Hurray for the Riff Raff Play Sad, Hopeful Songs at Mountain Jam 2015

Hurray for the Riff Raff played the second to the last set of Mountain Jam Sunday night (June 7) and made a fresh contribution to the various approaches to Americana that dominated the fest.

The centerpiece of the set was "The Body Electric," a song about confronting an entire country music songwriting tradition. "What's a man with a rifle in his hand / Gonna do for a world that's so sick and sad," Alynda Segarra sang, with conviction and sharpness that rang through the Catskills. "It might sound sad, but it's a hopeful song," she said. "I think anything is possible."

And with the same conviction she sang "Ode to John and Yoko," overwhelmed in short bursts with a gospel sense of emotional abandon, on another sad but hopeful song -- a song about that hopefulness of love that nevertheless includes the line, "Yoko took the moon down from the sky/ Laid it down by her bed and cried." It was a set that venerated classic song forms without being afraid to challenging them to join the 21st century.