Lhasa is of Mexican and Jewish -Lebanese-American descent. She was born in Big Indian, New York, and grew up in the United States and Mexico. She started singing in a Greek cafe in San Francisco when she was thirteen. At age nineteen she moved to Montréal and she started singing in bars, where she developed the material she used in her first album, La Llorona, released in 1998.
Lhasa toured extensively after the surprise international success of La Llorona.
When the strain of touring threatened to overwhelm her, she knew she needed a break. Her escape route was waiting. Lhasa ran away to France join a contemporary one-ring circus "Pocheros" created and mounted by her 3 sisters. Feeling refreshed, by 1999 Lhasa began to write new songs. She collaborated with French singer Arthur H, and contributed to a duet on an album by The Tindersticks. Eventually a relationship took her to Marseilles, where Lhasa began to hone the ideas she had gathered on the road and write songs about love and creativity, apocalypse and hope. These are the songs of The Living Road. To the casual listener, The Living Road will seem similar to La Llorona, but a deeper listen reveals many differences between the two albums.
Both The Living Road and La Llorona available on Amazon.com.
