11/19/08 The world is her stage, Hamtramck is her home

By Terry Parris, Jr.

Citizen Staffwriter

After jetting around the world and living in some of the globe’s most intriguing places, Lola Morales, a Latin singer/songwriter, now calls Hamtramck home.

“Hamtramck’s a quirky little place,” she said, with a big smile on her face.

Morales was born in Nicaragua, raised in San Francisco, lived in Buenos Aires and London, toured in Singapore and Indonesian, and is currently in a show playing in Beijing. And when her show is over, in a few weeks, she’ll head home, here to Hamtramck.

Morales has one album out, which she said is 10 tracks of Latin pop called “Write My Story.”  She held a CD release show at the Magic Bag in Ferndale.

It was produced by Royal Oak’s Rust Belt Studio, who has worked with some of Detroit’s well known acts including Kid Rock, Electric Six and Hamtramck’s own The Hentchmen.

So how did this well-traveled musician get to Hamtramck? Well, she didn’t just stumble into this little town randomly. She had roots laid here already. Her step-father is from Grosse Isle, south of Detroit. After her mother and step-father split in San Francisco he moved back to Michigan and found himself in Hamtramck. As time went on, Morales’ career was taking her all over the world. Eventually, though, she needed to come back, “I had Visa issues,” she said. “It was such a hassle.”

She said her step-father asked her to come to the area just for a few months. She did. She liked it. And, so far, she’s stayed.

Playing in Detroit, she says, isn’t much different than playing in the bigger cities across the world. In fact, she  loves it.

“I’ve had nothing but pleasant feelings playing here,” she said. “The audience is open and all the musicians are top notch.”

Though, she admits that she hasn’t played in Hamtramck yet, save for the Hamtramck United event at the Painted Lady last month. She doesn’t have a set band so she has to pay musicians individually and, she said, it’s hard to pay them their worth when the play smaller bars like the ones in Hamtramck.

She has played in places like Sweet Georgia Brown’s and Fishbone’s as well as Detroit’s Tastefest and the Cass Corridor art festival, Dally in Alley, and Pontiac’s Arts, Beats and Eats. She said she isn’t sure if she’ll be in Hamtramck forever, but in the time being she loves it.

“Hamtramck is a melting pot,” she said. “I love the rawness and the grit of the city. It’s a colorful city within a city. It’s such a unique place to live.”

Visit Lola Morales on the Web at www.lolamoralesmusic.com