Lindipendence Day
Putting the Catholic guilt that comes from being of Irish-Mexican stock behind her, Lindi Ortega is staking her claim as a 21st century Dolly Parton, with a little help from Brandon Flowers and… Kevin Costner?
Craig Fitzpatrick, 11 Nov 2011
Pre-show, somewhere in Paris, countrified singer-songwriter Lindi Ortega is curling her hair. She’s more than a little tired and multi-tasking, halfway through her first ever jaunt outside of North America.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” she sighs. “But I’m very pleased. It’s lovely to have Little Red Boots out there and have it heard by people outside my own country. My show in Dublin went down really well actually. Everybody seemed to be really into the music. My mom is Irish so I’ve travelled to Ireland before.”
Ah yes, the Canadian songstress is blessed with an Irish mother and a Mexican father. Surely that resulted in a lot of Catholic guilt growing up?
“Yeah, actually, it did!” she laughs. “There was a little bit of Catholic guilt but I got over it. After school I studied philosophy and started to learn about other things. That sorted me out.”
So how does a Canadian philosophy student end up indebted to the sound of Emmylou Harris and Dolly Parton?
“Because of my mom. She was really into country music when I was growing up. We used to watch the Dolly Parton Show together. She had a lot of Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson records as well, she kinda put the bug in my ear. And I found the older I got, the more I was drawn to the genre, particularly the old outlaw artists and traditional stuff, going way back into Gene Autry and Hank Williams territory.”
Ortega has been making her own music for over a decade, a fixture on Toronto’s independent scene, though a move to Nashville is on the cards in January
“I’m trying to get closer to finding myself a cowboy!” she smirks.
The Taste Of Forbidden Fruit was her first long-player back in 2001.
“That seems like a whole other me, a whole other lifetime ago. It’s pretty crazy to think there’s been such an evolution musically and personally for me since then.”
Ten years on, Little Red Boots seems set to finally announce her to the wider world. Some recent time as Brandon Flowers’ backing singer certainly helped.
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