Leticia Rodriguez Debuts with CD “La Americana”
Leticia Rodriguez is not your typical new Latin music talent. Leticia has been performing since age 11, her studies have been in arts, and has had a band for quite a while. Now at a mature stage of her life, Leticia Rodriguez finally releases her debut album, which takes us to a trip through Latin America.
“La Americana” is a Trip through Latin America
“La Americana” was officially released in on September 2012 and Leticia Rodriguez utilizes a versatile band that utilizes various instruments according to song genre. The Latin music song genres performed in “La Americana” tell the story of the album’s title, which begs the question…
Why would a Latina artist trying to cater the Latino market name their album “La Americana”? As Leticia says, the word is used in it’s broader sense:
“I’d like to think of my music as Americana, (con pronunciación, español); Americana, meaning multicultural, as many people now recognize themselves to be. Raised on the outskirts of Houston, Texas, close to Pasadena; I was encouraged by my parents and mentors, to look at the world in the most inclusive sense, and it stuck.”
“La Americana” includes 11 Latin music covers in genres which include “ranchera”, “milonga”, “salsa”, “bolero”, “guaracha”, “tango”, and others.
“La Americana” Likes and Dislikes
Leticia Rodriguez sings with passion, emotion, and gusto in “La Americana”. Because she was born and raised in Houston, Texas, the way she pronounces some words reminds me of Eydie Gorme singing in Spanish (in those recordings with the Trio Los Panchos), although their singing styles are clearly different.
Leticia’s recording band does a great job of adapting to all the different Latin music genres used in the album, and their performance, although not meant to be highlighted, is done well.
The sound quality of the recording is very good, even though this is a self-produced album under the indie Chicken and Beans label.
One thing that Leticia Rodriguez could do different for the next CD is to establish a band/sound identity and avoid following the sound of the original artist of the songs. By adapting the songs to her particular sound and style of Latin music, it will clearly define her mark as an artist, and avoide direct comparison to the songs’ original or most popular performers (which is a no-win situation).
More About “La Americana”
Many of us had not heard the name of Leticia Rodriguez before since this is her 1st recording. To get a glimpse of her album and see for yourselves if you like it, go to her album page at CD Baby (link HERE), or to Leticia Rodriguez’s web site HERE.