big Danny and
there was a guy named Hatred, and like a bunch
of like the there was like the biker alley, and
(16:11):
then like the old polishman like playing chess.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, you know, I used to live over there, probably
when you were Yeah, you were in high school, because
really I'm that much older. I feel like I moved
to the city when I was twenty and I lived
in the East Village. That was in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Wow, So I bet I it's a cool time to
live there.
Speaker 13 (16:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I used to walk through the park and do you
remember the blackout?
Speaker 5 (16:35):
Yeah, but I was out of town.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I was on tour. I was on tour.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
It was so fun, I know, I was. I've never
been more jealous to not be in the city. I'm
sure I remember.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
It was just so like civil and everybody was kind.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Everybody was like at one point they like started a
bonfire in the park, but like the cops were okay
with it. It was just like this weird truce where
everyone was like, sure, drink and start this fire and
never would eat your ice cream, and like, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Nice wasn't that It was just a year or two
after nine to eleven Maybe I think I set people
were all scared at first, and then everybody was extra
nice to everybody.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
Totally.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
There's so weird dynamic there that was happening.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
For me, Like at that age, I look back like
I just didn't comprehend how serious anything was.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
You know.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
I was in I was a freshman when nine to
eleven happened, and I was so just like, Wow, something's happening.
Like the gravity of Now it's so different to like
go through world events, you know. Yeah, because at that
age I was just like, oh, this is an adventure
instead of like understanding gravity of stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
That's interesting. I feel like kids now understand the gravity
of everything and they take it so much harder. Yeah
we did when we were kids.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
I know. It must be like access to information.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, it's a lot of that. It's intense for well,
it's intense for adults now.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Oh, it's intense for all of us.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Yeah, life is crazy. So you're working on a new album.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Yeah, I finished recording it. So we're like mixing Now, Okay,
that's great. I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Is it New Orleans made or is it nowhere else?
Speaker 5 (18:14):
I've been recording in North Carolina and Durham Wow, yeah, fun. Yeah.
My friend Brad Cook lives out there, okay, and he's
who I made Life on Earth with. And it was
just like that whole experience was like life changing for me.
You know, I'd never had such a like therapeutic experience
with like making a record, you.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Know, really, so I feel like when I listen to
that album, I feel that oh good. Yeah, it's a
really special one. And that song too, Oh yeah, should
we do that? Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
I'm going to try you try a different guitar. I'm
gonna try this Nylon.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Do you play piano on it?
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Are you cool?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
If I play piano? No, that is not me, that's
not you.
Speaker 5 (18:58):
That's actually Brad's brother, Phil Cook, who is like such
an angel.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
That sounds great.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Yeah, he It's like very It's such a great experience
recording there because you're just like hanging in the backyard
and he's like, hey, Phil, like in the studio in
the back they want to come lay down a piano
part and then it's like a heartbreakingly beautiful, really sweet.
(19:26):
That sounds nice.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, yeah, is that my Yeah, that's my Willie Nelson dart.
I did a I did a whole tour. This is
in maybe twenty No. Two thousand and nine, and my
band at the end of the tour it was Sasha Dobson,
Smoky Hormel, Joy Warnker and Gus Seifert and John Kirby.
(19:48):
They bought me that nylon string as a gift. It
was like a year long, you know, crazy tour. Yeah,
they bought me that and it's it's like a Willie
Nelson model. Wow, I mean they I was trying to
be Willie Nelson. Basically. They bought me that guitar and
it's definitely not warn as trigger, but it's meant to.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
Be that at time though.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I don't think it'll ever get like that.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Oh it's so nice. I got to play this with
Preservation Hall. Have you ever played with that?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
No? But I was wondering who's on the record, because
I hear Lawren's on the record.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Those those are all Durham guys. Oh, there's like an
incredible scene in Durham of jazz musicians. But we got
to do another version with pres Hall in New Orleans. Nice,
I got. It'd be so fun if you played there.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Well, now that I know you, I'm coming to New
Orleans really now I have a few friends down there.
Speaker 6 (20:43):
Oh cool.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Do you know the Tank in the Bengals Crew.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
I've never met that?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Oh you should.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
I mean, like, they're so mind blowingly talented.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
They are, but they're also just great people. They'd love
you and you'd love them. It would be fun.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
Let's I'm definitely a big Her name is Tank. Her
name is Tank. Yeah, I love her like spoken words.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, she's really Her brain is like
floating with stuff all the time. Yeah, you guys should
hang Maybe I'll come down there and I'll hang out.
Oh my god, that would be fun. Let's start a band.
I'm down. I need a new band. Why not just
add them?
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Add them to your wallet.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
I love doing music. I love music.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Okay, let's should we just try it? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:34):
You want me to start it?
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
That weird?
Speaker 5 (21:36):
No, that's great.
Speaker 17 (22:06):
Sky trees and birds and lobbies, live ownerzies along.
Speaker 7 (22:21):
Rivers and lakes and floods of quays, live owners.
Speaker 16 (22:31):
This long.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
Han o mine not me, they.
Speaker 18 (22:49):
Leaveving beon drabs.
Speaker 6 (23:02):
Won't you hold me? So can't see.
Speaker 19 (23:17):
The lining, the massket, the desk with a flask sings
li Foruner is long, and.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
The girl and a cage with the mon sings Lie
foruner is long.
Speaker 17 (23:45):
And not.
Speaker 6 (23:47):
Lie, not me.
Speaker 20 (23:51):
They two feel the breathe and breathe the Oh it's
(24:13):
in May.
Speaker 14 (24:20):
And fitly.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Monarchs in fly, the downs, early light.
Speaker 21 (24:34):
Lie forn Earth is long and the sun in the
west and the white.
Speaker 22 (24:46):
Love best all Liner.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Is long.
Speaker 6 (24:55):
And not mine, not me, you that.
Speaker 23 (25:09):
You're spared, blinded, bad space?
Speaker 16 (25:21):
Who about the lightning strikes a little my name, it's
the name.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
And not mine, not me.
Speaker 24 (26:10):
That through thelxies of song and pray.
Speaker 13 (26:31):
Be lost in time, growing of vine, Egyptian spring.
Speaker 25 (26:50):
Loving Beijing, li fners is all All for honors.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Is low.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Song makes me want to cry. Yeah, I felt such
a beautiful song.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (27:25):
How did you feel?
Speaker 5 (27:26):
Oh? No good? I was just saying, like from since
recording it, I was like I sang that low. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Oh yeah you raised the key.
Speaker 5 (27:35):
Yeah yeah, no, that song is very much. That was
like my pandemic. How to get out of this song? Yeah,
trying to write like a love song for like humanity
and beautiful. I hear that in it.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
It's really it makes me cry. I read something about
you coming back to yourself during that time. Yeah, and
there's a line in one of your other songs it's
been a terrible news week. Oh yeah, mine. It made
me think of that and related to this, and yeah,
it's a real it's a real like zoom back out
(28:12):
into yourself kind of thing, which I kind of can
relate to, you know.
Speaker 5 (28:16):
Yeah, I feel like we were all going through that,
like you know, it's kind of what I was saying
before about taking stock or feeling things that happened a
decade ago. It was like just this really incredible moment
where we're all kind of having a montage of our
entire life being like all the times and all the
bad times and all the good times. And I mean,
(28:39):
I think we haven't really been able to fully feel
what happened to all of us, you know. I agree.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
It's funny because I remember in the beginning, I have
two small kids, and so in the beginning of the pandemic,
you know, there was a certain point in time where
it was like we spent it with a couple friends.
Oh y begin which I was like, this is amazing.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
We could to hang out with our friends.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
We're doing totally okay considering all things. Considering we're doing
totally fine. I looked at back at pictures recently. In hindsight,
I'm like, we were a mess, but I didn't realize it,
you know, like my kids were a mess. We were
a mess. My friends were as Yeah, we were all
a mess. I was drinking so much wine.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Oh my god, with the wine. I know that was
like the one place that didn't close. Yeah, exactly, Yeah, Yeah,
I feel like we're all so scared and we were also,
I mean, New Orleans and New York both got hit
so hard and there was so much gratitude that I felt,
(29:45):
but also like mixed with this like panic and yeah,
I just had like this whole album got me through
and it was kind of this It sounds really intense,
but it was like this feeling of like if this
is the end, this is like the I'm capsule. I
want to leave for the aliens, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Sweet, this feels like a love song to your life,
you know, and to all life on earth. Yeah, I'd
love to do that song so.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Totally.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
This is also from Life on Earth.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
Yes, okay, yeah, yeah, this is like my song for
like little Alinda. I talk about like getting into other
people's songwriting. I've been writing the song for years and
I couldn't figure out how to write it.
