Ángela Hoodoo, the Andalusian daughter of country

She wears a western shirt, cowboy boots and dark-wash jeans. Etta James and Johnny Cash are tattooed on her skin. No one would bat an eyelid in any Nashville bar, but we happen to be in the centre of Malaga and her aesthetic mixed with her Andalusian accent attract attention.

She is Ángela Hoodoo, the country alter ego of Ángela Ávila, a singer-songwriter with years of experience on the scene who has just released her second American roots album. From Granada and based in Malaga for the last five years - "I'm already half a boquerona" (a term used to show pride for Malaga). Ángela Hoodoo presents Outlaw Girls for women outside the norm - just like her.

We met up with Ángela at her musical lair, Sleazy Records, the shop and label based in Malaga specialise in 50s and 60s music and the driving force behind the Rockin' Race Jamboree. They only have vinyls, including her own (also available on digital platforms). "I feel very comfortable in this genre because I can express myself through emotion, it's music that allows you to bring out what's inside you. It's the purest language for that," she said. In the song that gives the album its title, for example, she makes a feminist plea, telling the story of women in vulnerable situations who want to "dance in the dark", to move forward despite everything.

There's rock'n'roll, rhythm & blues and, of course, americana. "On Coyote, the previous album, I was going through a bereavement and it was my refuge. The songs here are more lively, more moving. They were finished and arranged during my 65-date tour. They represent that movement, that different energy," she explained. She sings about love and betrayal, but with a touch of humour, and pays tribute to two greats by appropriating the phrase "Don't get into trouble" that Billie Holiday dedicated to Etta James when she told her she wanted to sing the blues.

But Ángela has not always been Hoodoo, an alias she took from a Memphis Minnie blues entitled Hoodoo Lady, a reference to voodoo witch doctors, a practice closely linked to primitive American music. Her extensive musical career explains her confidence and clarity when talking about this project and performing on stage. "Because this album is for music venues and for sweating it out at concerts".

She's 36 years old and has been doing this since the age of 18. She started rapping with Rebel Sound Projects. "When I see videos from that time, I think I ate up the stage like a powder keg from one side to the other. I have no shame or regrets about any stage of my life," she added. Then she switched to punk with A.C.A.B.A.B.A.D.A.S., a band with which she has "very good memories". From Granada she moved to Barcelona and little by little she moved towards rockabilly, swing and blues. "My body was asking me to compose another kind of music, not so vindictive, but richer on a musical level". That's when she founded Blue Bloody Blades, an American music duo that would become her most personal project years later. "That's why it bears my name. I cook it, I eat it. This is me," she said.

To say that Outlaw Girls (Sleazy Records) is her second album is an selling her short. "Ángela Hoodoo comes from a very different background that makes me what I am today," she added. The truth is that both rap and country come from the same place, the USA. "And musicians are not entities that don't move, we're not static. You are curious, you want to learn and nourish yourself with everything," she explained.

This evolution has gone beyond music and into aesthetics. She has always been drawn to vintage and pin-up styles, even before making this music, but now her cowgirl image is much more blatant. "I've always been very chameleon-like, my body is a form of expression and you have to represent what you're playing," she said.

She sees her concerts as an entire performance. "I like to go on stage with a character, it empowers me and gives me more strength. And I also make the musicians look good, dressed up in their shirts. For me, music is not just music. It's a production," she explained. However, don't be surprised if she's spotted on the street "with a bun and leggings, taking the dog out with dark circles under her eyes". "I don't paint my lips red from Monday to Sunday," she said, between laughs.

Before the album was even released, Ángela Hoodoo had already booked 30 dates all over Spain - without a booking agent. "All self-managed. When you release an album you have to go all out. It's tedious and it's an investment, but you can't stay at home". She says she doesn't know how to live without live performance. In Malaga she will be part of the line-up for Cala Pop, the independent festival that is still going strong in Mijas Costa, on 19 and 20 September. But Ángela Hoodoo has a dream: to play in the USA. "I think it's going to come true. We'll end up going, I'm sure," she concluded. It's just a matter of time.