Photo: Kathy Magee

Hurray for the Riff Raff signed to Loose records last March 2011 and toured in the UK last May, you may have caught one of their shows, or heard their live session on Huey Morgan’s radio show on BBC 6 music (he’s a big fan).  If you did, you will not have forgotten Alynda Lee’s rich, emotive, wise-beyond-her-years voice.

Alynda ran away from home in the Bronx aged 17 and hopped freight trains from New York, winding her way down to Louisiana.  Settled in New Orleans, she works with a changing group of musicians.  When she visited the UK last year she was accompanied by Yosi Pearlstein on fiddle. We saw them upstairs at the Queens Head, Islington for the first night of their tour, at the end of the night when Alynda sang about the murder of her friend Sali down in Mexico, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Hurray for the Riff Raff are in the process of recording and releasing their next album ‘Look out Moma’ and have been running a Kickstarter campaign to fund the release in the States.  The album will be released later here in the UK on Loose records. The campaign only runs for 4 more days and to date they have already hit 135% of their target.

Why are we alerting you to this when they’ve already exceeded their target?  Well, as part of their campaign they are offering an exclusive covers album that we would highly recommend you sign up for, you just need to pledge $23.  Go and pledge before you miss your chance, it will not be available anywhere else.

The track listing for the covers album is

1. Delta Momma Blues (Townes Van Zandt)

2. Fine and Mellow (Billie Holiday/Big Bill Broonzy melody)

3. My Morphine (Gillian Welch)

4. Black Jack Davey (Carter Family)

5. Western Cowboy (LeadBelly arranged by Alynda lee Segarra)

6. Jealous Guy (John Lennon)

7. Just A Heart (James Hand)

8. Angel Ballad (Alynda lee Segarra adapted from Gillian Welch Melody)

9. Cuckoo (Alynda lee Segarra)

10. People Talkin’ (Lucinda Williams)

11. River (Joni Mitchell)

12. I’m Goin’ Away (Elizabeth Cotten)

13. Lonesome I Could Cry (Hank Williams Sr.)

14. Needin’ Time (Spiritual Traditional)

We filmed a beautiful session with Alynda Lee and Yosi Pearlstein in a North London kitchen on a particularly rainy May morning.  Here they cover Lucinda William’s ‘People Talkin’ which will be released on the covers album.  You can also see our other films from the same session, performing the title track from their new album Look Out Moma and Slow Walk off their last album.

We’ll alert you when they’re back on tour in the UK, there’s a plan for them to come back this autumn.  In the meantime, enjoy this, and sign up for their covers album.