Half Gringa
10/20/22
MOTR Pub 1345 Main St, Cincinnati, OH
10pm, 21+, Free
The name Half Gringa stems from frontwoman Isabel Olive’s childhood term of endearment as “la Gringa” in her Venezuelan family and her bicultural experience growing up in the United States. Specifically, growing up in the Midwest where she was “really into alternative rock, but heard a lot of country music in the supermarket.”
While Half Gringa typically records as a full-band arrangement, Ancestral Home serves as a more intimate, remote collaboration between Olive, co-producer Nicholas Papaleo (Gia Margaret, Campdogzz), and drummer Abby Black (Lala Lala, Date Stuff). Set to release January 27, 2023, the 5-song set also includes an “achingly tender ballad” (Chicago Reader) called “Sevenwater” that Half Gringa leaked last year.
Half Gringa’s previous album Force To Reckon featured fellow rising Chicago artist Gia Margaret and landed on Vice/Noisey’s “Essential Albums You May Have Missed in 2020.” Vice praised, “There are few artists who can make introspection so vividly-rendered as Olive,” adding, “The LP’s propulsive energy culminates in the cinematic, string-laced, and mournful closer ‘Forty,’ one of the most beautiful songs of the year.”
Olive debuted her Half Gringa project with the 2017 full-length Gruñona: one of Chicago Magazine’s 10 Best Albums of the Year and one of Chicago Reader’s Best Chicago Albums of the Decade.
