Album Review – Lindi Ortega’s “From The Ether”

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#590.5 (Gothic Country) on the Country DDS.

It’s only fitting that Lindi Ortega would make her ominous return with Halloween right around the corner, and the witching hour nigh upon us. For those looking to venture onto the dark side of North American roots music, this Canadian-born Gothic country mistress conjures up a song cycle meant to leave one haunted by the spirits of past lives, and past lovers.

For those who were around for the early era of Lindi Ortega’s career, she was essential listening. Starting with her 2011 album Little Red Boots through her 2018 conceptualized album Liberty, Lindi was one of the premier women in underground/independent country music, and a Gothic country queen. She even drew interest from the CCMA Awards (Canada’s CMAs), made he Grand Ole Opry debut, and got some big touring opportunities.

But Lindi Ortega’s career corresponded with the height of Bro-Country, and happened before independent country performers were receiving the kind of support they are today. Frustrated at the lack of resonance for what was a string of excellent albums, she decided to stop running head first into walls, and moved back to Canada from Nashville, basically retiring from music.

Then recently, the label Truly Handmade Records was formed in honor of Guy Clark, and Lindi Ortega was brought on to be one of the inaugural artists, along with songwriter Jack Barksdale. The two released a couple of Tom Waits songs together earlier this year, marking Lindi’s official return to music. But more importantly, she sparked up a working relationship with Austin, TX-based drummer and producer Mike Meadows, and it resulted in a new original album.


From The Ether was inspired by Lindi Ortega taking a stroll through the Oakwood Cemetery in Austin, TX where pioneering folklorist John Lomax and his son Alan Lomax are buried. Though Ralph Peer receives the lion’s share of the credit for seeding country music, the Lomax legacy is arguably just as important. The album’s opening song “Epitaph” is a field recording captured in that cemetery, similar to how the Lomax family captured songs in the field for preservation.

Through the new album, Ortega traces American music’s Gothic influences back to the very beginning of recorded music, along with presenting occasional flourishes of more modern sounds in and effort to immerse the listener in a seasonal mood for channeling spirits and calling forth ancestors. The quiet genius of the album is how Ortega parallels the paranormal activity of ghosts and haunting with the feeling of being haunted by the ghost of lost lovers and unrequited affection.

From The Ether is full of creative flourishes and inspired movements, with the songs acting like the rooms you venture into in a haunted old hotel. It also presents some challenges to finding appeal to a wide audience. Unlike Ortega’s earlier albums that all included darker themes and sounds, but still a leaven of country sensibility, this is definitely a seasonal release that is really specialized for those who like the dark and nebulous side of music. If you want to find the best entry point into Lindi Ortega’s music, one of her earlier might be a better place to start.

The album also includes a few song that utilize what sound like electronically-derived tones, though some of this is actually accomplished through organic, percussive means. But if you listen to one of the album’s early singles “The Ghost Of You,” you might mistake it for an EDM track, which in some respects, it kind of is. This might present some conflict with country-aligned ears.

This is a specialty project, but a good one, and an interesting forum for Lindi’s ravenseque voice. Lindi has never really been interested in delivering mere entertainment. Just like her last album Liberty, this is a conceptualized work, intended to get the audience lost in moments that pass through us like wayward spirits, but can be felt like shivers deep in our bones.

7.5/10

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Purchase/Stream From The Ether



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