Lindi Ortega is on a roll. Her Little Red Boots and Cigarettes and Truckstops albums have been nominated for music awards, her 2013 Tin Star album helped her win a Canadian Country Music Award for Roots Artist of the Year. But her latest project finds inspiration in the music of performers who may be past their peaks. It’s called Faded Gloryville, and Ortega’s inspiration ranges wide — including Jeff Bridges’ bruised character in the movie Crazy Heart. But even with fictional motivations, Ortega strives to speak to the reality of the unpredictable, wandering life of being a musician with this album.
The album was captured over three sessions, which were respectively produced by Dave Cobb (Jason Isbell, Shooter Jennings), Colin Linden…
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…(Blackie & the Rodeo Kings, Colin James, Bruce Cockburn), and the duo of Ben Tanner (Alabama Shakes) and John Paul White (the Civil Wars).
The sessions were all characterized by raw in-studio performances. According to a press release, “The goal was to create a record as broad and varied as Ortega’s influences, which run the gamut from ’70s country records to classic soul.”
In regards to the title, Ortega told Rolling Stone, “Faded Gloryville isn’t just about music. It’s about anything that brings you down, whether it’s dreams not coming true or relationships not working out, and its message is this: you can go to a place where you’re feeling really down about things, but it’s what you do afterwards — do you decide to reside there forever, or do you leave and make the situation better — that matters. You have to travel through Faded Gloryville to get to Paradise.”