Hurray For The Riff Raff is Alynda Lee Segarra, but in many ways it’s much more than that: it’s a young woman leaving her indelible stamp on the American folk tradition. If you’re listening to her new album, "Small Town Heroes," odds are you’re part of the riff raff, and these songs are for you. “It’s grown into this bigger idea of feeling like we really associate with the underdog,” says Alynda. A 26-year-old of Puerto Rican descent whose slight frame belies her commanding voice, she grew up in the Bronx, where she developed an early appreciation for doo-wop and Motown from the neighborhood’s longtime residents. At 17 she hitched her way to the West Coast, then roamed the south before ultimately settling in New Orleans. “The community I found in New Orleans was open and passionate. The young artists were really inspiring to me,” she says. “Apathy wasn’t a part of that scene. And then the year after I first visited, Katrina happened, and I went back and saw the pain and hardship that all of the people who lived there had gone through. It made we want to straighten out my life and not wander so much. The city gave had given me an amazing gift with music, and it made me want to settle there and be a part of it and help however I could.” Her songs belong to no particular time or place, but rather to all of us—to the riff raff. Norton Records artists Daddy Long Legs open.