Speaker 6 (30:31):
And then.
Speaker 5 (30:33):
Heroes was playing, like in a coffee shop. I was like, oh,
I'll just like try to do that, but change it,
you know, So I just like played Heroes and then
was like, Okay, something happens, like when you're like copying
something and then it becomes a photocopy of a photo, you.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Know, like, yeah, it's not the thing at all anything.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Yeah, totally. But that was the song that like unlocked
this for me.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Okay, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Cool. Should I just start out?
Speaker 1 (31:02):
I was coming.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Take it.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
They always want you to take it.
Speaker 26 (31:25):
Just close your rasp, baby, fake it, burning inside out, shaking, screaming,
hysterical racket lost in an option of requid, burning, inside.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
Out, cold feet.
Speaker 8 (31:51):
I was a kid, I smallly would have done an
illegally to be by.
Speaker 6 (31:59):
His well, I can't speak.
Speaker 14 (32:06):
I get the feeling, my horary.
Speaker 6 (32:09):
It's been a terrible news week, man.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
Do I don't know how.
Speaker 6 (32:25):
Or no, no, hew, he.
Speaker 5 (32:33):
But I.
Speaker 6 (32:36):
I don't this to be.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
The song of my life, the song of my life,
the song.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
Of my.
Speaker 8 (32:50):
I just want to be free, Get over it in time,
push it out of mama.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Cold faith. I was a kid out only he pushed
me down on the car creep.
Speaker 6 (33:32):
Now I can't speak.
Speaker 14 (33:35):
I get to feel mord bet.
Speaker 6 (33:39):
I'll just make it through this week and I'll get
it out a life.
Speaker 22 (33:47):
But I don't, honey, I don't know how, Oh, Dona, Donna, don't.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
Don't know how.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
But I.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
Don't want this to be.
Speaker 9 (34:08):
The song of my life, the song of my life,
the song of mynd.
Speaker 8 (34:19):
I just wanted to be free, Get over it in time,
push it out of my mind.
Speaker 23 (34:30):
Mine and nobody believed me. Nobody believed me. Nobody believes me.
Nobody believes Oh, nobody believed me. Nobody believed he believe
(34:54):
nobody believed me. Nobody believed.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
That was good.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
It's beautiful. I'm glad you wrote that song.
Speaker 13 (35:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yeah, this song is so so heavy, and it's just
I don't know. Do people come up to you a
lot about it?
Speaker 5 (35:40):
Yes? Have you gotten a lot of Yeah, A lot
of people telling me like that. They relate to it
or that they feel seen by it, and it's you know,
and it's like, of course about my particular experience, but
it can lend itself to any like traumatic life moment
(36:00):
that you're just like, you know, I was writing, I
was just trying to express like I identified with traumatic
events in my life for so long, and then I
reached a point where I was like, I don't really
want to identify with this anymore, Like I'd love to
identify as like an adventurer.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Like that's what I love about this now, the way
it's addressing how you really feel at this point in
your life about it. Yeah, I could see people relating
so much to it.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
Yeah, because I think we're afraid to let go of
hard times because then they do become At least for me,
I was afraid of like letting go. Maybe I was
afraid of feeling happiness, or maybe I was afraid like
then what was it all for if not wearing it
as like a badge of honor or something. And then
(36:49):
I realized like, oh, it's always in me, It's always
within me, Like it's okay to like set it free. Yeah,
you know, And I think I was afraid of well,
then what's next If I like embrace healing or happiness,
then I can be let down.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
You know. Oh, it's true.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
So it's like this vulnerability of like let's just jump
off the cliff and like see what happens.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
You know, it's very vulnerable. It's not a unique perspective
because I'm sure a lot of people relate to it,
but it's it's a unique framing of something in this form,
this art form.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
It feels so good to encapsulate things like this in
some form, I think, And yeah, I just think it's
such a you should be really proud of it. It's
very oh, thank you, very liberating song. It's really beautiful.
Speaker 5 (37:42):
Thank you. Yeah. I felt so relieved when it was recorded,
just like you must have, you know, yeah, because it
took me a lot of years. I mean, it took
me a lot of years to feel like that, and
then it took me years to write it. It's that
thing about like simple but but complicated, you know.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yeah, it's life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really an interesting
feeling to be inside listening to the song, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 5 (38:10):
Well, thanks for playing it with me.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
It's a great one.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
Yay.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
We were friends though I know we do.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
Even when we were texting, I was like, wow, I
feel like we already are from Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
When you texted me back, I was like, Okay, this
is gonna be awesome.
Speaker 5 (38:26):
Yeah, it's such a relief I know about feeling. Should
we do living in the city.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Yeah, let's do that one limn in the city.
Speaker 5 (38:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Should we do the response to yeah?
Speaker 5 (38:41):
Will you okay? Yeah? Okay, cool?
Speaker 4 (38:43):
Wow, dude, Wade, I got hurricane.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Oh, I'm big name.
Speaker 12 (39:08):
He's wasted, he said, I'm the sweetest thing.
Speaker 15 (39:15):
That is new.
Speaker 6 (39:16):
The tasted.
Speaker 12 (39:19):
Mya buzzer, singing love songs.
Speaker 27 (39:23):
All in her dark apartment, fourteen floors of birden and
fourteen floors a die.
Speaker 18 (39:35):
Living in the city, Living in city, Wei, just living
in the CD live it in the city, living.
Speaker 6 (39:43):
In the city.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Boy, Well, it's hard, it's hard. It's hard.
Speaker 12 (39:50):
I take you to the stairwell.
Speaker 6 (39:54):
I'll give you something I can offer.
Speaker 24 (39:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
The heart, it's not the hope.
Speaker 13 (40:02):
The heart is a lonely hunter.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
How long summer days.
Speaker 12 (40:09):
We're just sneaking by the river.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
Overlock my dreams away.
Speaker 12 (40:17):
And I'll watch the city quibb.
Speaker 18 (40:22):
Living in the city, living in switches living in the city, living, and.
Speaker 14 (40:29):
It's all living in the city boy.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Well it's hard, it's sold it's hard.
Speaker 12 (40:36):
You know, Gypsy bit the dust, you know the shit
(41:05):
he had it was poison.
Speaker 6 (41:08):
Now everybody wants.
Speaker 28 (41:12):
Just a taste of what we saw now standing on
the rooftops, which is yelling till the morning, all surrounded
by the visions.
Speaker 14 (41:28):
Oh keeper fool them.
Speaker 6 (41:32):
Living in the city.
Speaker 18 (41:34):
Then it is witches living in the city, all live
it a city.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Boy, where it's hard, it's hard, it's hard.
Speaker 6 (41:48):
Living in the city. It is swizes living in the city.
Speaker 18 (41:55):
Its all live it in city boy, where it's hard.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
It's hard, it's hard, it's hard, it's hard, it's hard.
Speaker 5 (42:14):
Yeah, fun, I could taste the city right like that
hot garbage smell.
Speaker 6 (42:20):
Yeah, I feel it.
Speaker 5 (42:23):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
And last night you did a show at Joe's Pub.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
It was a special show with actors ye for the
Navigator album.
Speaker 5 (42:34):
Yeah. So when I wrote the Navigator, I always had
it in mind where I was like, I want this
to be a play somehow, like not quite a musical,
kind of like rock musical, but like the soundtrack to
the story. And everyone around me was like I think
you're losing your mind lovingly. Yeah, yeah, but so I
wrote this play, but I've never written a play before.
(42:57):
And then finally that was in like twenty seventeen. Finally,
in twenty twenty, I connected with Joe's Pub and they
connected me with a playwright see Julian Jimenez. Cool, and
we've been creating it since the first week of Lockdown,
like you did it, yeah, yeah, And we were able
(43:18):
to do it this past weekend at Joe's Pub with
four actors and it was just like a dream come true.
