related items
Rochester music interviews
We hit up artists on their way to the ROC
Gaby Moreno has always been bold.
"When I was 2 years old, my mom would take me to parties, and I'd get up on the tables and say, 'Ladies and gentleman, Gaby Moreno will now sing for you!' And then I'd start singing," says Moreno, now 28.
The Guatemalan native's confidence came in handy when, at the age of 7, she started singing for bigger audiences — at festivals, telethons, anywhere she could. By the time she was 10, Moreno had progressed to performing in stadiums, opening for artists like Ricky Martin in her home country (thanks, in part, to her father, Armando Moreno, who was a band promoter).
But it was a trip to New York City when she was a teenager that awakened her to a new style of music.
"I remember walking down the street and hearing this amazing music. I was like, 'Wow! What is this? I've never heard this in my life, but it's speaking to me,'" says Moreno, who opens for Ani DiFranco Wednesday, Jan. 20, at the Harro East Ballroom. "I asked somebody and they were like, 'It's blues' ... I got immersed in the genre ... In Guatemala it's not very common that you hear that music, so my family looked at me like a little alien."
Moreno was soon locking herself in her bedroom for hours a day, listening to legendary blues artists like B.B. King, Robert Johnson and Nina Simone. She turned to an English dictionary to better understand the lyrics. It wasn't long before she started singing along and then writing her own blues songs in English.
In 2001, Moreno moved to Los Angeles, hoping to find some other fans of the blues and bring her music to American audiences. When she enrolled in the Musician's Institute, Moreno found just that, as well as "other people doing the same thing I was doing — leaving all their families behind," which was comforting.
Her efforts soon paid off: In 2006 she won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest (part of the annual Maxell Song of the Year Awards) with the tune "Escondidos," and in 2008 she released her debut album, Still the Unknown, featuring songs in English and Spanish.
The singer/songwriter says winning the contest was a turning point in her career, and soon she was opening for acts like Fergie, Tracy Chapman, and Ani DiFranco.
"I got a call saying Ani DiFranco wanted to take me on tour and I was dumbfounded. I'm a huge fan. My bass player and I were jumping up and down," she says of last year's 10-day tour opening for the Buffalo native.
Moreno was equally surprised a week after the tour ended, when DiFranco called and asked Moreno back for a 2010 tour. It will take her to places she has never visited before, such as Canada and the Northeastern portion of the United States.
The first stop is in Rochester, and all Moreno wants to know is whether or not she can expect snow. I tell her it's guaranteed. "That's so cool!" she squeals. "I haven't seen snow in so long! Growing up in Guatemala, I'd never see snow. I'm gonna have to get some earmuffs."
