Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren - Sunday Mornings with Elle & Toni, Volume 1: 2013-2015

So the other day I was searching for something on YouTube, and I came across a home concert by a musical act I'd never heard of, Reina del Cid. Since I've been posting a lot of home concerts here, I clicked on it to see if it was up my alley, and I discovered that it definitely was. So much so that I began looking for more music by the same artist, and now I'm starting to post some of that.

It turns out that Reina del Cid is the stage name of the singer-songwriter Rachelle Cordova. Note: in 2024, she changed her name to Elle Cordova, and her duo name to Elle and Toni. So I've followed suit and renamed these albums. I will attempt to stick to the newer name from this point forward in this text.

She's 32 years old as I write this in 2020, and has released four albums since 2012. Virtually everything she's done has been in partnership with Toni Lindgren, who is an excellent lead guitarist, and well as backing vocalist. I consider Lindgren's guitar playing kind of the "secret sauce" that takes their performances to the next level.

The official Elle and Toni albums consist of her original songs, which are very good. I've been tracking those albums down and enjoying them. The music is in an acoustic mode. Sometimes there's bass and drums, plus other occasional instruments, but those are done acoustically as well, usually with a light touch. For the songs here, the vast majority are with just Cordova on vocals and acoustic guitar, while Lundgren plays lead on another acoustic guitar. I really enjoy their mellow sound. Cordova's lead vocals don't wow with extraordinary range or timbre or anything like that, but there's a certain "je ne sais quoi" that I enjoy.

These two musicians have had a nice tradition going. Starting in 2013, they've been posting one video per week on YouTube, which they call "Sunday Mornings with Elle and Toni." Naturally, the videos come out every Sunday. They've played many originals over the years, but at a rate of one song per week, I don't think even Neil Young or Bruce Springsteen could keep up with new songs every single week. So they're mostly covers, and I've only collected the covers. If you want to hear the originals, very much in the same style, check out the studio albums, or look at the Elle and Toni YouTube page.

One thing I very much enjoy about this duo is their taste in music. They play songs by a wide variety of artists, so wide that after doing this since 2013, they rarely play more than one song by the same artist. They specialize in singer-songwriter-esque rock and folk, but they range all over the place, including country and bluegrass. I've discovered a bunch of excellent songs I'd previously missed due to their cover versions.

I plan on posting a whole series of albums that gathers up the covers from their "Sunday Mornings" YouTube page. Note that in recent years, Elle and Toni have created a Patreon webpage, which you can find here:

https://www.patreon.com/reinadelcid

Some of the weekly videos are still posted for free on YouTube, while others are only available through the Patreon page, and you have to pay to get access to those. I don't want to play a part in ruining that revenue stream, so I'll only be posting the videos that are freely available on YouTube. The songs are in chronological order from when they were posted, which appears to almost always have been the same day they were performed.

This album is 44 minutes long.

Here are the original artists for each song:

01 Auld Lang Syne - traditional
02 Red Is the Rose - traditional
03 Tupelo Honey - Van Morrison
04 Who Put the Bomp [In the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp] - Barry Mann
05 I Shall Be Released - Bob Dylan
06 I'll Be There - Ray Price
07 Colours - Donovan
08 Angel from Montgomery - John Prine / Bonnie Raitt
09 Kodachrome - Paul Simon
10 Beyond the Sea - Bobby Darrin
11 21st of May - Nickel Creek
12 Ophelia - Band
13 Run Rudolph Run - Chuck Berry
14 Wild Mountain Thyme - traditional

Here's the usual song list:

01 Auld Lang Syne (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
02 Red Is the Rose (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
03 Tupelo Honey (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
04 Who Put the Bomp [In the Bomp, Bomp, Bomp] (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
05 I Shall Be Released (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
06 I'll Be There (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
07 Colours (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
08 Angel from Montgomery (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
09 Kodachrome (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
10 Beyond the Sea (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
11 21st of May (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
12 Ophelia (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
13 Run Rudolph Run (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)
14 Wild Mountain Thyme (Elle Cordova & Toni Lindgren)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16534314/ELLECRDVATNILINDRN2013-2015SndyMrnngswthEllTniVlum1_atse.zip.html

The cover art is a screenshot from the video for "Tupelo Honey" included here.