It was so cool.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
That is cool. Do you have any plans to do
it some more?
Speaker 5 (43:29):
Well, we hope that that was just the beginning. We're
kind of presenting it as like a work in progress,
and hopefully this is like a long process of us
making it a real thing.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
You know. Great, Yeah, it's a really cool yeah, and
you're in it and you're seeing Yeah.
Speaker 5 (43:43):
Me and the band were like, you know, we kind
of see ourselves as like the jazz cats in the alley.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
You know.
Speaker 5 (43:50):
My friend Lynn Legamari played a saxophone and it was
just like so cool.
Speaker 29 (43:55):
You know, it felt very New York. It's a very
like city story. So yeah, yeah, yeah that album too. Yeah, total, yeah,
this is super fun. I know you want to do
Drunken Angel, Yes for sure.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Yeah, it's funny. You grew up in the Bronx, but
you got country in your soul.
Speaker 5 (44:14):
I really I don't know where, you know. Me and
my aunt and my dad, we used to drive to
Florida every summerh and that'll do it. Something really happened
in that, like mini van you know. Yeah. They would
make jokes about how like we'd get to waffle House
and all of a sudden, I'd take on like a
fake Southern accent and be like morning like to everybody,
(44:36):
just like you're a Puerto Rican from the Bronx, what
are you doing? Well?
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Florida's pretty country, it is, yeah, when you get down there.
I grew up going to Florida in the summers.
Speaker 5 (44:46):
Oh really. We would go to Sarasota.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
Okay, I've never been there. Oh yeah, because Dallas that's
where your friend how is my aunt lived in Gainesville?
Speaker 5 (44:54):
Oh okay, I'd go there a lot. Lucinda's one of
my favorites though. I got to meet her and play
music with her one time. Really it was it was
so cool.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
What did you guys play?
Speaker 5 (45:06):
We played we were on a cruise, which is god yeah,
Sah Williams. We played, we played a Whitty Guthrie song.
We played another one of her favorite of her songs.
That's my favorite is people Talking one. Okay, so for
this should we trade? Yeah? Is that cool? I love that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (45:29):
I love her so much too.
Speaker 5 (45:31):
Yeah. And I was saying, gosh, I should have brought
you the book, her memoir. Oh yeah, so she you
just were reading it?
Speaker 1 (45:38):
She didn't memore? Is it new?
Speaker 5 (45:40):
It really?
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Okay, I'll get it on my kindle like a couple
of months old. Okay, I would love to read that.
Speaker 5 (45:46):
Yeah cool, should we give it a go? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (45:56):
So you recorded this song?
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Yeah? For that?
Speaker 5 (46:00):
Blaze? Fully my god, that was so surreal. I just
got an email one day that was like, Hi, this
is Ethan Hawk. Just like cool. So someone's email got
hat because what are you talking about? And he's just like,
do you want to play Blaze Foley's sister. I'm just like,
I'm obsessed with Blaze, Folly, this is and Towns in
(46:21):
that whole world, you know, Like so it's just such
a dream. And then Chris Christofferson was my dad's. Now
every time I see him in a movie, I'm like,
there's my dad, So you were in them.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
I didn't see the movie.
Speaker 5 (46:33):
Oh it's really in the movie. Yeah, I mean to
see it.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
And I can't watch movies anymore, Like I know, I
want it.
Speaker 5 (46:41):
It's really heartbreaking too. This is just such a like
beautiful and tragic story. And we all know a drunken angel,
you know, somebody that you're just like, you're so lovely
and you're like haunted by this addiction. But yeah, so
I got to cover the song and like be a
part of the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
It was so cool. He said, makes good music choices. Yeah,
he loves music.
Speaker 5 (47:05):
Yeah, and he was just so like wonderful to work
with and it was really great. And Blaze's wife, Sybil,
was like a part of the whole cool thing and
like wrote it with him. So it was just amazing
to like be in that world, you know. Yeah, because
I've been listening to the song forever and then being
and like once I found out who was about, I
(47:27):
just love the mythology of like I didn't know that.
Oh yeah I wrote about Blaze. Yeah, and you know
he had he had a thing about like duct taping
his shoes. He like kind of had a vow of
poverty is what they called it. He's like, I'm a
man of the people type thing, so he would like
not not get new shoes, and like, you know, just yeah,
(47:50):
very it's it's a very New Orleans vibe.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Yeah, did you guys shoot at New Orleans.
Speaker 5 (47:55):
We went to a place in western Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (47:57):
Okay, but okay, I want to watch it now.
Speaker 5 (48:00):
Yeah, I'm only I'm in it very short amount in
the middle, but special thing is so gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
And Chris, oh my god, yeah, the best.
Speaker 4 (48:10):
Why dude, three.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
Sun came up? It was another day when.
Speaker 12 (48:36):
The sun went down, you were blown away.
Speaker 13 (48:39):
Why'n't you let go of your guitar?
Speaker 14 (48:42):
Why did you ever let.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
It go that far?
Speaker 13 (48:45):
Drunken Angel.
Speaker 6 (48:49):
Could add on it, the.
Speaker 30 (48:51):
Long smooth neck, let your head, remember every bread fingers
touching it, shiny stream, but you let go of everything.
Speaker 13 (49:02):
Drunken Angel, drunk it Angel.
Speaker 31 (49:09):
You're on the other side. Drunk it Angel, You're on
the other side.
Speaker 32 (49:41):
Followers would claim me hang around just to meet you.
Some through loses at your feet, watched you pass out
on the street.
Speaker 13 (49:54):
Drunk in Angel. Feed you and.
Speaker 32 (49:59):
Pay off oil nets, kiss you, bawn, taste you, sweat,
ride about your soul your guts, criticize you, and wish
you like Drunken Angel.
Speaker 13 (50:14):
Drugging Angel.
Speaker 14 (50:18):
You're on the other side.
Speaker 13 (50:21):
Drugging Angel.
Speaker 33 (50:25):
You're on the other side, some kind of savior, singing
(50:51):
the blues. Derelict in your duct tape shoes, your orphan
clothes and your long dark.
Speaker 13 (50:59):
Hair, looking like you didn't care. Drunken Angel.
Speaker 30 (51:06):
Blessed out from the hole in your heart, over the strings.
Speaker 26 (51:11):
Of your guitar, the worn out places in the wood,
the ones that made you feel so good.
Speaker 34 (51:19):
Drunken Angel. Drunking Angel, You're on the other side. Drunking Angel.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
You're on the other side.
Speaker 6 (51:37):
Son came up.
Speaker 9 (51:38):
It was another day when the sun went down.
Speaker 6 (51:42):
You were blown away. Why'd you let go out of
your guitar? Why'd you ever let it go that far?
Speaker 13 (51:50):
Drunken Angel, Dunking Angel.
Speaker 5 (52:05):
Yay, yay, oh my god, thank you so much for
having me awesome. Yeah, thanks for doing this. Of course, I'll.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
Tell you very soon.
Speaker 5 (52:15):
I don't want to say goodbye, I.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
Know me neither, Like get a room at the hotel. Well,
we'll hang okay good Yeah cool. Now now that we know, yeah, totally,
we're good match.
Speaker 5 (52:30):
We can meet friends. Yeah and reson.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
Yeah, hey, thanks for listening to the show.
Speaker 6 (52:36):
That was so fun. That was so great.
Speaker 3 (52:38):
I wish we had time for so many more songs.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
Yeah, they'll be more. I feel like, well, we'll meet
down the road and do some more. If you're wondering
about the what songs we did do today, we did
a song from their twenty twenty two album Life on
Earth called Rhododendron, another one from that album called Life
on Earth, and Saga all so from that album. We
(53:02):
did a song from the album The Navigator from twenty
seventeen called Living in the City, and then we did
the Lucinda Williams song called Drunken Angel. Lucinda's version was
from a nineteen ninety eight album Car Wheels on a
Gravel Road, and Alinda also has a recorded version of
(53:22):
the song from the Blaze Foley movie called Blaze. This
episode was recorded by Matt Marinelli, mixed by Jamie Landry,
edited by Sarah Oda, Additional editing and mixing by Matthew Vesquez.
