"I definitely think this is the most vulnerable I've been in my writing in a really long time," Alynda Segarra (aka Hurray for the Riff Raff) says of their new album, The Past Is Still Alive, when asked on the Sheroes podcast by host Carmel Holt why the album has been resonating so deeply with listeners. "This is a record that has really stripped me down to the bone ... It's a lot of very tender themes of grief and growth and loss and all of these human experiences." You can hear their conversation here via Spotify and Apple Podcasts:

Hurray for the Riff Raff takes their tour to Texas for three shows this weekend: in Fort Worth tonight, Austin on Saturday, and Houston on Sunday. Segarra returns home to New Orleans to perform at New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival at the end of the month and heads to Europe in May. For details and tickets, visit nonesuch.com/on-tour.

Alynda Segarra created The Past Is Still Alive during a period of personal grief, when they found inspiration in radical poetry, railroad culture, outsider art, the work of writer Eileen Myles, and activist groups like ACT UP and Gran Fury. Segarra uses their lyrics as a way to immortalize and say goodbye to those they have loved and lost, and to honor both the heartbroken and the hopeful parts of themselves. "Segarra has created an epic tale of life on the road, a nearly mythic version of their own life story that stands alongside other great American musical travelogues," exclaims NPR Music. "Career-defining." Rolling Stone says: "Segarra has honed their craft into a cohesive, astonishingly realized singer-songwriter record ... the best batch of songs Segarra's ever written." Paste calls it "a celebratory measure of love, sanctuary, and defiance ... In their hands, the trauma of the present day is a prelude to the possibilities of a better tomorrow."