Alynda Segarra left her hometown of New York City at just 17, driven by an urge to explore the world. But as she busked with fellow gutter punks and hopped freight trains across the country, she felt a nagging desire to belong. On The Navigator—Segarra’s latest as Hurray for the Riff Raff—listeners follow the story of Navita, the album’s teenage protagonist, who embarks on a parallel journey of self-discovery.
“Since I didn’t feel like I belonged in anything,” Segarra explains over the phone, “I was like, ‘Okay, I’m just an island to myself. I come from nobody and I am my own person.’” When she decided to leave home for good, she recalls, “I thought that that was the ultimate act of rebellion. You hear so much about white men doing that—cutting all ties, leaving their family behind, and going off on the road. So [this] was my version of being the cowboy.”
For the past decade she’s played roots music under the Hurray for the Riff Raff moniker, refining her unique blend of Delta blues and Appalachian bluegrass. There are still elements of Americana, but on The Navigator Segarra pushes her sound into new territory where the roots are all her own.