Artwork by Eliza Frye Photography by Shervin Lenez, Produced by
Me and Sarah Oda. Babysitting by Steve Angus,
Hey, I'm Norah Jones and today I'm playing along with
Alinda Cigara aka Hooray for the riff Raff.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
I'm just playing long wey, I'm just playing in lone weezy.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Hi. Welcome to the show. I'm Norah with me as
always as Sarah Ora.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
Here I am. I like how you always point to
me as.
Speaker 4 (00:28):
If we're on TV.
Speaker 5 (00:30):
It makes me feel so welcome.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
You're welcome to Spain.
Speaker 6 (00:34):
We're here.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
We're in Spain right now. Our bea beautiful The episode
was recorded in Brooklyn, but our intros recorded in.
Speaker 3 (00:41):
The intros from around the world. Our guest today is
the very soulful and profound singer songwriter Alinda Cigara aka
Hooray for the riff Raff.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
Yes, I'm so in love with the music. I've been
listening to Hooray for the riff Raff for a long
time and their voice is just breathtaking to me.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Yes, they're from the Bronx, but you're gonna hear all
about how they ended up in New Orleans. Their sound
evolved into sort of a beautiful, powerful style that's really moving,
and their songs and lyrics are so expressive or heart wrenching.
Speaker 1 (01:18):
Yeah, or kind of punk rock just yes, yeah, in
just the right way.
Speaker 3 (01:22):
Alinda's truly a masterful songwriter.
Speaker 1 (01:25):
Yes, definitely. I'm really excited about this episode. We had
a great time. This was my first time meeting them
and we felt really like it felt like old friends.
Speaker 6 (01:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Yeah, it's very natural.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
It was fun.
Speaker 3 (01:38):
They found inspiration in COVID times and wrote some music
and you're going to hear some of those songs in
the episode, and you're going to hear about their most
recent projects. And there's also a surprise duet cover.
Speaker 2 (01:52):
Oh Yes day too.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
Yes, please enjoy and don't forget to like and subscribe to.
Nora Jones is playing along like and we'll keep the
music going.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Hey, please enjoy today's episode with my friend Melinda Sagara. Hekay,
hooray for the refraf.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Okay, I take my shoes off of course.
Speaker 7 (02:19):
Why do won't do? Rooted Dungrin bloom in Jasmine, Dadline
(02:45):
Nutshepe Fox Glover in a game, Rooted Dundrum.
Speaker 8 (02:53):
I can hear you speaking, you can feel me breathing,
break my head, Open.
Speaker 9 (03:18):
Money and Glory, Nikki Boys.
Speaker 6 (03:25):
Limestone near the glade.
Speaker 10 (03:28):
Boo boobis bercade oed Dan drim.
Speaker 5 (03:35):
Well.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
I can't look back.
Speaker 6 (03:38):
I lost it all on.
Speaker 2 (03:42):
This one with Cherag.
Speaker 11 (03:45):
Don't turn your back on the main lamb. Don't turn
your back on the main lamb. Don't turn your bag
on the main lamp, roted Dan drem Ya.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
I wake up in a.
Speaker 10 (04:16):
In a field of corn, just Stirner. I describe your boy,
or spirit find me.
Speaker 2 (04:30):
Or spirit got me.
Speaker 12 (04:33):
I'm addicted to the.
Speaker 6 (04:36):
To the higher violence.
Speaker 12 (04:41):
Full Moon made book.
Speaker 2 (04:44):
Should be called perfume.
Speaker 13 (04:47):
Wrap your limbses around me.
Speaker 6 (04:50):
This won't be over soon.
Speaker 11 (04:54):
Don't turn your back on the main lamp. Don't turn
your back on the main lamp. Don't And you're beg
on the main land.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
Road.
Speaker 14 (05:05):
It don't here. Not everything that.
Speaker 9 (05:24):
Is going, and I don't know what it's gonna take
to carry on.
Speaker 14 (05:35):
Not everything.
Speaker 15 (05:38):
Is going, and I don't know what it takes to
carry on, or I don't know what it takes.
Speaker 2 (05:51):
To carry on.
Speaker 5 (06:10):
Oh my god, that's like my favorite version of that.
I love playing with you.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Yeah, that song is so cool. The flowers, it's the flowers,
it's so beautiful.
Speaker 5 (06:23):
They're very punk. It's so yeah, these specific ones. Yeah,
like I was looking through this. It was just like
a book of of like North American flowers, and I
was like, there's a flower called naked Boys. That's so cool,
you know.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
I didn't know that.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
Yeah, that is cool. And what's chimiko perfume?
Speaker 5 (06:43):
That's like. So I was looking at this book called
Plants of the Gods. I think it's like, all, I
don't like do psychedelic drugs, but like obviously everyone I
am around it talks about them all the time.
Speaker 1 (06:56):
Everyone does.
Speaker 5 (06:57):
Yeah, but it was a book all about like all
about psychedelic drugs, and they talked or you know, plant
medicine I should call it is a more respectful way, yes, okay,
But there was like all this stuff about the people
who first like kind of introduced like psychedelic mushrooms to
the Western world, and the Shamans would wear this stuff
(07:19):
called chimiko perfume. Oh yeah. So it was just like
I was on this plant journey.
Speaker 1 (07:25):
I can see that I can sell, but it's such
a great way to describe them all, you know. It's
just so cool to have all this in a song.
Speaker 5 (07:36):
Yeah. It felt really like I love a lot of
like herbal medicine, you know. And in the pandemic, Like
the early parts of it, I was very much like
I can't be around humans, but all these plants are
like here and they're like within my body and they're
trying to heal me and comfort me.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
So that's great. Yeah, that's a good thing to turn to. Yeah,
totally beautiful. Do you live in New Orleans? Yes?
Speaker 5 (08:00):
And how long have you lived there since? I left
here when I was seventeen and I got there when
I was like eighteen.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Okay, long time there your adult life.
Speaker 5 (08:11):
Yeah, I spent a couple of years in Nashville and
I was just like what am I doing? And I
went back. But New Orleans definitely has like very powerful
plants and trees, you know, and just vibes.
Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (08:24):
Have you spent a lot of time there?
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Not a ton, but a little oh wow. Yeah, it's
a special place.
Speaker 5 (08:31):
It's really like it's all the extremes, you know, the
lows are very wow, life changing, and then the highs
or like this is the most beautiful parade with like
you know, beautiful weather. But that's where I started really
playing music, was on the street there.
Speaker 1 (08:49):
On the street. Yeah, I read an article that talked
about you were busking and do you call it busking?
Speaker 2 (08:57):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (08:57):
Yeah, okay, busking in New Orleans, playing on the street.
And I had this weird flashback memory to walking kind
of where the boats are at the edge of the quarter,
the French Quarter, and there's like this tree in this
little park and I had this like flashback to seeing
someone there once and I was just like, I love
(09:18):
their voice.
Speaker 5 (09:18):
And I'm like, was that you.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
I don't know that that would be cool though, Yeah,
it would be cool. In my mind I saw you like, yeah,
you know, forever ago, but I don't really know.
Speaker 5 (09:30):
Yeah, I mean where we would play? Would we would
play on Decatur? It's really funny. There's like politics of
musicianship and it's like Royal Street is where it's like
that's when you're like grade A. Really, so when I
first started, we were like, we're not good enough for Royal,
so we should start on Decatur where everyone's like drunk. Yeah,
(09:50):
it's so funny, and then you like graduate till you're
like playing on Royal Street. But I would play banjo
with like a jazz band and stuff.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
So you did a lot of did you do a
lot of old songs at first? Or were you always writing?
Speaker 5 (10:05):
I would write a little bit, but it was mostly
old songs. I loved, like early blues songs. I was
really obsessed with, like the Blues Women with Billie Holiday,
with Bessie Smith. When I found Bessie Smith, I was
just like, this is the most badass yeah, first and ever,
and I just like loved that lyricism. I think I
(10:25):
learned like a lot of my songs are very simple,
but kind of like the Blues is like deceptively simple.
It's like it's not actually you know.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, it's not as simple as you think. Yeah, it's
very deep.
