Lindi Ortega is another player in an exciting lineup of modern country musicians teaching audiences how a classic sound can be expanded and energized for contemporary consumption. She’s a Canandian-turned-Nashvillian who recently resettled up north with a new spouse and released a seventh album.

Ortega’s compelling work on the 2018 full-length, Liberty, bears marks both prominent: kitsch Spaghetti Western soundtracks, a crack producer and sharp studio band, and less conspicuous: flourishes that nod to her heritage (Mexican/Irish), folkorism, and personal pain that can overshadow public success.

Late last week, Ortega dazzled a crowd at Old Rock House in St. Louis and rightfully earned a score of Midwestern fans in a city that exalts alt-country sensibilities.

IWTAS photographer Jessi McKee was there to capture the evening:

LINDI ORTEGA

HUGH MASTERSON