Lisa Morales grew up in Tucson singing mariachi songs with her sister Roberta, in restaurants and at family gatherings soundtracked by boleros and Sonoran rancheras. That music shaped her. “All of that Mexican music, it’s the fiber of who I am,” she says.

She built an international following as half of Sisters Morales, then launched a solo career in 2011. Most of her original writing has been in English, but she’s said the songs go deeper in Spanish. Her second solo album, 2018’s Luna Negra and the Daughter of the Sun, pushed further still, into Spanglish.

Her fourth solo album, Sonora, came out Sept. 13, 2024 on Luna Records. Decades removed from that niñita singing at restaurants, but close enough in melody and memory to feel like a heartbeat away.