Hispanic Roots Help Singer Stay Centered

Singer Tish Hinojosa participated in the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta.

She didn’t tumble through the air on the vault. Nor did she tear down the track in the 100-meter dash. And she wasn’t awarded any medals for her efforts.

Yet her contributions to the Games were monumental.

Hinojosa, who plays The Met on Friday, gave two concerts at the Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, entertaining visitors and athletes.

Her shows almost didn’t happen, because they fell just a few days after the pipe-bomb explosion that killed one person and injured more than 100 others.

The singer didn’t perceive the bombing as casting a negative mood over Centennial Olympic Park in the days that followed. “In some ways the mood was normal,” she said from Atlanta.

But before her first show, an unclaimed bag sparked a mass evacuation at the park. After law enforcement officials determined the bag was nothing more than someone’s lost possessions, people returned.

“There was a lot of extra caution being taken,” Hinojosa said. “When someone tells you to clear out, there’s no joking around. It’s a real strange fact of the times.”

Still, Hinojosa’s visit to the Olympics was a memorable experience for her. However, she was doubtful that people came specifically to watch her cook up her ethnic stew of Hispanic-flavored roots music.

In many ways, she was an ideal performer at the celebration because her music is full of international flavor. She breaks down barriers between genres, similar to the way the Olympics diminishes barriers between countries.

On her dreamy and atmospheric new album “Dreaming from the Labyrinth,” Hinojosa embellishes on Latin strains such as mariachi and samba music, American derivations including country and pop, and Celtic folk.

Further, she sings both in English and Spanish on most songs, further increasing her international appeal.

For Hinojosa, 40, singing in Spanish helps keep her roots firmly entrenched in her Mexican heritage. Her parents immigrated to the United States before she was born.

“My Spanish that I write is really just an exercise to keep my native tongue alive,” said Hinojosa. “For me, my only connection was my parents and my family back home.”

Hinojosa, originally from San Antonio, has been performing and writing songs for almost 20 years.

For the first half of her career the singer was waiting for a record deal. When that didn’t happen, she decided to release an album herself.

In 1987, Hinojosa, who lived in Nashville at the time, financed her first album, “From Taos to Tennessee.”

“It was a very low-budget, cassetteonly project but it was a start,” said Hinojosa.

After moving to Austin in 1988, Hinojosa signed to A&M and recorded an album called “Homeland.” Since then, her seven other albums have appeared on four different labels.

Now Hinojosa is on the Warner Bros.-Nashville roster, which released the country-spiced “Destiny’s Gate” in 1994 and “Dreaming from the Labyrinth” in April.

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: Tish Hinojosa will perform at The Met on Friday at 8 p.m. Tickets, available at all G&B Select-a-Seat outlets, are $12 in advance and $15 at the door.