By Fredric Dannen
Some performing artists fit into neat categories. Liah Alonso, the itinerant singer-songwriter and social activist well known to San Miguel audiences, does not. A native Californian who lives out of a guitar case, with parttime residences in New York City, Nashville, and Mexico, Alonso writes music combining pop, folk, and Latin elements. Though she has no genre classification, she does have a moniker taken from a leather bracelet she picked up while touring in New Orleans: Gypsy Cowgirl.
“My parents were Mexican and Spanish,” she says. “We never lived in one place for very long, bouncing around between the US and Mexico City. That’s the gypsy part. And I always loved and rode horses. That’s the cowgirl part.”
Alonso spends much of the year on the road, and her appearances in San Miguel bring out her devoted fans, along with initiates hearing her songs for the first time. Her repertoire of songs is wickedly catchy, anthemic, and lyrically potent with a wry sense of humor that captures the ups and downs of life on the fringes. On Friday, March 3 and Saturday March 4, at 7pm, she will be performing her first concerts at the San Miguel Playhouse, backed by her Los Hilos band, with Doug Robinson on piano, Rick Shlosser on drums, and Javier Regalado on bass.
The concert is called Luchadoras: Women Rising in Song, a combination of original and well-loved feminist anthems in celebration of International Women’s Month. All seats are reserved, and can be purchased online at boletocity.com. Tickets are 550 pesos for the center section and 450 pesos for the sides. Tickets will also be on sale at the door beginning one hour before showtime. The Boleto City ticket office in Mercado Sano has closed, but will soon reopen in another location. For up-to-date information, please visit the website.
The San Miguel Playhouse is located at Avenida Independencia 82, and features security-guard-protected street parking and a taxi concierge service. Though developed as a legitimate theater, the building itself was originally a salon de fiestas, constructed for music, and it has become a favorite performance space for musicians. Since its post-Covid reopening, the theater has hosted concerts featuring Lady Zen, Ken Bichel, Katy Chan, Bill Kavanagh, Oscar Plazola, and Jose Luis Mendoza & Son Jarocho, among others. Alonso, for her part, says she is “so excited to rock the Playhouse.”The Gypsy Cowgirl got her start in music busking in the New York City subway as a founding member of politically fueled acoustic rock duo Left On Red, which Lucid Culture described as “a vivid reminder how much of an audience there is for accessible pop music that’s not stupid.” Alonso has shared stages with artists such as Jackson Browne, Run-D.M.C., Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine, and Wayne Kramer of MC5. She has performed at SXSW, the Pepsi Center Stadium in Mexico City, the City Winery in New York, and House Of Blues in New Orleans. In 2022, Alonso was part of a Latin Grammy-nominated album in collaboration with Mexican rock royalty La Gusana Ciega.
Concert
Luchadoras: Women Rising in Song
Featuring Liah Alonso, voice and guitar; Doug Robinson, piano; Rick Shlosser, drums; Javier Regalado, bass
Fri., Mar. 3 and Sat., Mar. 4, 7pm
San Miguel Playhouse, Av Independencia 82
450 and 550 pesos, at boletocity.com, or at the door
