Downs's mesmerizing mix crosses borders

Lila Downs's mesmerizing voice travels across cultures, over borders, and through time. With her remarkable recordings, including 2001's La Linea/The Border and last year's Una Sangre/One Blood, the Mexican singer-songwriter blends traditional acoustic instruments with electric guitars, her own compositions with indigenous songs and traditional Mexican music, Spanish with English and Native languages, and influences ranging from Mercedes Sosa to the great Mexican ranchera singers to Woody Guthrie. What's next?

"Lately I've been finding that Bruce Springsteen has also written songs about the migrant labourers, and so maybe [there's] the possibility of working with some of his songs," Downs says, over the phone from New York. If she does cover a song by the Boss, she'll no doubt make it her own, as she's done with everything she sings, whether it's the Guthrie medley ("This Land Is Your Land"/"Pastures of Plenty") on La Linea/The Border, or popular Mexican songs such as "La Bamba" and "La Cucaracha" on Una Sangre/One Blood. Downs says her versions of the latter are meant to break stereotypes about Mexican music.

"I think that what we were trying to do was to change the context a bit and make it meaningful in our times.”¦And of course when there's a possibility to put in some verses there that talk about politicians and corruption and things that are going on in Mexico and as well in the U.S. right now, those are good opportunities," she says.

Her music is always sublime and the lyrics often darkly political, dealing with subjects including the migrant experience (the theme of La Linea/The Border), the struggle of women (to which Una Sangre/One Blood is dedicated), and indigenous issues. Downs says her songs often "come out of either anger or sadness, melancholy, or sentiment of some sort", and that it was another great Latin American singer who inspired her to express those feelings through music.

"Mercedes Sosa was a very important singer that I actually found out later on in my life when I was studying textiles in the mountains of Mexico.”¦At that moment I thought 'Okay, I can somehow create some sort of language through music and singing and the things that I want to do.' Of course, you try and then the audience is really the one who is deciding whether it works or not, and we've been very fortunate."

A fortunate Vancouver audience will see and hear how well it works when Downs brings a stellar international band (with most of the same musicians from Una Sangre/One Blood) to the Commodore Ballroom on Sunday (July 3).

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