Listening to Lysa Flores for the first time....

After a long day such as today, one thing I like to do is hang out with my lap dog and listen to some music. Now as much as I love Rage Against the Machine or Rancid, I just wanted something I could relax to tonight. I wasn't in the mood for country or jazz. As I looked through my Itunes, I remembered I burned some CDs the other day from someone else's music collection. The guy I borrowed the music from is really into Latin Alternative, a genre I figured out I have lots to learn about still. Well, one of the CDs I burned was by a woman out of East L.A. named Lysa Flores. This particular album I picked up was called "The Making of a Trophy Grrrl!".

I played the album with no expectations what so ever. I had never heard of her before yesterday, nor did I research her online the way I would with most artists. In fact, I am not sure why I picked up her CD to burn. It was just in a pile of CDs I grabbed to burn into my Itunes. I just wanted to hear some new stuff in this Latin Alternative genre. Once I clicked play on the album, I was immediately drawn in. It wasn't just background music anymore, as I actually began playing close attention to her voice, the lyrics, and the musicianship of it all.

So while I was listening, I "Googled" her and found both her website and myspace. According to her website bio ,she is a first generation Mexican American artist with three CDs to her credit. After looking through her pictures and listening to her music, she strikes me as the kind of person one would label or tag as "earthy" or "creative". There is definitely some element of Frida Khalo mixed with some Annie DeFranco.


Lysa Flores sings in both English and Spanish, which as a Latino I appreciate. While her English tracks are good, I think she sounds better in Spanish. Her song "En Que Te Falte" sounds like an early, raw Shakira. For those who don't know, Shakira was not always blonde and did not always sing in English. Before she "crossed over", she was more amazing than she is now. Now Flores is not the entertainer Shakira is, but certainly an amazing artist. Because I have no liner notes, I don't know who writes her songs but I imagine that she does most if it. Other noteable tracks I liked were "Novia" and "I won't forget you".

While doing more research online about Flores, I was disappointed that I did not see any Austin or even San Antonio dates coming up. In fact, there are zero Texas dates on her schedule thus far. Not chido Lysa. Not chido at all. Her album I just listened to is fantastic and it would be cool to see her live. Oh well, one day perhaps.