Las Rubias del Norte on
A&E's Breakfast with the Arts
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Las Rubias were on WNYC's SOUNDCHECK hosted by John Schaefer. You can listen to the archives (mon 04/25).

THE NEW YORKER
"The Local group Las Rubias del Norte, led by the singers Emily Hurst and Allyssa Lamb, can often be found in the backroom of the Brooklyn club Barbès, performing its elegant, finely wrought Latin-influenced songs.
Las Rubias del Norte compress big-band compositions into sparkling gems [and] feature a pair of lead of singers, Emily Hurst and Allyssa Lamb (neither of whom is blond, but both both of whom are from North America) who are former members of the New York Choral Society. "

TIME OUT NEW YORK
"A pair of angelic voices pushes this elegant, Latin-flavored band's swoon rating into the stratosphere."

"Las Rubias del Norte place musicians from the U.S, France and Colombia behind the angelic voices of Gringas Allyssa Lamb and Emily Hurst, two renegades from the NY Choral Society. Together they riff on an eclectic riff of Mozart, Cumbia and cowboy songs, and the results are positively swoonworthy."

THE VILLAGE VOICE.

"Fronted by two classically trained American female vocalists with the most beautiful pipes in all of Brooklyn, Las Rubias Del Norte fuses traditional Latin American music with a touch of the unexpected (vocalist Emily Hurst doubles on glockenspiel). A smattering of styles—cha-cha-chas, boleros, cumbias, huaynos—blend nicely to create a full-bodied sound that soothes the ear.".
(TORRIERI)

"Las Rubias del Norte - The blondes of the north, the beauties of Brooklyn, and the boys who pluck and pick and percuss along with them as they shimmy and stylize their way through a cannon of cubanized cantations - create a storm of cha cha candor, bolero breeziness, and a conglomeration of cumbia and cowboy that is at once daintily charming and spellbindingly sexy." (SNOW)

"Before you say rumba wasn't meant to be this civilized, study danzón ("Perfidia," "Amorosa Guajiro") "Sounds surpassingly pretty." (Robert Christgau)

"Fronted by two classically trained American female vocalists with the most beautiful pipes in all of Brooklyn, Las Rubias Del Norte fuses traditional Latin American music with a touch of the unexpected (vocalist Emily Hurst doubles on glockenspiel). A smattering of styles—cha-cha-chas, boleros, cumbias, huaynos—blend nicely to create a full-bodied sound that soothes the ear.
(TORRIERI)

Village Voice's Best of New York October 2005:
BEST BAND WITH A GLOCKENSPIEL -  Las Rubias del Norte

NEW YORK PRESS
TWO BLONDE WANNABES: Las Rubias del Norte channel rancheras from down south into their own idiom. BLONDE AMBITION.
Las Rubias channel the classics through their gringa talents.
By Ernest Barteldes With the band’s name, you half expect to see a bunch of Latinas with bleached hair, funny hats and maracas performing Mexican songs—0Mamacitas getting their homeland groove on. Instead, Las Rubias are two classically trained gringas backed by a group that includes musicians from France, the U.S. and Colombia paying tribute to the music of Latin America while tackling Mozart as well. 
The band’s name is “sort of a pun,” vocalist Emily Hurst says via e-mail. “There’s sort of a tradition in Norteño music of bands with “del Norte” in the title—Los Tigres del Norte, Los Huracanes del Norte, etc. So, we thought it would be funny to call ourselves the Blondes of the North as a play on that.”
The group got its start when Hurst and Alyssa Lamb got together to start a classical vocal duo. Unable to find suitable duets, they began playing around with the music of Lydia Mendoza, a Mexican singer from the 1930s.
“We had so much fun that we wanted to do more and just took it from there,” Hurst explains. “Olivier (Conan) volunteered to play cuatro with us, and we gradually found the other band members, as well as more and more songs we wanted to sing. We remain somewhat true to our classical roots—we do the “Confutatis” and occasionally a Mendelssohn or Schumann duet—but we’ve strayed pretty far from the original choir idea.”
And far it was. On their first effort, Rumba Internationale, they included pretty faithful renditions of classic songs such as “Perfidia” (a song recorded by far too many people, from Desi Arnaz to Linda Ronstadt via Nat King Cole) and “Quizas.” Their new release, Panamericana, is a journey across the continent with a compilation of songs from Argentina, Peru and other countries. The most surprising track is a very personal rendition of Caetano Veloso’s “Baby,” a song he wrote for Os Mutantes in 1968 at the height of the psychedelic-inspired Tropicalia movement in Brazil. 
“Instead of trying to replicate those sounds and going for a traditional, repertory type of approach, we really tried to make it our own, developing an original sound and finding a common denominator between all those songs,” said Olivier Conan. “The pan-American thread developed in a fairly organic fashion.”
As for “Baby,” the tune has been a staple of their stage act for a while. After I saw them perform it during a Coney Island gig last summer, around the time Bebel Gilberto’s album came out, the band members later told me they picked it up from the English-language Mutantes version. 
“We were asked to do ‘Baby’ for a friend’s wedding,” says Alissa Lamb, “and we all liked playing it so much that it ended up being one of the songs in the repertoire.”
While on stage, no attempt is made to mask their American accents when singing Latin songs, and they also seem to have fun when doing their classical stuff with a Cuban nightclub backing. There’s no quizas about it—despite their roots (both hair and ethnic)—these rubias are the real thing.
March 28. Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette St. (betw. E. 4th St. & Astor Pl.), 212-239-620; 7:30; $15.  

