KRISTINA TRAIN TALKS ABOUT HER NEW ALBUM, WHY SHE'S SINGING IN SPANISH AND THOSE TEXTS WITH BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN
This
past Saturday Luis and I sat shoulder to shoulder in an intimate,
packed house to see Kristina Train perform with the Savannah Music
Festival. The set featured all new material from an album she is
currently working on for Mercury Records while living in Nashville,
her home since October.
I was looking forward to hearing it all, but especially a bilingual tune called “Haunts Me,” a song Kristina co-wrote and then asked if I would translate into Spanish when I bumped into her a few months ago at a mutual favorite local spot, Back in the Day Bakery.
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| Kristina with Cherly Day, co-owner of Back in the Day Bakery |
She
was home visiting and I threw my arms around her neck when I saw her,
congratulating her on all of her success.
I've
always been happy to see Kristina since meeting her when she worked
at a downtown retail shop I used to run into on my work breaks. She
was probably 18 then, but she hasn't changed. Now, just as then, she
always has a smile for you and gives big, sincere hugs. She wants to
know more about your life than share all that she's done with hers.
Her talent is widely appreciated. There were a couple of soulful, jazz-pop albums already made: “Spilt Milk” with the iconic Blue Note Records and then “Dark Black” under Mercury's label. I remember being thrilled to see the latter included in one of my weekly bites from Gwyneth Paltrow's GOOP publication a couple of years back. By many accounts she's been 'one to watch' for a while. The BBC touted “Dark Black” as 'startling' and 'an extraordinary record' while Huffington Post declared “if you aren't in love with Train's voice... there is something seriously wrong with your ears.”
She had just moved to Nashville from London, her home base for three years, and was fresh off a tour with jazz legend, Herbie Hancock, as the lead vocalist and violinist for his Grammy-winning Album of the Year, 'River: The Joni Letters,' inspired by folk great Joni Mitchell.
Having completed what she calls the “greatest musical education” of her life, Kristina was ready to roll up her sleeves and write a third album, this one drawing on the music inspired by her childhood.
The songs tap into what she loves about the South, which include 'swampier' sounds, including the sliding guitar and violin, as well as gospel, blues and soul-based country.
So if this is an album about roots then why did she ask me to translate a song in Spanish? There had to be a story.
When Kristina was a young girl, four or five, she moved to Mexico with her mother and grandmother, who was diagnosed with cancer. A health facility close to Mexico's Baja coast offered alternative, natural healing methods not approved in the U.S. at the time and they spent two years living at the center with other patients and their families from all over the world.
Kristina
attended a Spanish-speaking school and befriended her grandmother's
nurse, María,
as well as her 5 children, with whom she eventually traveled all over
Mexico.
“It was a very, very healing environment, despite intense
treatments,” she said. “It's a memory of a wonderful language and culture that
embraced us and took us in. I have a wonderful memory of a very
tough time.”
It has long been a dream of hers to sing in Spanish, but not only because of experiences. It is the language itself.
“I find it sensual, robust," she said. "It's fragrant.”
She
claims to have lost fluency, but her rendition of “Haunts Me”
on Saturday was eloquent, poised and powerful.
“I set the story up in English, but then lose the words and convey just emotion,” she told me in a pre-concert sit-down. “Having the second half in Spanish does that. It transcends. I'm communicating in a language everyone can understand.”
“I set the story up in English, but then lose the words and convey just emotion,” she told me in a pre-concert sit-down. “Having the second half in Spanish does that. It transcends. I'm communicating in a language everyone can understand.”
I can't wait to hear the completed album, which she calls 'forward viewing...uniting love and happiness."
A sentiment that can't help but be catapulted by a double dose of praise from her hero and idol, Bruce Springsteen, who called her 'fantastic' in recent iHeartRadio and NPR interviews and compared to her legendary singer, Dusty Springfield, best known for her 1969 hit, “Son of a Preacher Man.”
Kristina flipped open her phone and mentioned casually, “We've been texting.”
What?!
I wasn't going to ask, but she volunteered a screen shot of a conversation:
“I
don't listen to a lot of records repetitively anymore but yours had a
permanent place with me since coming across it. Keep the faith...and
keep singing. All our best. Bruce.”
Lyrics to "Haunts Me," so beautifully co-written by Kristina.
I whipped up a Spanish translation, which Luis then helped me clean up.
Let me fall out of this dream
Déjame
salir de este sueño
What
is brought back by the wind
Lo
que me regreso el viento
The
sky here looks the same
El
cielo aqui sigue igual
And
all the stars remain
Y
todas las estrellas continuan
But
I can hear you say
Pero
te puedo escuchar decir
No lamp burns into the morning
Ninguna
lámpara
sobrevira la luz del dia
No
meeting was too good for us
Ningún
encuentro fue bueno para nosotros
Things
ain't always as they seem
Las
cosas no siempre son lo que aparentan
Especially
in a dream
Especialmente
en un sueño
When
time passes so quickly
Cuando
el tiempo pasa tan rápido
SOLO
Let
me fall out of this dream
Déjame
salir de este sueño
What
have I done to deserve this fate
Que
hice para merecer este camino
Lovers
we were once
Amantes
fuimos una vez
I
can't remove the very thought of you
No
te puedo quitar este pensamiento
That haunts me night and day
Me invade noche y día
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3 comments
I really look forwadr to hearing Kristina's new album. Saw her twice in London in last year and she blew my mind!Extraordinary talented lady.Love her.
ReplyDeleteYes she is! And as sweet as she is talented!
ReplyDeleteIndeed she is, Mel. Which is why, during 2013, Kristina and her songs from 'Dark Black' inspired the central character of Mary O'Driscoll in the novel and play ' Entanglement of Fate'.
ReplyDeleteCan't wait for her new album!