Tania Alexandra / Nora Jane Struthers May 22, 2010

CONCERT - $16 Advance/$20 Door, 8:00 pm

"With a voice that floats with gossamer frailty one moment and soars to a sweeping fervor the next, Alexandra coaxes a sweet purity out of simple momentswatching a butterfly, taking a breathand draws truth from places still painfully tender, peeling back the layers of her own assumptions and beliefs with a steely determination."
- Naila Francis, The Intelligencer

Tania Alexandra woke up one morning to see a piano taking up most of her bedroom. She was nine, and that piano became her diary.

Immersed in the performing arts and her father's eclectic tastes, she counts The Muppets, Igor Stravinsky, John Coltrane, Tom Waits, Laurie Anderson and Joni Mitchell among her earliest influences. Born and raised amid the beauty of the Colorado mountains, she honed her songwriting in secret while studying music education at Ithaca College, only revealing herself after moving to Philadelphia in 1998.

After recording her debut album Chrysalis, Tania infused herself into the arts community as a singer-songwriter, music and movement teacher, session vocalist and vocal arranger. Her new release Emergence represents both a milestone in her songcraft and a culmination of her experiences as an artist in Philadelphia.

Propelled to spread creative energy like a colorful weed, Tania Alexandra muses her listeners. Her passionate voice weaves through piano driven primal grooves creating a collage filled with poetic lyrics and engaging melodies. Tania's songs are edgy, evocative, and subtly complex. Some haunting, some playful, some reflective, some bold - her music explores her journey into the connections and emotions in life through generations and over time between people, nature, and love.

www.taniaalexandra.com

"Nora Jane is one of the best songwriter-singers this side of the Himalayas!"
-David Mayfield, Cadillac Sky

Nora Jane Struthers is a talented songwriter, singer, and guitarist whose keen appreciation of the nuances of traditional music shines in her own work. Nora Jane grew up in New Jersey playing and singing bluegrass music with her father, Alan. Her mother fondly remembers that, “Jane could yodel before she could talk. When she was a little tyke, she would wait by the window for her dad to walk home from the train station after work, and she would greet him with a yodel.” Living in New York City for seven years, Nora Jane played with her father in a bluegrass duo “Dirt Road Sweetheart” performing forgotten brother duets, originals, and traditional folk songs.

Now based out of Nashville, Tennessee, Nora Jane is performing her originals with her own band, an acoustic quartet comprised of fiddle, mandolin, guitar, bass, and occasionally cello. Her songs overflow with imagery and the listener is easily swept away into her stories. In 2009 Nora Jane received her first accolade as a songwriter when she was selected as one of ten finalists in the Telluride Bluegrass Festival Troubadour competition. In July, at the Appalachian String Band Festival in Clifftop, WV, Nora Jane and her band won 1st place in the Neo-Traditional Band Competition and Nora Jane was given the award for Best New Song.

Musically, Nora Jane draws from the traditions of old time, bluegrass, gospel, and Celtic music, resulting in new songs that sound as if they have been performed by generations of folk musicians. As timeless as her songs, her unique voice is pure and natural and one can’t help but feel that she could have been singing a hundred years ago to an audience of brave pioneers, hardy housewives, and dirt farmers. 

The music of Nora Jane Struthers is among the purest Americana being created today. 

www.norajanestruthers.com

Official Website: http://www.psalmsalon.com