DON’T mess with Lindi Ortega.

When American radio station consultant Keith Hill suggested country music stations shouldn’t play female singers as it would be better business, the Toronto songstress was quick to fire back.

The 35-year-old penned an online essay that went viral about why she felt he was wrong.

“I got a mostly positive reaction for that,” she chuckles, several months down the line.

“I don’t normally do opinion pieces like that, but the words of Keith Hill, simply saying ‘take women out’ are destructive and really didn’t sit well with me.

“I didn’t just want to make a Facebook comment saying this guy’s a moron as I didn’t want to come down on him or critically attack him personally, but I thought I needed to attack what he was saying, especially about that message being delivered when equality is still being fought for in many areas.”

Lindi is one of the most talented of the younger generation of country acts, tingeing her music with elements of rock and soul.

She’s in Glasgow on Friday, January 22, for an Oran Mor gig as part of Celtic Connections.

Having performed at the winter festival before she admits there’s one show she’s disappointed to be missing this time around.

“Last time I played Celtic Connections with my own show and then at the Roaming Roots Revue that Roddy Hart put on, and the crowds were great,” she says.

“I’m looking forward to hopefully catching up with him again and just hanging out in the city and getting to play for some fun people.

"I’m a little sad about not doing the Revue again though, because I heard Kris Kristofferson was playing and I love him – maybe I can get a ticket.”

Her own show will lean on last year’s Faded Gloryville album, her fourth record.

It combines Lindi’s darkly humorous character sketches and musings on heartbreak with a production sound honed at the legendary Muscle Shoals studios in Alabama, making for her most soulful collection yet.

Some things don’t change, though…

“Most of them are still based on experiences I’ve gone through, or heartbreak and such,” she says dryly.

“That seems to happen a lot to me and while it’s terrible to go through those things it’s great for songwriting.

"It means there’s always things I can draw on, and songs like Ashes are very much about me, while something like Rundown Neighbourhood isn’t personal – that was just something where my friend Bruce Wallace is a very quirky guy, and every time we write together we get a tongue in cheek song out of it.”

There’s also a cover, as she tackles the Bee Gees, To Love Somebody.

A regular in her live sets, Lindi was aware of the pitfalls of covering a classic.

“I’ve really liked the song for ages and I was going through my own personal relationship relating to those lyrics as I was having a moment of unrequited love,” she adds.

“The first time I heard it was Nina Simone’s cover, so I didn’t know it was a Bee Gees song.

I looked it up and thought ‘wow, that’s incredible’ as all I’d known before was Stayin Alive and the disco hits, and then there was this beautiful ballad.

“I knew I was taking a risk, because people are so married to the original version of the songs or to other covers of it, and they might think it was the worst version ever that you’ve done.”

Lindi’s well aware of other online risks, having made the mistake at looking at too many online comments about her work.

“Music is subjective, as is all art, so not everybody is going to love what you do, and some people will really hate it.

"So you can’t please everybody, and you have to learn that lesson – I’m quite a sensitive person so I had to grow through that.

“If people are still showing up to the shows and want to talk to me afterwards and buy the records then I take that as my beacon I’m doing things right.”

Luckily, she also knows how to disengage from everything too.

“I try to stir things up in life, although when I get off tour I never know what to do with myself. I’m so used to living on the road and in motels that I become this weird person who shuts herself in and binge-watches the Walking Dead and Game of Thrones while eating unhealthy food.”

Lindi Ortega, Oran Mor, Friday January 22, £14,7pm