Border/La Linea. . - Mixed Media - sound recording review

New Internationalist, May, 2003

by Lila Downs

(Narado World 72438-10265-2-6 CD)

After dropping out of music school and spending a period following the Grateful Dead, Lila Downs was back home in Oaxaca, Mexico, when a neighbour asked her to translate a document from English into Mixtec. The letter, from the US authorities, informed the neighbour that his son had died trying to cross the border -- 'la linea' -- into the States. This experience of being what she calls an 'oracle of death' underlies Border, an album dedicated to the immigrant experience.

With a background that combines opera training with mariachi music, Lila Downs has produced a powerful, heartfelt work that deftly avoids unnecessary hectoring. From the first bars of 'Mi Corazon Me Recuerda', the strength and vitality -- a combination of killer voice and solid cumbia rhythm -- are irresistible. Using pre-Columbian and Mexican instruments with guitars, drums and sax, Border is, in lyric and sound, about the presence and human significance of Mexico's indigenous people.

Although the songs are mostly in Spanish, their themes -- often loss in the widest sense -- are given clear English translations. And for those who can't read, there's a spine-chilling medley of Woody Guthrie's 'Pastures Of Plenty' and 'This Land Is Your Land' with Downs' own 'Land' making the point eloquently.

Lila Downs is about to become a superstar for her duet, 'Burn it Blue', sung with Caetano Veloso on the soundtrack of the recent Frieda Kahlo movie. Great, her music deserves the widest audience possible, but it's not just because of a single song that Downs should be sought out and feted.

Rating ****

www.liladowns.com

REVIEWERS

Peter Whittaker * Louise Gray * Malcolm Lewis * George Fisher

STAR RATING

EXCELLENT * * * * *

VERY GOOD * * * *

GOOD * * *

FAIR * *

POOR *