SURPRISES CAN BE SO GOOD

Gaby Moreno: Amapola
From Still The Unknown (Unsigned/Independent, 2008)

I got an e-mail the other day about an indie singer/songwriter who had a soulful tone to her. Now typically this kind of talk is nothing more than a hasty, catchy headline to fill space. For some reason this time, I bit. I looked up her MySpace page to check out her music. There, I was greeted with the warm, beautiful sounds of the bilingual “Amapola” and was drawn in. My first thought was you could easily throw this in the middle of playing the sublime Norah Jones album “Come Away With Me” and not notice that it was a different singer.

That's not meant to imply that she sounds like a Norah clone, but merely to state that she presents herself with an intimacy that is somewhat rare for a newcomer, as unfamiliarity tends to keep us from exposing our innermost feelings. Typically new acts try to hash out a catchy tune with a hook that you find yourself humming while at the copy machine at work. She takes a different approach, though, by drawing you in with a sense of openness.

“Amapola” is a cover of a 1920s bolero that has been covered numerous times, but unlikely with these results. With its sweet melody and stripped acoustic sounds, Moreno's disarming vocals make you feel like the scene in the Christmas classic where the Grinch's heart grows three sizes. Although not quite with this amount of charm, there are other breezy gems that grace your ears on this debut album such as “La Vez Que No Me Pude Atrever.”

However, she also knows how to throw a little attitude into her music, too. “Wrong Side Of The Road” finds her throwing some blues guitar into the chorus and the fadeout. Inspired, in part, by blues artists such as B.B. King and Muddy Waters through some blues compilations she first heard while on a family vacation to the USA from her native Guatemala, she finds a way to blend those sounds into a friendly-sounding pop song.

Currently, she's on tour supporting Ani DiFranco on some east coast US dates along with a few Canadian stops. She's been heralded by NPR and KCRW, and while her career has yet to fully take off, she's certainly got the talent to be around for a long time. With a solid voice and the musical and songwriting chops to back it up, it surprised me that I hadn't yet heard of her. I only wish I got surprises like this more often.