Alynda Lee Segarra charmed the pants off her Savannah Stopover 2014 audience in March, and she’s coming she’s back for more.

A Bronx native of Puerto Rican descent, Segarra started traveling the country at the age of 17, hitching and drifting until she wound up in New Orleans. It was there that she began playing music with fellow travelers, singing, playing washboard, and testing out a gifted banjo.

Since she found her voice, Segarra has written neo-roots songs for America’s downtrodden and marginalized. They’re gorgeous Americana songs rooted in the South, unapologetically honest about violence and community struggles, feminism, queer visibility, and the stories of the people Segarra has encountered in her travels and adopted hometown of New Orleans.

She’s been on the music world’s radar since 2012, but this year’s Small Town Heroes has catapulted Hurray For The Riff Raff into the ears and hearts of countless people worldwide.

Rightfully so. It’s one of the best releases of 2014, both tender and gritty, comforting and confrontational. You can have a good long cry to these songs, or you can listen to them while walking along a deserted River Street in the early morning, watch the freights come in.

Savannah bluegrass band City Hotel and Nashville’s Alanna Royale are the perfect local pairing. Well, maybe a little whiskey, too.