Speaker 5 (10:37):
Yeah. And since that's how I started to play, I
never really felt like, oh, I want to show off
my musicianship. Instead, it was like I just want to
like get into a groove, you know.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Yeah, it's the best way.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
What brought you to New Orleans? You grew up here
in the Bronx Yeah wow.
Speaker 5 (10:54):
And I just felt like I couldn't survive here. I
was kind of like being real with myself, being like
I don't think I'm going to finish high school. I
don't think I'm going to like be able to get
a good job. I was very confused, like what do
I do? And I was friends with all these like
punk kids in Tompkins Square Park, and they were all
(11:15):
these kids that were like, come hop a freak train
with us. Wow.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:19):
So I was just like, well, that's what all my
heroes did, so because I'll just go do that. And
it like wow, it felt very normal. And now that
I'm like thirty six, I'm just like, what are you
talking about? It's so scary to me. It's so scary,
you know, but your brain like doesn't understand danger at
that age. So I was just like, okay, of course,
(11:39):
extra scary.
Speaker 16 (11:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (11:41):
So I kind of like wandered around like a little
like homeless kid for a while and then wow, other
kids told me that New Orleans was a great place
to be like a street kid, you know. And people
were saying, like, you can play music there on the street.
You don't need a permit or anything. And so I
was just like, oh, so I've always wanted to play music,
Maybe I should do that. I feel like I had
(12:04):
a lot of angels swiss me.
Speaker 1 (12:06):
You know, that's intense. So how long was that until
you landed there?
Speaker 5 (12:10):
Around when I was eighteen, So it was like a
year of kind of wandering and then even when I
got there, like I still was wandering around and not like.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
You didn't have a place.
Speaker 5 (12:20):
Yeah, not domesticated until I was like nineteen, I think,
so where do you sleep? Abandoned buildings? And you know,
I was really lucky that I had a good crew
of other kids. But we formed a band, yeah, and
then that became like my family. It was actually like
very like wholesome. We were obsessed with learning songs and
(12:43):
that's like how I don't know, it's interesting, like my
relationship to music and having a band was that was
like family like safety and safety.
Speaker 1 (12:52):
Yeah yeah, well I mean it does sound like you
had a lucky run absolutely, and to be surrounded by
people who nurture each other, Yeah, that is that's like
the ultimate. Yeah, especially when you're out there so like vulnerable,
you know, I know, and it's really intense.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:11):
Like the older I get, I think the more the
reality of the intensity hits me. It's like lately, I'm
like I feel all the feelings of that time now,
because back then I was just like I don't know,
like you're kind of high on like being a teenager
and like doing extreme things. But now I'm like that
(13:32):
was scarier that, you know, all of a sudden, I'll
feel it.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
Yeah.
Speaker 5 (13:37):
Sometimes I still miss like that closeness with that band,
you know, because now everything is very professional, which is
normal and good. If you go back to your own
hotel room, yeah totally. I'm like, we're not all going
to sleep on the floor altogether and like share a sandwich. Yeah.
But yeah, I feel like now in my writing, those
(13:57):
days are coming up. I don't know if it's like
that for you, Like, yeah, all of a sudden, the
past has become a lot more of like my present
in my writing.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
It all comes out eventually, right, Yeah, totally. I just
want to go back now and let's you and sing
with you.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
I know, I know, I mean it's it's been a
wild ride. But when I started that first band that
I had, like they really encouraged me to write, and
then I started writing and just like making burned CDs
and so cool. Yeah, and then it's been like this
crazy ride where I'm still doing it. So I love
(14:35):
that you.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Somebody told you if you go to New Orleans you
don't need a permit to play music. Well, I like music.
I'll play I always wanted to play music. Yeah, yeah,
you had never played before that.
Speaker 5 (14:45):
I played like a little guitar in middle school and
I was obsessed with Hole and Nirvana.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Do you sing all the time?
Speaker 5 (14:52):
Like just I did as a kid. But once high
school hit that was when like, you know, the blues
like hit me in the way that like I just
got really shy, I got really insecure. And I my
dad he was a musician. Oh, he was like a
jazz musician and stuff. I didn't grow up with him,
(15:12):
but we would play a lot when I was really little.
And then when I hit high school age, like we
just went on these different paths obviously, you know. So
it was in me, but I kind of thought I
like missed the boat. I was like, oh, I didn't
go to school for it, and you know, so I'm
just glad that I realized seventeen is not too old
(15:33):
to learn, so oh it's not. At the time, I
was like, I didn't go to school for this. I
don't know how to play music, but.
Speaker 1 (15:41):
It's okay, Yeah, yeah it doesn't matter. I love them
that song Living in the City because I was thinking, yeah,
you grew up in the city.
Speaker 5 (15:50):
Yeah, this really has the vibe. Yeah, that's like those
lyrics are definitely like characters from my past. It's kind
of like all of the characters of Tompkins Square Park
that I grew up. Yes, yeah, like Big Danny and
there was a guy named Hatred, and like a bunch
of like the there was like the biker alley, and
(16:11):
then like the old polishman like playing chess.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
Yeah, you know, I used to live over there, probably
when you were Yeah, you were in high school, because
really I'm that much older. I feel like I moved
to the city when I was twenty and I lived
in the East Village. That was in nineteen ninety nine.
Speaker 5 (16:26):
Wow, So I bet I it's a cool time to
live there.
Speaker 13 (16:30):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (16:30):
I used to walk through the park and do you
remember the blackout?
Speaker 5 (16:35):
Yeah, but I was out of town.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
I was on tour. I was on tour.
Speaker 5 (16:38):
It was so fun, I know, I was. I've never
been more jealous to not be in the city. I'm
sure I remember.
Speaker 1 (16:44):
It was just so like civil and everybody was kind.
Speaker 5 (16:47):
Everybody was like at one point they like started a
bonfire in the park, but like the cops were okay
with it. It was just like this weird truce where
everyone was like, sure, drink and start this fire and
never would eat your ice cream, and like, you know
what I mean?
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Nice wasn't that It was just a year or two
after nine to eleven Maybe I think I set people
were all scared at first, and then everybody was extra
nice to everybody.
Speaker 5 (17:11):
Totally.
Speaker 1 (17:12):
There's so weird dynamic there that was happening.
Speaker 5 (17:15):
For me, Like at that age, I look back like
I just didn't comprehend how serious anything was.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
You know.
Speaker 5 (17:21):
I was in I was a freshman when nine to
eleven happened, and I was so just like, Wow, something's happening.
Like the gravity of Now it's so different to like
go through world events, you know. Yeah, because at that
age I was just like, oh, this is an adventure
instead of like understanding gravity of stuff.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
That's interesting. I feel like kids now understand the gravity
of everything and they take it so much harder. Yeah
we did when we were kids.
Speaker 5 (17:49):
I know. It must be like access to information.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, it's a lot of that. It's intense for well,
it's intense for adults now.
Speaker 5 (17:58):
Oh, it's intense for all of us.
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Yeah, life is crazy. So you're working on a new album.
Speaker 5 (18:04):
Yeah, I finished recording it. So we're like mixing Now, Okay,
that's great. I'm so excited.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
Is it New Orleans made or is it nowhere else?
Speaker 5 (18:14):
I've been recording in North Carolina and Durham Wow, yeah, fun. Yeah.
My friend Brad Cook lives out there, okay, and he's
who I made Life on Earth with. And it was
just like that whole experience was like life changing for me.
You know, I'd never had such a like therapeutic experience
with like making a record, you.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
Know, really, so I feel like when I listen to
that album, I feel that oh good. Yeah, it's a
really special one. And that song too, Oh yeah, should
we do that? Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 5 (18:48):
I'm going to try you try a different guitar. I'm
gonna try this Nylon.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Do you play piano on it?
Speaker 5 (18:55):
Are you cool?
Speaker 1 (18:55):
If I play piano? No, that is not me, that's
not you.
Speaker 5 (18:58):
That's actually Brad's brother, Phil Cook, who is like such
an angel.
Speaker 1 (19:03):
That sounds great.
