Russian Red

1. 

"All the cigarettes that I have never smoked, and all the letters that I have never sent" is the refrain from Russian Red's opening track, "Cigarettes", one of the highlights from her debut album I love your glasses, which was released in June of this year here in the states. The song, a tune about regret, is just a taste of the beautifully crafted songs found throughout this album. Russian Red is the stage name of relatively unknown (at least here in the U.S) Spanish acoustic-folk singer Lourdes Hernandez (pronounced "ernandeth"), a 22 year old student from Madrid, Spain, who chose to sing in English rather than her native Castilian Spanish because she said that she felt that more people could recognize and relate to her music. Little information is available about Lourdes Hernandez online. But from what I could gather, she was a promising musical talent in Madrid, and Eureka records signed her to a record deal as fast as they could.
When I first heard her lustrous voice while listening to a friend's online playlist, I couldn't help but wonder where the singer was from. I thought she could possibly be from Appalachia or somewhere in the states. But after I searched online to see where she was from, I was fairly surprised when I learned that she was from Madrid, Spain. You'd be hard pressed to find a Spanish accent in her voice, which is why I thought she was from the states. Most of the songs on the album are rather slow and mellow, soothing and gentle, even. The music seems to showcase her haunting vocals rather than try and hide or minimize them, something so many artists do these days. At first listen, her voice has similarities with Californian folk songstress Joanna Newsom and Massachusetts singer Marissa Nadler. But after listening to a couple more songs from the album, the Newson and Nadler similarities seem to fade, and one realizes that there's a uniqueness to her voice that becomes apparent after a few plays.
I suspect that Russian Red won't be relatively unknown here in the states for long, for attractive young women with her talent don't stay unknown for long, which I believe will be the case with the 22 year old.

Russian Red is currently touring Spain in support of her debut album, I love your glasses.


You can check out her myspace here: www.myspace.com/russianready
And this is my favorite song off the album, "Cigarettes":

And this is the music video for her current single, "They don't believe":