(This article was published by Zocalo Magazine on March 1, 2010.)
photo: Michael Longstaff
A 28-year-old talented powerhouse, the lovely Leila Lopez is known for writing gorgeous albums and does it again with Fault Lines. It’s a low key record, sad and reflective yet lovingly open-minded and hopeful; scribed by an old soul with Zen maturity.
“(Its) definitely love and a lot of sadness, but the kind of sadness that really opens me up and forces me to become more conscious of others and myself,” Lopez explained.
Her lyrics are inspirational, touching and wise; these are tunes that deserve attentive listening. Between Lopez’s dexterous playing and vocals, it’s easy to get pulled into the songs’ stories.
Lopez describes herself as more of an observer than an extrovert, someone who processes things internally and finds release in writing songs.
The musician’s disk is a precious gift, tilled and harvested over time. A couple of the tracks were on her 2003 All Songs, the rest of the songs, “and the ideas for a lot of them have been spread out over so many years,” Lopez said.
The multi-instrumentalist self-recorded and produced the album in her home and plays guitar, bass, cello, harmonica, banjo and drums on it with contributions from Paul Nosa (drums), Brian Green (bass), Christabelle Merrill (violin) and Courtney Robbins (guitar).
Lopez’s live band includes Green and Merrill with Bruce Halper (drums), and occasionally Robbins.
Visit LeilaLopezSongs.com for a sampling of her sound. The free, all-ages CD release show takes places at Solar Culture, 31 E. Toole Ave., March 27, 2010 at 7 p.m.
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