And the Dance?

Luz Elena, the main voice and songwriter behind Portland band Y La Bamba, has quite a story to tell. Her parents were Mexican immigrants that brought their family to America for a better life. She grew up in the San Francisco area with a socially sheltered and staunch catholic upbringing listening to mostly traditional Mexican music. Later in life she traveled to New Zealand to further study Theology, eventually missioned to India, contracted disease, suffered from Insomnia, lost 60 pounds, etc. and her journey back to health left her in Portland. She mingled with the eclectic music scene there of and Y La Bamba was born...kind of. So that's the short story of her background that can give you an insight in to where her incredible songwriting is being pulled from. She's had a wild ride it seems. She started mostly doing acoustic stuff-recording raw songs to her mac-book, which kind of turned into her first effort entitled "Alida St." Her style is her own, a version of freak-folk, if you will. You'll instantly fall in love with her voice. Very classy and crisp, but the way it unpredictably twists up and down through the songs is what hooks you. She has an uncanny prowess and is great alone, but when she meshes with the full band their sound really shines. They're a super talented group of musicians (6 including Luz) using horns, accordion, fiddle, singing saw, percussion, and guitars to delicately carry their complex vocal harmonies through the songs in an almost jazzy sort of way. It's very light, beautiful and blissful music that you can sway and groove to with ease. Something like a Latino influenced Thao Nguyen meets Beirut meets Devendra Banhart. Hooky acoustic guitar melodies, an ambience of horns, strings and accordion, and groovy drum rhythms backing a powerful vocal force that instantly consumes you. Their first real full-length entitled "Lupon" was released in 2010 and is highly recommended.

-BlackReignbow

download it