{"id":2337516,"date":"2026-03-19T20:17:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:17:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2337516"},"modified":"2026-03-19T20:17:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T20:17:37","slug":"hurray-for-the-riff-raff-on-a-new-album-life-in-chicago-and-the-charm-of-songwriting-in-winter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/hurray-for-the-riff-raff-on-a-new-album-life-in-chicago-and-the-charm-of-songwriting-in-winter\/","title":{"rendered":"Hurray For The Riff Raff on a new album, life in Chicago and the charm of songwriting in winter"},"content":{"rendered":"

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In 2024, Alynda Segarra released \u201cThe Past is Still Alive,\u201d the eighth studio album under the moniker Hurray for the Riff Raff<\/u><\/a>. On tour that year, Segarra was backed by a band made up of heavy-hitting Chicago musicians, including Sen Morimoto<\/u><\/a> and Nnamdi Ogbonnaya<\/u><\/a>. Together, their sound clicked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been touring for a long time, but I feel like this is the most fun I\u2019ve ever had on stage,\u201d said Segarra, 39. \u201cAnd just like the best band I\u2019ve ever had.\u201d<\/p>\n

The experience inspired the Bronx native to move to Chicago full time, and to capture the energy of the moment with a new live album \u201cLive Forever,\u201d recorded last summer at the Old Town School of Folk Music. The album comes out digitally on Friday and in record form on May 8 via New York label Nonesuch Records.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter being on the road with this group, I was like, if there\u2019s anything I really want to put in a time capsule, it\u2019s this feeling that we have together,\u201d said Segarra, who called the album a \u201clove letter to working-class musicians,\u201d including those in the band, which is rounded out by guitarist Parker Grogan and drummer Marcus Drake.<\/p>\n

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In Chicago, Segarra has found camaraderie among fellow musicians and energy in the city\u2019s creative scene and Midwest niceness.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n

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Courtesy of Alexa Viscius<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n

The project, produced by Chicago\u2019s Johnny Wilson, includes the entirety of the critically acclaimed<\/u><\/a> record \u201cThe Past is Still Alive,\u201d which was largely inspired by Segarra\u2019s time riding freight rails across the country as a teenager. The musician ultimately settled in New Orleans, a city that provided inspiration for much of Hurray for the Riff Raff\u2019s catalog. But after nearly 20 years there, Segarra said, \u201cI\u2019d been really needing to make a change in my life.\u201d So, Segarra left the Big Easy for Chicago.<\/p>\n

The live album also includes some songs from that period, including \u201cPrecious Cargo,\u201d a 2022 song that decries Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which Segarra wrote after spending time with individuals in detention centers in southern Louisiana and Mississippi.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt really pained me that so many years later [the song] became even more relevant. So we started playing it live again,\u201d Segarra said.<\/p>\n

Since moving to Chicago, the singer has found camaraderie among fellow musicians and energy in the city\u2019s creative scene and Midwest niceness. \u201cI definitely need to live in a place where I\u2019m surrounded by other artistic people and also a place that I can afford to pay rent, to be real,\u201d Segarra said. \u201cChicago has been so welcoming to me and so loving to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The new album, \u201cLive Forever,\u201d features Segarra and an all-star band of Chicago-based players, including including Sen Morimoto and Nnamdi Ogbonnaya.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n

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Courtesy of Nonesuch Records<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n

\u201cThe Past is Still Alive\u201d opens with the album\u2019s breakout hit. On \u201cAlibi,\u201d Segarra\u2019s distinctive folky voice comes in with this line: \u201cYou don\u2019t have to die if you don\u2019t wanna die. You can take it all back in the nick of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

That bit of poetry is where the project began for Segarra. \u201cThat was the first lyric that came to me. That happens sometimes, I\u2019ll get a line and it\u2019ll become the guiding light,\u201d said the musician, who uses they\/them pronouns. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a pinpoint on a map, and I\u2019m like, I don\u2019t know how to get there, but I know that\u2019s the town I need to get to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The song was born in the months before Segarra\u2019s father died. The musician was also navigating a period of self doubt as a musician \u2014 and wondering how they fit in, to what they call a \u201chyper modern\u201d music industry. \u201cSo, there are a lot of different places that line was taking me. It was me trying to convince myself: I can still do this, I can survive, I can shift, I can transform.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI found it really spooky, obviously, to have written this song and then to go through losing my dad,\u201d they said. \u201cJust to be kind of face-to-face with these different representations of death. Some are very final. Some are the end of a chapter. \u201c<\/p>\n

When the song took off, Segarra felt like it was the validation they needed to keep going. \u201cI felt like, \u2018Oh, my God, we\u2019re gonna do this thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n \"Alynda<\/p>\n<\/picture>\n
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Segarra performs in 2019 in New Orleans, a city they called home for nearly 20 years, before moving to Chicago. Here, the city\u2019s seasons are inspiring new work. \u201cI\u2019m really grateful to have a winter,\u201d the musician said.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/p>\n

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Amy Harris\/Invision\/Associated Press<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure><\/div><\/div>\n

The album\u2019s title track, which is also called \u201cSnake Plant,\u201d dives deep into their years on the road. On the track, Segarra sings, \u201cPlay my song for the barrel of freaks. And we go shoplifting when it\u2019s time to eat, and they don\u2019t even really know my name. I\u2019m so happy that we escaped from where we came.\u201d<\/p>\n

Segarra is a long way from that reality now. Looking back on those years, they said it feels like it was another person entirely who lived that life. But still, Segarra wanted to write something for young people who feel lost \u2014 the way they did.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just thinking a lot about younger generations of radical youth, of kids that feel really stuck and feel like they have no future, and just trying to create some kind of historical document in a song of what I was able to find,\u201d Segarra said. \u201cTo send it out into the world and be like, \u2018I hope you can find your people like this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Segarra has found their people here, in the Midwest, where the seasons have brought inspiration for new work.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been writing. I\u2019m really grateful to have a winter,\u201d they said. \u201cMaybe in two years, I won\u2019t say that, but I have been really grateful to have time to stay home and be cozy and really get into the craft of songwriting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ. <\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.wbez.org \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 2024, Alynda Segarra released \u201cThe Past is Still Alive,\u201d the eighth studio album under the moniker Hurray for the Riff Raff. On tour that year, Segarra was backed by a band made up of heavy-hitting Chicago musicians, including Sen Morimoto and Nnamdi Ogbonnaya. Together, their sound clicked. \u201cI\u2019ve been touring for a long time, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2337517,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25179],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2337516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-music"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Hurray-For-The-Riff-Raff-on-a-new-album-life.com2Fbrightspot2Fd02Fad2F3a4.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2337516"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337516\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2337518,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2337516\/revisions\/2337518"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2337517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2337516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2337516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2337516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}