Freddy Trujillo releases album #5, and we are happy it’s for the birds
Freddy Trujillo’s fifth solo album, Ave. Trujillo – about birds, or so it seems – is, I think, his most imaginative and certainly most ambitious work to date. He takes birds and turns them into metaphors and kick-off points for personal stories in a thoughtful, personal Americana-style album that’s all his own.
That’s no mean feat. It could have been lightweight, obvious, even retro. But he wrote and performs each song with a joyful seriousness that embraces the avian metaphor to tell his stories. Remarkable.
And it is a step out from his past work. You know this when you hear “Vermilion Flycatcher,” the first single from Ave Trujillo (due Sept. 25). It is a personal Americana-rooted song that turns an unusual bird sighting into a meditation on grief, memory, and a son’s continuing bond with his father. It’s the kind of song that makes you say – “wait, let’s listen again” and put it on Replay.
For more than two decades, Freddy Trujillo, a Chicano from LA, has quietly built one of the most distinctive careers in American roots music. Whether anchoring the rhythm.
section as bassist for Richmond Fontaine and The Delines or stepping into the spotlight as a solo artist, the California-born and Portland, Oregon-based musician has consistently blended Americana, folk, rock,Mexican musical traditions, and deeply personal storytelling into songs that refuse to fit neatly into any one genre.
The title Ave, Trujillo, itself carries multiple meanings. “Ave” means “bird” in Spanish and is a wink-wink nod to Ave Maria, which reminds us of Catholic Mexico. Right away you know this is going to be fun (although dark in places), clever, and in need of many replays to catch all the subtle richness of the bird metaphors.
“I have always been into birds since I was a kid,” Trujillo explains. “They’ve appeared on other records. My first record was called Hawks & Highways. It was sort of a challenge to see if I could make a whole bird-themed record,” he says of the album.
Even more interesting is the Chicano influence. Freddy Trujillo blends his Chicano roots into Americana by combining roots-rock storytelling with Mexican and Latin American rhythms, instruments, and the lived history of Mexican Americans (“I didn’t cross the border, it crossed me”). He has described his music as “Mexicana,” in the Los Lobos tradition, rather than confining it to conventional country or folk categories. As a resident of Mexico who writes continually about Mexican music and Chicano music, I can hear the influences, but appreciate that it is Americana, not Mexican. But then. 1/5 of the US was Mexico until 1848, so maybe what this album (and his other music) could be saying is that Americana music with Mexican accents is actually authentic.
In this album, the mariachi horns and vihuela strings, especially in “Philanthrope” and “Mockingbird,” do give it Mexican color. But other songs blend in his Chicago soul background, like “Common Loon” (which also has fun, twangy guitars), and “Mourning Dove” (with gut-grabbing electric guitar riffs.)
Ironically, the album almost became something entirely different. Trujillo originally envisioned Ave Trujillo as a children’s album, inspired in part by his years working at CD Baby, where he noticed just how successful children’s music could be. The idea began innocently enough with “Black-capped Chickadee,” whose cheerful melody was inspired directly by the bird’s
unmistakable call. But as the writing continued, the songs naturally drifted
toward darker, more nuanced subjects. Rather than fight where the music
wanted to go, Trujillo embraced it, feathers and all. I am glad he did.
Ave Trujillo will be released Sept 25 on all major platforms. In the meantime, “Vermillion Flycatcher,” “Crow,” and “Black-capped Chickadee” stream on Spotify.
Patrick O’Heffernan
Banner: photo by Jeffrey DeWitt at Snapwitty Photography