Speaker 5 (19:05):
Yeah, he It's like very It's such a great experience
recording there because you're just like hanging in the backyard
and he's like, hey, Phil, like in the studio in
the back they want to come lay down a piano
part and then it's like a heartbreakingly beautiful, really sweet.
(19:26):
That sounds nice.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, yeah, is that my Yeah, that's my Willie Nelson dart.
I did a I did a whole tour. This is
in maybe twenty No. Two thousand and nine, and my
band at the end of the tour it was Sasha Dobson,
Smoky Hormel, Joy Warnker and Gus Seifert and John Kirby.
(19:48):
They bought me that nylon string as a gift. It
was like a year long, you know, crazy tour. Yeah,
they bought me that and it's it's like a Willie
Nelson model. Wow, I mean they I was trying to
be Willie Nelson. Basically. They bought me that guitar and
it's definitely not warn as trigger, but it's meant to.
Speaker 5 (20:09):
Be that at time though.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I don't think it'll ever get like that.
Speaker 5 (20:13):
Oh it's so nice. I got to play this with
Preservation Hall. Have you ever played with that?
Speaker 1 (20:20):
No? But I was wondering who's on the record, because
I hear Lawren's on the record.
Speaker 5 (20:24):
Those those are all Durham guys. Oh, there's like an
incredible scene in Durham of jazz musicians. But we got
to do another version with pres Hall in New Orleans. Nice,
I got. It'd be so fun if you played there.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Well, now that I know you, I'm coming to New
Orleans really now I have a few friends down there.
Speaker 6 (20:43):
Oh cool.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Do you know the Tank in the Bengals Crew.
Speaker 5 (20:45):
I've never met that?
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Oh you should.
Speaker 5 (20:47):
I mean, like, they're so mind blowingly talented.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
They are, but they're also just great people. They'd love
you and you'd love them. It would be fun.
Speaker 5 (20:57):
Let's I'm definitely a big Her name is Tank. Her
name is Tank. Yeah, I love her like spoken words.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
Yeah, it's amazing. Yeah, she's really Her brain is like
floating with stuff all the time. Yeah, you guys should
hang Maybe I'll come down there and I'll hang out.
Oh my god, that would be fun. Let's start a band.
I'm down. I need a new band. Why not just
add them?
Speaker 5 (21:25):
Add them to your wallet.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
I love doing music. I love music.
Speaker 5 (21:29):
Okay, let's should we just try it? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (21:34):
You want me to start it?
Speaker 5 (21:35):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (21:35):
That weird?
Speaker 5 (21:36):
No, that's great.
Speaker 17 (22:06):
Sky trees and birds and lobbies, live ownerzies along.
Speaker 7 (22:21):
Rivers and lakes and floods of quays, live owners.
Speaker 16 (22:31):
This long.
Speaker 6 (22:35):
Han o mine not me, they.
Speaker 18 (22:49):
Leaveving beon drabs.
Speaker 6 (23:02):
Won't you hold me? So can't see.
Speaker 19 (23:17):
The lining, the massket, the desk with a flask sings
li Foruner is long, and.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
The girl and a cage with the mon sings Lie
foruner is long.
Speaker 17 (23:45):
And not.
Speaker 6 (23:47):
Lie, not me.
Speaker 20 (23:51):
They two feel the breathe and breathe the Oh it's
(24:13):
in May.
Speaker 14 (24:20):
And fitly.
Speaker 2 (24:27):
Monarchs in fly, the downs, early light.
Speaker 21 (24:34):
Lie forn Earth is long and the sun in the
west and the white.
Speaker 22 (24:46):
Love best all Liner.
Speaker 5 (24:51):
Is long.
Speaker 6 (24:55):
And not mine, not me, you that.
Speaker 23 (25:09):
You're spared, blinded, bad space?
Speaker 16 (25:21):
Who about the lightning strikes a little my name, it's
the name.
Speaker 5 (26:04):
And not mine, not me.
Speaker 24 (26:10):
That through thelxies of song and pray.
Speaker 13 (26:31):
Be lost in time, growing of vine, Egyptian spring.
Speaker 25 (26:50):
Loving Beijing, li fners is all All for honors.
Speaker 2 (27:12):
Is low.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Song makes me want to cry. Yeah, I felt such
a beautiful song.
Speaker 5 (27:24):
Thank you?
Speaker 1 (27:25):
How did you feel?
Speaker 5 (27:26):
Oh? No good? I was just saying, like from since
recording it, I was like I sang that low. That's crazy.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
Oh yeah you raised the key.
Speaker 5 (27:35):
Yeah yeah, no, that song is very much. That was
like my pandemic. How to get out of this song? Yeah,
trying to write like a love song for like humanity
and beautiful. I hear that in it.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
It's really it makes me cry. I read something about
you coming back to yourself during that time. Yeah, and
there's a line in one of your other songs it's
been a terrible news week. Oh yeah, mine. It made
me think of that and related to this, and yeah,
it's a real it's a real like zoom back out
(28:12):
into yourself kind of thing, which I kind of can
relate to, you know.
Speaker 5 (28:16):
Yeah, I feel like we were all going through that,
like you know, it's kind of what I was saying
before about taking stock or feeling things that happened a
decade ago. It was like just this really incredible moment
where we're all kind of having a montage of our
entire life being like all the times and all the
bad times and all the good times. And I mean,
(28:39):
I think we haven't really been able to fully feel
what happened to all of us, you know. I agree.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
It's funny because I remember in the beginning, I have
two small kids, and so in the beginning of the pandemic,
you know, there was a certain point in time where
it was like we spent it with a couple friends.
Oh y begin which I was like, this is amazing.
Speaker 5 (29:03):
We could to hang out with our friends.
Speaker 1 (29:04):
We're doing totally okay considering all things. Considering we're doing
totally fine. I looked at back at pictures recently. In hindsight,
I'm like, we were a mess, but I didn't realize it,
you know, like my kids were a mess. We were
a mess. My friends were as Yeah, we were all
a mess. I was drinking so much wine.
Speaker 5 (29:25):
Oh my god, with the wine. I know that was
like the one place that didn't close. Yeah, exactly, Yeah, Yeah,
I feel like we're all so scared and we were also,
I mean, New Orleans and New York both got hit
so hard and there was so much gratitude that I felt,
(29:45):
but also like mixed with this like panic and yeah,
I just had like this whole album got me through
and it was kind of this It sounds really intense,
but it was like this feeling of like if this
is the end, this is like the I'm capsule. I
want to leave for the aliens, you know.
Speaker 1 (30:02):
Sweet, this feels like a love song to your life,
you know, and to all life on earth. Yeah, I'd
love to do that song so.
Speaker 5 (30:14):
Totally.
Speaker 1 (30:15):
This is also from Life on Earth.
Speaker 5 (30:17):
Yes, okay, yeah, yeah, this is like my song for
like little Alinda. I talk about like getting into other
people's songwriting. I've been writing the song for years and
I couldn't figure out how to write it.
Speaker 6 (30:31):
And then.
Speaker 5 (30:33):
Heroes was playing, like in a coffee shop. I was like, oh,
I'll just like try to do that, but change it,
you know, So I just like played Heroes and then
was like, Okay, something happens, like when you're like copying
something and then it becomes a photocopy of a photo, you.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Know, like, yeah, it's not the thing at all anything.
Speaker 5 (30:51):
Yeah, totally. But that was the song that like unlocked
this for me.
Speaker 1 (30:55):
Okay, yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 5 (30:59):
Cool. Should I just start out?
Speaker 1 (31:02):
I was coming.
Speaker 5 (31:19):
Take it.
Speaker 2 (31:21):
They always want you to take it.
Speaker 26 (31:25):
Just close your rasp, baby, fake it, burning inside out, shaking, screaming,
hysterical racket lost in an option of requid, burning, inside.
Speaker 6 (31:45):
Out, cold feet.
Speaker 8 (31:51):
I was a kid, I smallly would have done an
illegally to be by.
Speaker 6 (31:59):
His well, I can't speak.
Speaker 14 (32:06):
I get the feeling, my horary.
Speaker 6 (32:09):
It's been a terrible news week, man.
Speaker 5 (32:18):
Do I don't know how.
Speaker 6 (32:25):
Or no, no, hew, he.
Speaker 5 (32:33):
But I.
