Small Town Heroes

Alynda Lee Segarra is one of my favorite songwriters of all time. She is amazing, and I love Small Town Heroes. There's an instant familiarity about this album and Segarra's songwriting. Her voice carries the sorrow of all humanity in one note. I love how with each song she writes she changes who the narrator is. Sometimes, it's a woman, sometimes a man, and sometimes we don't know. I think it's intentional because regardless of who singing, it's the story that's being told that matters, not the gender of the singer. 

Occasionally, there are great albums with a song here and there you might want to skip, but that is not the case with Small Town Heroes, every single song you want to listen to. The best song which happens to be one of the shortest is, "The Body Electric." It's obvious when someone listens to it why it would be considered the best song. "The Body Electric," is a hauntingly beautiful song about violence towards women. Throughout the song, one man is mentioned shooting women, and the song ends with what that man is going to do when it's his daugther's, "turn to go." If the rest of the song doesn't send shivers up your spine that last line will because it puts it all into perspective that these women who are being killed aren't just some woman they are all daughters and each one has a father who has probably on some sort of scale committed an act of hate towards a woman even if it was just with his words. I think every single person should listen to this song because of the huge significance it plays in our society. 

However, not all of the songs on this album are as serious as that one. "Crash on the Highway" is a great song that describes what everyone feels while being homesick and stuck in a traffic jam. Also "No One Else," "I Know It's Wrong (But That's Alright)," and "End of the Line" are more upbeat and fun songs. 

Back to songs that are on the sadder side of life, "St. Roch Blues" and "Small Town Heroes" are two more on this album that are just incredibly written. "St. Roch Blues" laments the state of New Orleans and more unnecessary violence in our world. "Small Town Heroes" depicts a number of people who try hard to find love but can't. It seems like such a simple request but in this song finding love proves to be the difficult task that so many people are met with daily. I think this entire album is kind of about that. When it comes down to it all anybody wants is to love and be loved, and that's what is portrayed in Small Town Heroes.