In Juan Gómez Bárcena's 2023 novel Not even the dead, a former conquistador receives a mysterious quest from the colonial government of Mexico. He has to leave his wife and his home, but it will be worth it—the job pays gold and will only take two weeks. He leaves, riding through numerous trials and tribulations, all the while reassuring himself: Two weeks. Two more weeks will do the trick. Two weeks is the least of his problems as he not only rides, but travels through time—moving forward decades and then centuries, tripping and stumbling into future worlds where the legends and prejudices of the past are constantly taking new forms. He eventually reincarnates as a migrant worker, going by train.
“Time can take you for a ride,” sings Alynda Segarra near the top of their ninth album, The past is still alive. Instead of horses, Segarra writes mostly about trains because they used to jump on their own and because of the way the train, the first beat of agricultural industrialization, runs beneath the American blues and folk music that heralds the their career as Hurray for the Riff Surfetos. This is unstable-stable forward driving The past is still alive: part folk-punk memoir, part harm reduction PSA, part spiritual invocation and/or world history concert. The location is: Somewhere out there and the time is: Don't you know that all time is connected?
The past is still alive represents a shift towards more traditional post-2022 Americana textures Life on Eartha sort of throwback electronic venture that followed the sleeker, self-consciously conceptual The Navigator. The sound is dark, naturalistic, one-third electric and two-thirds acoustic. We see softness and joy in the human experience and, lurking in the background, violence, fentanyl and barrels of crude oil. Producer Brad Cook plays bass here, along with a core studio line-up including brother Phil Cook (piano, organ, Wurltizer, dobro) and drummer Yan Westerlund – what one might call the Megafaun of an alternate reality, with two initial members-siblings and the member's third brother (see DeYarmond Edison's lasting influence).
Elements of Segarra's biography appear in flashes throughout their discography but rarely as explicitly as in The past is still alive, a vivid time travelogue reflecting on Segarra's youthful adventures as a “dirty kid” or punk traveler with humility, nostalgia and a bi-historical perspective. In the replay, shoplifting and dumpster diving for food represent both self-sufficiency and hidden shame. And when you have nowhere to go, a train will take you somewhere. It's certainly not the lifestyle for everyone: “Here's a silver spoon, you can eat your heart out as a prize,” Segarra quips or warns, in highlight “Hawkmoon,” an incredible coming-of-age story honoring a transgender mentor, Miss Jonathan, who was attacked and never seen again.
