Had Tish Hinojosa decided to retire in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she could point to the prior 30 years of releasing music and touring the globe as reason enough to have earned a break from it all.
She had performed on some of the biggest stages in the country, toured around the world, and even had a single earn platinum certification in South Korea. But “the muse,” as she puts it, wasn’t done with her.
“I knew it was probably going to be time to make something because my last record was 2018,” she said, “and I was beginning to think, you know, is it never going to hit again?”
With a Guitar & a Pen
Hinojosa herself didn’t realize the material that would become With a Guitar & a Pen was worth recording until she showed the tracks to her fellow musicians.
“What I thought wasn’t material was actually really good material,” she said. “We picked five or six songs and then just working on those kind of kicked in the muse to really come forward.”
The title track speaks to her journey from a teenager writing songs in her bedroom to a star of the Austin music scene. She didn’t know the thing she was so passionate about would bring her some of the highest highs and lowest lows in her life.
“It’s kind of like falling in love, you know?Sometimes it works out, sometimes it doesn’t,” she said. “Once I got that idea, the lyrics just kind of poured themselves out.”
Musica bilingue
As the child of two Mexican immigrants, the Spanish language was a big part of Hinojosa’s early life. She has written songs in both English and Spanish throughout her career. Her latest release features songs in both languages. She says the language she writes songs in changes the process through which she expresses herself musically.
“I like calling [Spanish] a round language,” she said. “A lot of vowels, you know, and you can say simple things but they come across really beautiful.”
You can stream “With a Guitar & a Pen” and catch Hinojosa live on Dec. 15 at Gruene Hall in New Braunfels.
Mas Cultura
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