THE NEW YORKER
"Las Rubias del Norte rearranges Latin big band music for a handful of instruments, including the glockenspiel. They mix boleros, cha-cha-cha, and cumbias with lieder and cowboy songs, held together by the captivating vocals of the two lead singers, Emily Hurst and Allyssa Lamb, veterans of the New York Choral Society.". "The group is small, but their passion is anything but."

NEW YORK PRESS
"Sure, you’re taken by surprise when you find that this band isn’t led by Latinas, but instead by two classically trained mezzo-gringas who just happen to appreciate 50s-era Latin songs such as “Perfidia” and “Quizas.” They didn’t, however, set out to do this in the first place. “Allyssa and I met while singing in a choir, and decided at one point to start our own classical group,” said cofounder Emily Hurst. “At the time, Allyssa was listening to a lot of Lydia Mendoza [a great Mexican singer of the 30s] and one day suggested we sing a couple of her songs. We had so much fun; we took it from there. “We remain somewhat true to our classical roots—we do the Confutatis and occasionally a Mendelssohn or Schumann duet—but we’ve strayed pretty far from the original choir idea.” At a recent performance, the band approached each song with intellectu-academic respect, though they didn’t seem too serious about stage presence, allowing space for play—you just can’t do Mozart backed by guitar, quatro, bass and percussion without having a keen sense of humor." Joe’s Pub, 425 Lafayette St. (betw. E. 4th St. & Astor Pl.), 212-539-8778; 9:30, $15

THE L MAGAZINE
"They look like goddesses, sing like angels, and wear great vintage dresses. Three years ago, classical singers Emily Hurst and Allyssa Lamb paired up to form Las Rubias del Norte after discovering a shared love of Latin music. They now play (and sing) to crowded rooms, covering popular Latin songs with some cowboy tunes, lieder, and sometimes a surprise or two." (Stacy Irwin)

BKLYN Magazine
Fall 2005 issue
Gringo Girls: Two of the most beautiful voices in Brooklyn sing songs of love
 
"It's 9:30 on a Monday night, but the crowd at Park Slope's Barbes overflows onto the sidewalk.  The people are waiting for Las Rubias del Norte (Blondes of the North) to show up and start playing their idiosyncratic, stylish and almost unbearably romantic brand of mostly Latin music.  One guy is pleading with his high-heeled girlfriend to stay, even though there's nowhere left to sit.  "They do Mozart!" he begs.  "Mozart to a Latin beat.  It's... music to fall in love with me by..."
 
Actually, most of Las Rubias' material deals with the bitter aftermath of losing love, and the Mozart piece, from the composer's Requiem, is all about death.  But it's hard not to swoon upon hearing the lush, pristine voices of Las Rubias-- Allyssa Lamb and Emily Hurst-- backed by an eclectic assortment of strings and percussion.  Once they launch into "Soledad", High Heels will instantly forget whether she's gotten a seat in one of the bar's uncomfortable wooden chairs or not.
 
In the tiny room, Las Rubias' backup musicians are warming up.  Taylor Bergren-Chrisman, his red hair grazing the pink neon Hotel d'Orsay sign that hangs in back of the stage, works at tuning his double bass.  Beside him, Olivier Conan (part owner of Barbes) cradles his cuatro, a Venezuelan instrument resembling a ukulele, and leans back with crossed legs.  Guitarist and composer Giancarlo Vulcano, drummer Greg Stare, and guest percussionist Kenny Kozol are equally at ease.  They are a house band of sorts, and here on their home turf, where there is no stress or cover charge, they can take risks.  Still, all the men onstage quickly straighten up when Las Rubias enter.
 
