Jazz Fest Preview: Hurray for the Riff Raff on "Conan"

The local Americana band performed last night on Conan O'Brien's show. Here's the footage.

Recently, I wrote American Songwriter's cover story on Hurray for the Riff Raff. In it, Alynda Lee Segarra and I talked about her evolution as a writer and performer, leading to the band's recent album, Small Town Heroes:

“When I was writing [the song] ‘Small Town Heroes,’ I wanted to bring The Velvet Underground to a John Prine song,” she says. “Tell the story of people I grew up with and bring my teenage years in New York to where I am now, and have it all come together in one song.” Sung quietly as an acoustic blues, the song tells a story that could have taken place last week or last century, and Segarra’s gentle, compassionate vocal sympathized with everybody in the song – those on the run and those they’re running from. The song became the title track and the emotional center of the excellent new album from Hurray For The Riff Raff.

Hurray for the Riff Raff will play Jazz Fest Friday at 2:05 p.m. on the Samsung Galaxy Stage. Last night, they performed on Conan; here's a video from the show and one web-only performance.