Speaker 6 (32:36):
I don't this to be.
Speaker 9 (32:39):
The song of my life, the song of my life,
the song.
Speaker 5 (32:47):
Of my.
Speaker 8 (32:50):
I just want to be free, Get over it in time,
push it out of mama.
Speaker 2 (33:18):
Cold faith. I was a kid out only he pushed
me down on the car creep.
Speaker 6 (33:32):
Now I can't speak.
Speaker 14 (33:35):
I get to feel mord bet.
Speaker 6 (33:39):
I'll just make it through this week and I'll get
it out a life.
Speaker 22 (33:47):
But I don't, honey, I don't know how, Oh, Dona, Donna, don't.
Speaker 6 (33:58):
Don't know how.
Speaker 5 (34:02):
But I.
Speaker 6 (34:05):
Don't want this to be.
Speaker 9 (34:08):
The song of my life, the song of my life,
the song of mynd.
Speaker 8 (34:19):
I just wanted to be free, Get over it in time,
push it out of my mind.
Speaker 23 (34:30):
Mine and nobody believed me. Nobody believed me. Nobody believes me.
Nobody believes Oh, nobody believed me. Nobody believed he believe
(34:54):
nobody believed me. Nobody believed.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
That was good.
Speaker 1 (35:25):
It's beautiful. I'm glad you wrote that song.
Speaker 13 (35:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Yeah, this song is so so heavy, and it's just
I don't know. Do people come up to you a
lot about it?
Speaker 5 (35:40):
Yes? Have you gotten a lot of Yeah, A lot
of people telling me like that. They relate to it
or that they feel seen by it, and it's you know,
and it's like, of course about my particular experience, but
it can lend itself to any like traumatic life moment
(36:00):
that you're just like, you know, I was writing, I
was just trying to express like I identified with traumatic
events in my life for so long, and then I
reached a point where I was like, I don't really
want to identify with this anymore, Like I'd love to
identify as like an adventurer.
Speaker 1 (36:18):
Like that's what I love about this now, the way
it's addressing how you really feel at this point in
your life about it. Yeah, I could see people relating
so much to it.
Speaker 5 (36:29):
Yeah, because I think we're afraid to let go of
hard times because then they do become At least for me,
I was afraid of like letting go. Maybe I was
afraid of feeling happiness, or maybe I was afraid like
then what was it all for if not wearing it
as like a badge of honor or something. And then
(36:49):
I realized like, oh, it's always in me, It's always
within me, Like it's okay to like set it free. Yeah,
you know, And I think I was afraid of well,
then what's next If I like embrace healing or happiness,
then I can be let down.
Speaker 1 (37:07):
You know. Oh, it's true.
Speaker 5 (37:09):
So it's like this vulnerability of like let's just jump
off the cliff and like see what happens.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
You know, it's very vulnerable. It's not a unique perspective
because I'm sure a lot of people relate to it,
but it's it's a unique framing of something in this form,
this art form.
Speaker 5 (37:28):
You know.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
It feels so good to encapsulate things like this in
some form, I think, And yeah, I just think it's
such a you should be really proud of it. It's
very oh, thank you, very liberating song. It's really beautiful.
Speaker 5 (37:42):
Thank you. Yeah. I felt so relieved when it was recorded,
just like you must have, you know, yeah, because it
took me a lot of years. I mean, it took
me a lot of years to feel like that, and
then it took me years to write it. It's that
thing about like simple but but complicated, you know.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
Yeah, it's life. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's really an interesting
feeling to be inside listening to the song, you know
what I mean.
Speaker 5 (38:10):
Well, thanks for playing it with me.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
It's a great one.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
Yay.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
We were friends though I know we do.
Speaker 5 (38:19):
Even when we were texting, I was like, wow, I
feel like we already are from Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
When you texted me back, I was like, Okay, this
is gonna be awesome.
Speaker 5 (38:26):
Yeah, it's such a relief I know about feeling. Should
we do living in the city.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Yeah, let's do that one limn in the city.
Speaker 5 (38:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Should we do the response to yeah?
Speaker 5 (38:41):
Will you okay? Yeah? Okay, cool?
Speaker 4 (38:43):
Wow, dude, Wade, I got hurricane.
Speaker 2 (39:07):
Oh, I'm big name.
Speaker 12 (39:08):
He's wasted, he said, I'm the sweetest thing.
Speaker 15 (39:15):
That is new.
Speaker 6 (39:16):
The tasted.
Speaker 12 (39:19):
Mya buzzer, singing love songs.
Speaker 27 (39:23):
All in her dark apartment, fourteen floors of birden and
fourteen floors a die.
Speaker 18 (39:35):
Living in the city, Living in city, Wei, just living
in the CD live it in the city, living.
Speaker 6 (39:43):
In the city.
Speaker 2 (39:44):
Boy, Well, it's hard, it's hard. It's hard.
Speaker 12 (39:50):
I take you to the stairwell.
Speaker 6 (39:54):
I'll give you something I can offer.
Speaker 24 (39:58):
You know.
Speaker 2 (39:58):
The heart, it's not the hope.
Speaker 13 (40:02):
The heart is a lonely hunter.
Speaker 2 (40:06):
How long summer days.
Speaker 12 (40:09):
We're just sneaking by the river.
Speaker 6 (40:13):
Overlock my dreams away.
Speaker 12 (40:17):
And I'll watch the city quibb.
Speaker 18 (40:22):
Living in the city, living in switches living in the city, living, and.
Speaker 14 (40:29):
It's all living in the city boy.
Speaker 2 (40:32):
Well it's hard, it's sold it's hard.
Speaker 12 (40:36):
You know, Gypsy bit the dust, you know the shit
(41:05):
he had it was poison.
Speaker 6 (41:08):
Now everybody wants.
Speaker 28 (41:12):
Just a taste of what we saw now standing on
the rooftops, which is yelling till the morning, all surrounded
by the visions.
Speaker 14 (41:28):
Oh keeper fool them.
Speaker 6 (41:32):
Living in the city.
Speaker 18 (41:34):
Then it is witches living in the city, all live
it a city.
Speaker 2 (41:42):
Boy, where it's hard, it's hard, it's hard.
Speaker 6 (41:48):
Living in the city. It is swizes living in the city.
Speaker 18 (41:55):
Its all live it in city boy, where it's hard.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
It's hard, it's hard, it's hard, it's hard, it's hard.
Speaker 5 (42:14):
Yeah, fun, I could taste the city right like that
hot garbage smell.
Speaker 6 (42:20):
Yeah, I feel it.
Speaker 5 (42:23):
It's crazy.
Speaker 1 (42:25):
And last night you did a show at Joe's Pub.
Speaker 2 (42:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:29):
It was a special show with actors ye for the
Navigator album.
Speaker 5 (42:34):
Yeah. So when I wrote the Navigator, I always had
it in mind where I was like, I want this
to be a play somehow, like not quite a musical,
kind of like rock musical, but like the soundtrack to
the story. And everyone around me was like I think
you're losing your mind lovingly. Yeah, yeah, but so I
wrote this play, but I've never written a play before.
(42:57):
And then finally that was in like twenty seventeen. Finally,
in twenty twenty, I connected with Joe's Pub and they
connected me with a playwright see Julian Jimenez. Cool, and
we've been creating it since the first week of Lockdown,
like you did it, yeah, yeah, And we were able
(43:18):
to do it this past weekend at Joe's Pub with
four actors and it was just like a dream come true.
It was so cool.
Speaker 1 (43:26):
That is cool. Do you have any plans to do
it some more?
Speaker 5 (43:29):
Well, we hope that that was just the beginning. We're
kind of presenting it as like a work in progress,
and hopefully this is like a long process of us
making it a real thing.
Speaker 1 (43:39):
You know. Great, Yeah, it's a really cool yeah, and
you're in it and you're seeing Yeah.
Speaker 5 (43:43):
Me and the band were like, you know, we kind
of see ourselves as like the jazz cats in the alley.
Speaker 1 (43:49):
You know.
Speaker 5 (43:50):
My friend Lynn Legamari played a saxophone and it was
just like so cool.
