Lindi Ortega has been making records for more than a decade, but in many ways it seems as though she’s just getting started. The Toronto-born, Nashville-based roots artist has garnered critical acclaim with Little Red Boots (2011) and Cigarettes and Truckstops (2012), and her 2013 effort Tin Star helped her become the Roots Artist of the Year at last year’s Canadian Country Music Awards. But up until this year, I was one of many to proclaim “I’ve heard of her, but I still need to listen to her music”.
If you still belong in that group, stop everything you’re doing and listen to her now. With a uniquely powerful voice and a love for music from decades past, Lindi is a bit of an enigma in today’s music community. There is no doubt she lives on the outskirts of country music, unafraid to avoid current trends and instead pull from influences long since faded. She is making music that is timeless, that would have been just as relevant in the ‘70s as it is today, and will be decades from now. Her latest album, Faded Gloryville, released August 7th from Last Gang Records imprint Grand Tour Records, is no exception. Recorded in three sessions with four different producers (Colin Linden, Ben Tanner, John Paul White and Dave Cobb), one might be concerned about the overall cohesiveness of the record, but let me put that to bed now.
Though only three songs (“Someday Soon,” “To Love Somebody” and “When You Ain’t Home”) were recorded in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, the area’s musical history has a strong influence on the entire record. With her soulful vocals and jazz/blues-inspired production, Lindi would have fit right in with The Swampers in their heyday at the legendary FAME Studios (and, later, Muscle Shoals Sound Studio).
The old-timey quality of Lindi’s voice is used in just the right ways here, from its haunting quiver on the title track to its sassy smoothness on “I Ain’t the Girl.” Whether listeners are foot-tapping to Brian Allen’s bass-playing on “Run Amuck” or intently engrossed in the heartbreak of Lindi’s vocals (and former Civil Wars member John Paul White’s gorgeous harmonies) on “Someday Soon,” by the time the needle stops spinning they will, if they allow themselves to, find their own will to carry on, despite struggles and despite hopelessness.
Just as interesting as the whimsical sound on this genre-defying record is its narrative: personal and professional heartbreak, confident defiance, and hidden insecurities. Lindi masterfully runs the gamut of human emotions in this 10 chapter story we can all relate to.
“I don’t wanna daydream / I don’t wanna wish for you / I don’t wanna find out that none of what you said was true,” she desperately laments on “Ashes,” voicing those fears most of us have when disembarking from a brief but passionate relationship. “Somethin’ better is waiting for me / I don’t know what, but this much is true / I’m gonna find out someday soon” she voices with quiet confidence on “Someday Soon”.
Inspired by the Oscar-nominated 2009 film Crazy Heart, the title track is the most obvious nod to the trials and tribulations that come with fame, a moody story about coming to the realization that the grand dreams we had as children were not realistic: “There ain’t no stars in Faded Gloryville / We’ve chased our dreams into the ground / If disillusion has some hope to kill / Here nobody wears a crown.”
In many ways this is a coming of age record, but not in the cliche way we’ve often come to know over the years. This isn’t about leaving home for the first time or detaching from our comfort and reliance on our parents. This is about a young woman experiencing the world — all of its joy and all of its heartbreak — and coming out on the other side stronger and more confident, but still human. On the gorgeous album closer “Half Moon,” she admits what so many of us refuse to: no matter how brave we are, we all have good days and bad days. Sometimes we’re eclipsed and sometimes we’re full.
In the album’s acknowledgements, Lindi discusses how she came to understand the word “success” and confesses the struggles she’s faced in the music industry. She says despite moments of self-doubt, she’s realized that Leonard Cohen is right: “success is survival”.
Survival, to me, is what Faded Gloryville represents. It’s not just about surviving in the music industry, it’s about surviving life. Surviving heartbreak. Surviving our own insecurities. Lindi may not be the “perfect girl” for a “clean-cut” guy with “polished shoes,” but the truth is no one else is either. Perfection simply doesn’t exist; life is messy, it’s hard, it’s painful. But it’s when we come to terms, not only with our own imperfections but with everyone else’s too, that we can learn the most important thing: it can also be wonderful. And even when people disappoint us or our dreams don’t come true, we can survive it.
Originally posted here.
