Mexican Silvana Estrada leaves no one indifferent. This 28-year-old woman has an extraordinary voice. At the end of October 2024, during a concert she gave at the Sala Rossa, I wrote: “Her vocal range and her tremolos plunge us into the depths of the Mexican soul.”
Two nights later, she participated in the magnificent tribute to Lhasa De Sela. The audience was stunned, including my colleague and friend, Alain Brunet, the founder of this site, who has seen thousands of concerts in his life and is not easily impressed.
A year later, Vendrás Suaves Lluvias arrives, his second full-length album after Marchita (2022), his fourth, if we consider the two EPs, Primeras Canciones (2018) and Abrazo (2022). It seems that this presence in Montreal has left its mark, since this album was partly produced here. Montreal guitarist Joe Grass is omnipresent, the Toronto violinist is one of the arrangers. Both, as well as double bassist Rémi-Jean Leblanc, are among his touring musicians.
Recorded in Montreal and Mexico City, this album is a kind of tribute to resilience and survival. Silvana’s best friend was murdered in Mexico City, as, unfortunately, happens all too often. The murderer was arrested; justice sometimes works in Mexico.
Mexicans have a special relationship with death. They celebrate the dead in annual festivals as if they were still alive. Unfortunately, this doesn’t stop the pain. But perhaps it makes it easier to “live” it.
This album is filled with pain but also light. Silvana admits that the last three years have been difficult, and her songs express her many sorrows and then their resolution. Influenced as much by Lhasa De Sela as by Natalia Lafourcade and the venerable Chavela Vargas, she takes us to the depths of Mexicanness. But her Mexico is not frozen in time. It is inspired as much by tradition as by the contemporaneity of this country that is constantly moving forward, even though it sometimes takes leaps backward.
This album, whose title means “Shall Come the Gentle Rains” and is taken from a famous Mexican poem, will move you, even if you don’t understand Spanish. It’s an excellent album, expertly arranged by pianist Roberto Verástegui and Owen Pallett.
However, to appreciate her voice in all its strength and nuances, nothing is better than listening to Silvana Estrada in concert.
She will also be at the Beanfield Theatre in Montreal on November 24. Good timing!
