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MARÍA VOLONTÉ: BLUE TANGO PROJECT with ERIC JOHN KAISER: PARISIAN AMERICANA

"She can mix an intimate treatment of tango classics by the great Astor Piazzolla with songs from Chile and Brazil, along with echoes of late-night jazz and Latin-blues fusion. She has a cool, emotional style, plays impressive acoustic guitar, and is willing to experiment."
-The Guardian (UK)

The Old Church Concert Hall presents Maria Volonte-Blue Tango Project. Maria Volonte is a soulful singer and guitarist who writes songs steeped in the intense passions of tango and the mysteries of Buenos Aires. Maria's guitar and vocals fill the stage with the illicit pleasures of tango while Kevin Carrel Footer's blues harmonica echoes with the far-off whine of the solitary blues soul.

"The Blue Tango Project" is Maria's exploration of the deep spiritual bond that joins tango and the blues, as two genres steeped in sin, born in brothels, censored yet always resurgent and speaking directly to our souls. Performing together with harmonica player Kevin Carrel Footer, Maria's guitar and vocals fill the stage with the illicit pleasures of tango while Kevin's blues harmonica echoes with the far-off whine of the solitary blues soul.

Winner of the Gardel Prize, a Latin Grammy nominee and member of the Tango Hall of Fame, Maria Volonte is an Argentine singer, guitarist and composer celebrated for the intense passion and beauty of her songs as well as for her charisma and sensuality on stage.

Kevin Carrel Footer learned to play harmonica while hitchhiking across the US on a pilgrimage to Louisiana and Mississippi, the birthplace of the Blues. Later, following the scent of tango to Buenos Aires, he lost himself in the dancehalls and cafes of Buenos Aires for 15 years. Meeting Maria Volonte at the Café Tortoni where she sang each Thursday night for many year, their fusion of tango and blues was born.

Volonte is a good example of an artist who is respectful of her roots yet not afraid to go beyond musty old formulas Her musical concept is refreshingly broad."
The Los Angeles Times

Maria Volonte combines the earthiness of Edith Piaf with the sassiness of Eartha Kitt."
Jazz Perspectives

If you can imagine Americana interpreted through a French lens, then you can see (or more precisely hear) what Eric John Kaiser brings to the table. He is known known as The French Troubadour but there is so much more to this talented artist. While his French roots may make him seem exotic, those in the know realize that's just the beginning of his story. After doing over 350 concerts in France, Paris native Eric John Kaiser moved to Portland, Oregon in 2006 following a girl he fell in love with. Since then he has logged close to 10,000 miles each year via air, land and sea.

Exploring North America on multiple lengthy tours, he has gigged his way up through Canada and down through the South, as far as New Orleans and Washington D.C., where he performed as an "Artist in Residence" for the Smithsonian Museum. Sometimes driving his trusty Subaru under the wide Montana sky, sometimes riding the subway under the New York City canyons... Then jetting across the Atlantic to tour through France... His music has logged as many miles and picked up accents from across the American landscape: his latest songs resonate now with a very American rhythm, like bouncing across the vast plains on horseback some western lap steel guitar... some dirty roadhouse blues

"Like über-producer/recording artiste Daniel Lanois, he's adept at seamlessly blending French and English lyrics with tasteful, sun-dappled sonics." -- Barbara Mitchell, The Oregonian