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“Before you go, just one last taste, one for the road and our mistakes...”
Lindi Ortega tells it like it is: her songs are filled with all the excruciating details of troubled love, things that are not often spoken but are instantly recognised by those who have passed the same way. And it’s this heart-stopping realism, combined with an effortless flair for melody - and the voice of an angel - that’s currently turning heads in Toronto’s independent music scene.
Singer/songwriter Lindi was born in Canada to a Mexican father and a Northern Irish mother, a rich heritage reflected in her own exotic beauty and in her songwriting. She grew up listening to the greats of country music (Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton) and the legends of folk and fusion (Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, Leonard Cohen). Lindi’s music draws from these influences, mixes in a healthy appreciation of classic old-school pop and rock, and arrives vividly in the present via the dusty back-roads of alternative country, complete with surprising twists and turns. The result is a collection of timeless songs that range from “So Far Gone”, with its brassy, effervescent tunefulness and irresistible up-tempo, to the paranoid, late-night loneliness of “All My Friends”.
One of the most magical qualities in these recordings is Ortega’s striking and distinctive voice, one that can soar with beautiful clarity above driving drum beats and blaring horns or assume an intimate vulnerability within the stripped-down acoustic guitar setting of, say, “Dying Of Another Broken Heart”. Whatever kind of song she’s singing, Lindi’s extraordinary vibrato is immediately identifiable. And so is that bottle of Jack, over there in the corner.
Lindi’s lyrics are never simplistic. When they are dark, they are never quite despairing, and they are offset with a tongue-in-cheek humour. When they are light-hearted, hopeful and optimistic, there is usually always a warning that things can turn dark again, in the blink of an eye! This is real life - and Ortega’s words come straight from the heart and soul, singing like poetry.
2008 is shaping up to be an exciting year for Lindi Ortega, Toronto’s best-kept secret. Now, just watch her shine.
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