Neither one of them is blonde, at least not tonight.  But in their matching glittery black vintage dresses, they add instant glamour to the scene.  The two women met as members of the New York Choral Society.  Their idea to form a classical vocal group was quickly forgotten the day Lamb suggested they sing some harmonies to a CD of Lydia Mendoza, a Mexican singer who was popular in the 1930's.  Soon they discovered a shared love of traditional Latin pop-- cha-cha-chas, cumbias, and boleros-- as well as cowboy songs.   They joined with Conan, digging into his trove of Latin music, and came up with the name Las Rubias del Norte, an acknowledgment of their nearly total lack of South or Central American authenticity.
 
To their gorgeous voices, Lamb and Hurst added aggressive strumming and gruff vocals (Conan); the breathy hum of a melodica (Lamb), the sparkly bling of marimba patterns played on the glockenspiel (Hurst); languorous electric guitar; solid bass; and the groovy rhythms of drums, maracas, bongos, tambor, and an instrument called the guira, which looks like a cheese grater that you hit with a drum brush.  This strange menagerie of sounds is at once surprising and accessible, sweet and sexy, soothing and hip.  The group's first CD, Rumba Internationale (the debut release from the Barbes label) features songs by Guillermo Portabales and Marguerite Lecuona, both of Cuba; the Sons of the Pioneers, and the aforementioned W.A. Mozart of Austria.
 
The musical intelligence of Las Rubias attracts a demanding crowd.  The audience this Monday night is full of musicians who converse with the band between numbers throughout the set, yelling the names of obscure Portuguese composers and wondering aloud why they chose to play a given song in a given key.  But when Las Rubias del Norte start to sing, the only other sounds you hear are a pair of high heels being tossed on the floor and the occasional groan of pleasure."
 
Jill Eisenstadt
Brooklyn magazine Fall 2005

THE NEW YORK TIMES
Led by the singers Allyssa Lamb and Emily Hurst, this band mixes musicians from the United States , France and Colombia who mine their Latin heritage in the performance of boleros, cha cha chas, cumbias, huaynos and cowboy songs.

GLOBALRHYTHM.NET
By Ernest Barteldes - September 23, 2005

" No one would have guessed that Brooklyn-based Las Rubias del Norte is led by two American-born girls with a love for classical music. “Allyssa (Lamb)  and I met while singing in a choir,” said vocalist Emily Hurst in an interview,” and decided at one point to start our own classical group. We started practicing together, but had a hard time finding duets we were really interested in singing. At the time, Allyssa was listening to a lot of Lydia Mendoza (a singer from the 1930s), and one day suggested we sing a couple of her songs. We had so much fun that we wanted to do more, and just took it from there.” The result is an album filled with many Spanish-language oldies, such as the title track and “Perfidia,” that also nods to their musical education with a Latin take on Mozart’s “Confutatis.” Their sense of humor is evident in the way they weave a bit of Abba’s “Fernando” into “Quizas, Quizas, Quizas,” a hit for Desi Arnaz in the 1950s."

THE PARK SLOPE PAPER
"A collection of utterly hip, soothing lounge music sung by the sweet yet sexy voices of Emily Hurst and Allyssa Lamb."(Lisa Curtis)

Las Rubias were one of Blender magazine editor's picks in 2004.

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ALL ABOUT JAZZ ITALY
'Blondes have more fun', avrebbe cantato Rod Stewart. E nel caso dei Las Rubias del Norte - le bionde del nord - non saremmo molto lontani dalla verità.
Emily Hurst e Allyssa Lamb, due bionde alla guida di un quintetto di musicisti, fanno riassaporare, tra un cha cha cha e un bolero, il fascino di una trasmissione musicale radiofonica che si perde nel tempo di oltre un secolo fa.
Una suona il glockenspiel, l'altra la melodica. Entrambe nella New York Chorale Society ricantano classici latino americani come "Rumba International" - canzone che dà il titolo al CD -, "Amorosa Guajira", "Perfidia", "Tumbling Tumbleweeds", e perfino il "Confutatis" del Requiem di Wolfgang Amedeus Mozart dandogli uno spiraglio di luce ricco di suggestione e ironia che potrebbe andare nelle mira di Quentin Tarantino.
Chissà.
Quando poi reinterpretano "Quizàs, Quizàs, Quizas" di Osvaldo Farrés, al quel punto sorge pure un ragionevole dubbio: e cioè che dietro questa operazione, all'apparenza superficiale e modaiola, si nasconda un lavoro che non trascura i particolari e le chicche sofisticate. Perché? Chi ha dimestichezza con le osservazioni musicologiche di Philip Tagg, contenute nel saggio Popular Music, da Kojak al Rave, nel capitolo dedicato alla "Fernando" degli Abba, capirà, capirà, capirà.
Un CD leggero e inafferrabile come un piuma che ha l'unico difetto (forse) di essere troppo breve.
Stravaganza allo stato puro e con stile.
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