Russo brings interesting music mix to Q-C scene
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LoJo Russo will perform at 7 p.m. Friday at the Quad-City Arts Center in The District of downtown Rock Island. (Contributed photo)
As a self-described hippie, Lojo Russo has played everything from mandolin guitar in an Irish group to bass in a psychedelic jam band. So it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that she doesn’t want to be classified as any one type of musician.
“One of the things I’ve found over the years is I don’t limit myself to a type of music,” she said. “I don’t limit myself necessarily to a medium, either. I’ve worked with theater companies, I’ve worked on soundtrack projects.
“That’s one of the reasons I’m calling the new album ‘Little White Box.’ It’s kind of the irony of everybody wants to put you in a little box. ... It’s hard to put me in a box. I can’t find anybody to put me in a box, and I don’t want to be put in a box.”
Russo’s songs are a mix of rock, world beat, blues, jazz and folk. She said her style has been influenced by Funks Grove, the last group she played with. The band did folk music, but its members had been trained in jazz and Celtic music. Their musical backgrounds combined to create a sound that Russo calls “funky folk.”
“We were getting this real kind of driving rhythmic folk sound with a bit of Celtic flair going on,” she said. “When the band broke up, I found myself trying to play my songs the way I used to play them as a solo artist, which was like a folk artist, and I realized I couldn’t do that anymore. I had a new way of hearing the music, and so I started to bring the rhythm into my music.”
It has been five years since Russo released her latest album, “Stoic Abandon,” and that is the longest stretch ever between recordings for the singer/songwriter who has recorded or contributed to 13 albums throughout her career.
A move from Minneapolis to Davenport and not knowing enough musicians around the Quad-Cities to help record her songs is partly to blame for the delay.
“I kind of want to force myself to find something here,” she said. “Now that I’m living in Iowa, I’d like to use some Iowa musicians. I’d like to use an Iowa recording studio and do the project in my new home base.”
Despite the recording difficulties, Russo said moving to Iowa has been good for her career, and she’s found herself playing more often in the Quad-Cities than she did in Minneapolis.
Up next, Russo will perform at 7 p.m. April 4 at the Quad-City Arts Center in The District of downtown Rock Island. She says people who come to her shows usually get something musically unexpected.
“One thing I like to do with my shows is to open up both musically and myself,” she said. “I’m your typical folk musician where you come to a show and I’m bound to tell you stories about a song or something that happened to me.”
Stephanie De Pasquale can be contacted at (563) 333-2639 or sdepasquale@qctimes.com.
IF YOU GO
What: Lojo Russo
When: 7 p.m. April 4
Where: Quad-City Arts Center, 1715 2nd Ave., Rock Island
How much: Free
Information: (309) 793-1213, Ext. 109, or quadcityarts.com on the Web
Also on the Web: LojoRusso.com
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