Pullin’ ‘Tubes | Hurray For The Riff Raff Preview New Album

While we are not even done with 2013, I’m ready to declare that Hurray For The Riff Raff are going to have a break-out year in 2014. The New Orleans-based band has spent the last year and a half touring behind their excellent self-released debut, Look Out Mama, which features their spin on modern Americana music, blending elements of traditional Appalachian folk, country, blues, doo-wop and girl-group pop. On February 11 Hurray For The Riff Raff will release their highly-anticipated follow-up, Small Town Heroes, via ATO Records.

For those who aren’t familiar with the band, their lead singer Alynda Lee Segarra has lived quite the life for someone who is just into their mid-twenties. Back in late-July I penned this quick primer when previewing the band for the Newport Folk Festival…

Barely into her twenties, Hurray For The Riff Raff front woman’s life story is the living embodiment of a folk song. Her weird and winding tale is something straight out of a Jack Kerouac novel. At just 17-years-old she ran away from her home in the Bronx to hop freight trains across the country, found herself playing washboard in a band of fellow travelers and eventually landed in New Orleans where she taught herself to play the banjo and began writing songs on her own. Segarra has channeled those experiences into her music, with wise-beyond-her-years lyrics set to country-infused folk-blues, all punctuated by her cooing warbly vocals.

Late last week Hurray For The Riff Raff gave fans an advance look at what’s to come by releasing the music video for the album’s lead single, “End Of The Line.” Let’s check out the clip, which follows the band on the road, on stage and in and around their hometown of New Orleans…

Written By: Jeffrey Greenblatt