Lila Downs will perform in San Francisco Feb. 23 at the Herbst Theater. The California Institute of Integral Studies is organizing the show. Because of her experience, her sensuality and mostly because of her voice, Downs will be a sure success.
“I make an effort on stage,” she says. “It’s important to change things around. The audience wants to move and then listen to something a little deeper, and cry.”
Lila Downs has been producing albums since 1994, and has shown that she is capable of lighting the night on fire with her voice. In 2005 she released an album titled “La Cantina” which sounds similar to the song selection of her most recent production, “Pecados y Milagros.”
She laughs when she speaks about her favorite sin, she mentions carnal sin and seems serious when she reveals the one she detests the most: lying. Downs says she likes the definition of anti corrido for the “Queen of the Underworld,” the sixth song in “Pecados y Milagros” and speaks about what inspired the lyrics, written by her and her husband Paul Cohen, also her music producer.
“A friend of mine joined the mafia, because the poor man didn’t want to be anymore,” Downs explains. “We did it thinking about the tradition of mocking the sacred, of laughing about what we are afraid of. It is a critique of those who enter the business, not just of drug trade but of power. It’s a satire of those who believe they are better than us.”
It is the second narcorrido Downs has recorded. The first was “El Centenario” which was included in “La Cantina.”
The song is a token for groups and soloists from the north. The Tucanes de Tijuana, luminaries of the narcorridos have a version of it, and it is not rare to hear it blasted every time a Mexican feels the urge to communicate his or her association to the mafias or the drug cartels.
But Downs’ interpretation sounds more like a protest song about the histories of borders, a ballad for a duel, a weakened story, and not an apology for corrupted power.
As opposed to “El Centenario,” “La Reina del Inframundo” lacks fluidity grace and therefore, the lyrics are lacking. And this in general, is one of the faults of Downs’ most recent record.
In terms of lyrics and song selection, although it includes great musicians such as José Alfredo Jiménez, there is a certain kind of exhausted tone to it, redundancy or co-optation to the market forces, including Cucurrucucú Paloma once more, not to mention the bland bachata “Solamente un Día,” in the insistent association of Downs-Cohen as musical producers.
But it is difficult to criticize Downs, a true miracle in the music scene. “Pecados y Milagros,” although failing in its repetition of hit songs includes, and not as a miracle but as a proof of hard work, popular songs that would be unlikely to appear on any other artists’ repertoire outside of the independent scene.
“Pecados y Milagros” is an album to enjoy—the collaboration from Toto Momposina and Celso Piña in Zapara insures an inevitable success, irresistible to dance. Perhaps it is not Downs’ most memorable album but it possesses the elements that have made her performances valuable, nostalgic and necessary to bring back reason to the body just like a drink of mescal does.
One must speak of miracles before ending. Downs mentions the birth of her son Benito Dxuladi, “a new master in life”. She speaks about faith and says that, “if we lose it, everything is dammed.” In the end, faith is retained in Lila Downs.