Speaker 29 (43:55):
You know, it felt very New York. It's a very
like city story. So yeah, yeah, yeah that album too. Yeah, total, yeah,
this is super fun. I know you want to do
Drunken Angel, Yes for sure.
Speaker 1 (44:09):
Yeah, it's funny. You grew up in the Bronx, but
you got country in your soul.
Speaker 5 (44:14):
I really I don't know where, you know. Me and
my aunt and my dad, we used to drive to
Florida every summerh and that'll do it. Something really happened
in that, like mini van you know. Yeah. They would
make jokes about how like we'd get to waffle House
and all of a sudden, I'd take on like a
fake Southern accent and be like morning like to everybody,
(44:36):
just like you're a Puerto Rican from the Bronx, what
are you doing? Well?
Speaker 1 (44:40):
Florida's pretty country, it is, yeah, when you get down there.
I grew up going to Florida in the summers.
Speaker 5 (44:46):
Oh really. We would go to Sarasota.
Speaker 1 (44:48):
Okay, I've never been there. Oh yeah, because Dallas that's
where your friend how is my aunt lived in Gainesville?
Speaker 5 (44:54):
Oh okay, I'd go there a lot. Lucinda's one of
my favorites though. I got to meet her and play
music with her one time. Really it was it was
so cool.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
What did you guys play?
Speaker 5 (45:06):
We played we were on a cruise, which is god yeah,
Sah Williams. We played, we played a Whitty Guthrie song.
We played another one of her favorite of her songs.
That's my favorite is people Talking one. Okay, so for
this should we trade? Yeah? Is that cool? I love that? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (45:29):
I love her so much too.
Speaker 5 (45:31):
Yeah. And I was saying, gosh, I should have brought
you the book, her memoir. Oh yeah, so she you
just were reading it?
Speaker 1 (45:38):
She didn't memore? Is it new?
Speaker 5 (45:40):
It really?
Speaker 1 (45:40):
Okay, I'll get it on my kindle like a couple
of months old. Okay, I would love to read that.
Speaker 5 (45:46):
Yeah cool, should we give it a go? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (45:56):
So you recorded this song?
Speaker 2 (45:58):
Yeah? For that?
Speaker 5 (46:00):
Blaze? Fully my god, that was so surreal. I just
got an email one day that was like, Hi, this
is Ethan Hawk. Just like cool. So someone's email got
hat because what are you talking about? And he's just like,
do you want to play Blaze Foley's sister. I'm just like,
I'm obsessed with Blaze, Folly, this is and Towns in
(46:21):
that whole world, you know, Like so it's just such
a dream. And then Chris Christofferson was my dad's. Now
every time I see him in a movie, I'm like,
there's my dad, So you were in them.
Speaker 1 (46:32):
I didn't see the movie.
Speaker 5 (46:33):
Oh it's really in the movie. Yeah, I mean to
see it.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
And I can't watch movies anymore, Like I know, I
want it.
Speaker 5 (46:41):
It's really heartbreaking too. This is just such a like
beautiful and tragic story. And we all know a drunken angel,
you know, somebody that you're just like, you're so lovely
and you're like haunted by this addiction. But yeah, so
I got to cover the song and like be a
part of the whole thing.
Speaker 1 (46:58):
It was so cool. He said, makes good music choices. Yeah,
he loves music.
Speaker 5 (47:05):
Yeah, and he was just so like wonderful to work
with and it was really great. And Blaze's wife, Sybil,
was like a part of the whole cool thing and
like wrote it with him. So it was just amazing
to like be in that world, you know. Yeah, because
I've been listening to the song forever and then being
and like once I found out who was about, I
(47:27):
just love the mythology of like I didn't know that.
Oh yeah I wrote about Blaze. Yeah, and you know
he had he had a thing about like duct taping
his shoes. He like kind of had a vow of
poverty is what they called it. He's like, I'm a
man of the people type thing, so he would like
not not get new shoes, and like, you know, just yeah,
(47:50):
very it's it's a very New Orleans vibe.
Speaker 1 (47:52):
Yeah, did you guys shoot at New Orleans.
Speaker 5 (47:55):
We went to a place in western Louisiana.
Speaker 1 (47:57):
Okay, but okay, I want to watch it now.
Speaker 5 (48:00):
Yeah, I'm only I'm in it very short amount in
the middle, but special thing is so gorgeous.
Speaker 1 (48:05):
And Chris, oh my god, yeah, the best.
Speaker 4 (48:10):
Why dude, three.
Speaker 2 (48:32):
Sun came up? It was another day when.
Speaker 12 (48:36):
The sun went down, you were blown away.
Speaker 13 (48:39):
Why'n't you let go of your guitar?
Speaker 14 (48:42):
Why did you ever let.
Speaker 2 (48:44):
It go that far?
Speaker 13 (48:45):
Drunken Angel.
Speaker 6 (48:49):
Could add on it, the.
Speaker 30 (48:51):
Long smooth neck, let your head, remember every bread fingers
touching it, shiny stream, but you let go of everything.
Speaker 13 (49:02):
Drunken Angel, drunk it Angel.
Speaker 31 (49:09):
You're on the other side. Drunk it Angel, You're on
the other side.
Speaker 32 (49:41):
Followers would claim me hang around just to meet you.
Some through loses at your feet, watched you pass out
on the street.
Speaker 13 (49:54):
Drunk in Angel. Feed you and.
Speaker 32 (49:59):
Pay off oil nets, kiss you, bawn, taste you, sweat,
ride about your soul your guts, criticize you, and wish
you like Drunken Angel.
Speaker 13 (50:14):
Drugging Angel.
Speaker 14 (50:18):
You're on the other side.
Speaker 13 (50:21):
Drugging Angel.
Speaker 33 (50:25):
You're on the other side, some kind of savior, singing
(50:51):
the blues. Derelict in your duct tape shoes, your orphan
clothes and your long dark.
Speaker 13 (50:59):
Hair, looking like you didn't care. Drunken Angel.
Speaker 30 (51:06):
Blessed out from the hole in your heart, over the strings.
Speaker 26 (51:11):
Of your guitar, the worn out places in the wood,
the ones that made you feel so good.
Speaker 34 (51:19):
Drunken Angel. Drunking Angel, You're on the other side. Drunking Angel.
Speaker 2 (51:33):
You're on the other side.
Speaker 6 (51:37):
Son came up.
Speaker 9 (51:38):
It was another day when the sun went down.
Speaker 6 (51:42):
You were blown away. Why'd you let go out of
your guitar? Why'd you ever let it go that far?
Speaker 13 (51:50):
Drunken Angel, Dunking Angel.
Speaker 5 (52:05):
Yay, yay, oh my god, thank you so much for
having me awesome. Yeah, thanks for doing this. Of course, I'll.
Speaker 1 (52:14):
Tell you very soon.
Speaker 5 (52:15):
I don't want to say goodbye, I.
Speaker 1 (52:17):
Know me neither, Like get a room at the hotel. Well,
we'll hang okay good Yeah cool. Now now that we know, yeah, totally,
we're good match.
Speaker 5 (52:30):
We can meet friends. Yeah and reson.
Speaker 1 (52:32):
Yeah, hey, thanks for listening to the show.
Speaker 6 (52:36):
That was so fun. That was so great.
Speaker 3 (52:38):
I wish we had time for so many more songs.
Speaker 1 (52:41):
Yeah, they'll be more. I feel like, well, we'll meet
down the road and do some more. If you're wondering
about the what songs we did do today, we did
a song from their twenty twenty two album Life on
Earth called Rhododendron, another one from that album called Life
on Earth, and Saga all so from that album. We
(53:02):
did a song from the album The Navigator from twenty
seventeen called Living in the City, and then we did
the Lucinda Williams song called Drunken Angel. Lucinda's version was
from a nineteen ninety eight album Car Wheels on a
Gravel Road, and Alinda also has a recorded version of
(53:22):
the song from the Blaze Foley movie called Blaze. This
episode was recorded by Matt Marinelli, mixed by Jamie Landry,
edited by Sarah Oda, Additional editing and mixing by Matthew Vesquez.
Artwork by Eliza Frye Photography by Shervin Lenez, Produced by
Me and Sarah Oda. Babysitting by Steve Angus,
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