Over 11 years and 570 episodes, John Rabe and Team Off-Ramp scoured SoCal for the people, places, and ideas whose stories needed to be told, and the show became a love-letter to Los Angeles. Now, John is sharing selections from the Off-Ramp vault to help you explore this imperfect paradise.
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This week’s Off-Ramp song of the week is “Reformer” by the UK group Darkstar, but the singer's name comes straight out of Los Angeles: it's Lorely Rodriguez. Rodriguez grew up here and went to the LA County High School for the Arts. She did competitive jazz singing before she began writing and composing her own music under the name Empress Of. She talked about her Los Angeles roots with KPCC's The Frame.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Urh8RRMJcC0
This song, “Reformer” is just the most recent thing she’s done. Empress Of’s debut record — just called “Me” — was one of the best reviewed records of 2015.