CANMORE – If a blending of dark, raw emotion and spaghetti western tunes sounds like an interesting combination, then Canmore Folk Music Festival performer Lindi Ortega is the artist you’ve been looking for.
Ortega, who plays the folk fest on Aug. 4 on the Stan Rogers Stage starting at 8:50 p.m., is a consummate singer and songwriter who defies every attempt to pigeonhole her into an easy genre description.
Most reviews of Ortega’s voice compare her to Dolly Parton, or Loretta Lyn, which is high praise, but the Toronto born and Calgary-based singer-songwriter, deserves every bit of it. Her style has been described as “gothic country,” “indie country,” and “alternative country,” but to understand Ortega’s work requires listening to her latest album, Liberty.
Liberty, released on March 30, has more in common with a Clint Eastwood movie than a typical country album, but it works for Ortega. Sorrowful lyrics that speak to loss and loneliness are packaged on top of stylized instruments that make the mind wander to a freestanding saloon in the middle of a dusty plain, and of the outlaws and cowboys that inhabit that oasis in the mind.
There are elements of autobiography; Ortega revealed that she has struggled with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), but the journey of the album takes her to places of hope out of the darkness. She penned an essay about the subject on March 6 this year, for the website Lenny Letter, talking about the struggles she’s overcome, and how she’s not free from BDD, but she has learned to cope.
Perhaps some of that goes with Ortega’s marriage, which was held at at Moraine Lake,; perhaps some of that comes with perspective and growing of age. Whatever the case, Ortega wrote to the Outlook that she is happy to be coming back to Canmore for the folk festival.
“Yes, many times, it’s my favourite place on earth,” wrote Ortega. “I like folk festivals and I like the mountains and if that isn’t a two-banger right there, then I don’t know what is.”
Tickets to the Canmore Folk Fest can be found at www.canmorefolkfestival.ticketpro.ca with weekend or day passes available.
