Performer Isabel Paillao, who goes by the stage name Chavela, has been told she’s an old soul nearly all her life. In fact, people used the term to describe her before she even knew what it meant, she told the Current during a recent phone interview.
It’s no wonder someone who exhibits a wisdom beyond her 25 years would produce such soulful music on her self-titled debut album.
Six or seven years in the making, the release represents an accumulation of songs the San Antonio-based singer-songwriter has been refining in live performances since penning some of them in high school.
The album also represents a homecoming of sorts for Paillao — both to San Antonio and to music — after a 10-month stint in El Paso.
“I moved away and I kind of wasn’t doing music,” Paillao said, adding that she followed a now ex-husband to West Texas before realizing that her new life wasn’t for her, in part because music was suddenly in the rearview mirror. “And then when I decided to come back, I just had this internal conviction that when I get back, I’m gonna record this album.”
When Paillao returned to San Antonio in 2022, she had to contend with the painful divorce process and its associated costs. On top of that, she had to save up to finally make her dream album happen.
“Having to fund my life and keeping a roof over my head while also trying to fund this dream of mine was very difficult but so worth it,” she said.
Paillao started gigging wherever she could, and stowing paychecks away from her barista job to save up for the album of her dreams.
“I had to dive into the soul-sucking work of playing three-hour gigs in, like, nowhere towns or at hotels, which was a big help in getting these things paid for,” she said.
After getting back to the Alamo City, she also reconnected with old friend Cooper Greenberg (Favorite Son, The Texases), who joined her as guitarist for the project.
Greenberg suggested Brant Sankey’s Studio E, a beloved San Antonio recording haven that no longer exists, as the spot to craft her album and bring it to life.
Though the band went through lineup changes during the album’s recording process, the collective is currently filled out by Andres Ovalle on drums; Isaiah Masters on keys, trumpet and vocals; Brianna Smith on vocals, Ramon Botello on lead guitar, and a rotating horn section that includes saxophonist Anthony Soriano laying down the smoothest of grooves.
But the smoothest element of all is Paillao’s voice, accomplishing both delicate and dexterous runs like fine embroidery on silk. Her influences are clear, from Corrine Bailey Rae and Norah Jones to Cleo Soul and the blues stylings of Susan Tedeschi.
Chavela — the Mexican nickname for “Isabel” — is also aware that she’s taken up the mantle of San Antonio’s Chicano soul legacy, established by acts including Sunny and the Sunliners and the Royal Jesters, among others. Those ’50s and ’60s groups solidified San Antonio’s reputation for brown-eyed soul with what was dubbed the West Side Sound.
Much like her soul forebears, Chavela has emerged as a polished professional. Her nine-track debut album, released in October, shows the instincts of a natural. For a self-taught musician and songwriter, she has a knack for developing complex chord progressions, penning emotive lyrics and peppering in well-placed blue notes to jazz up soul melodies.
These blue notes are employed to great effect on “When Will I Get 2 U,” where Paillao sends a shiver down the spine with a judiciously executed minor seventh while repeating the phrase “I’ve been waiting.” The album also includes “Impala Mama,” a track she said has become her anthem thanks to the 1970 jade-green Chevy Impala she drives. (Her handle on Instagram is also @ImpalaMama.)
However, Paillao is most proud of the second track, “Not Today,” a song she wrote just before her 19th birthday. Though the track first appeared on an earlier EP, she was able to reimagine it in the studio for this latest release.
Another track, “I Tried,” made it onto the album though she rarely plays it live.
“I’m kind of known for writing pretty moody music, and so it’s not a song that I always perform live just because it’s a bit of a downer,” she said, acknowledging that many of her tunes are “tales of heartbreak.”
Instead, when performing for an audience, she’s known to pepper in crowd pleasing covers such as Bill Withers “Use Me” to pick up the mood.
Paillao said she’s had to contend with her acute shyness on stage, something she’s struggled with since she was a little girl.
“My dad would do this thing in the car where if I was singing along to a song he would shut it off and I would keep singing, and I would get really embarrassed,” she said.
That shyness was recently tested with her album release party, which was held Oct. 19 at the Pearl’s Stable Hall. But now that her dream album is out in the world, Chavela is just getting started.
Chavela next plays San Antonio on Saturday, Dec. 13, at The Lighthouse Lounge and is already crafting new songs to go on the next album.
$5, 9 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, Lighthouse Lounge, 1016 Cincinnati Ave., instagram.com/thelighthouselounge.
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