(HUDSON, N.Y.) – Singer-songwriter and visual artist Natalia Zukerman and singer-songwriter and storyteller Anne Heaton will bring songs, stories, and pictures to Club Helsinki Hudson on Thursday, December 5, at 8pm.
Zukerman will perform excerpts from her one-woman show, “The Women Who Rode Away,” which had its work-in-progress debut at Club Helsinki Hudson two years ago. In “The Women Who Rode Away,” Zukerman’s songs and paintings engage in a dialogue. Featuring original music and projected paintings by Zukerman, this intimate portrait recounts the artist’s journey of finding her own voice through the stories of the women in her life who paved the way.
Singer-songwriter and pianist Anne Heaton will be premiering music from her new album, “To the Light,” and its accompanying book of stories, in which each song has a tale of how it came to be along with the creativity keys that inspired its completion.
“On this record, I wanted to stay connected to my music community across the country …. As each song was written, I thought of a musician-friend who might help me bring it fully to life. Then I reached out to that person. In this way, I was able to co-produce these songs with some amazingly talented friends.” Other songwriters who contributed to the album include Natalia Zukerman, Shannon McNally, Beth Wood, Mai Bloomfield, Chaska Potter, Duke Levine, Meg Hutchinson, Jennifer Kimball, and Laura Donohue.
Anne Heaton has captured audience imaginations for over fifteen years with her songs that are, by turns, “tender, barbed and spiritual” (Washington Post). She has been featured in the New York Times Popcast, played numerous times on NPR, and shared the stage with artists such as Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, and jazz drummer Max Roach.
Zukerman’s “The Women Who Rode Away” project began with her song “Jane Avril,” about the French can-can dancer made famous by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec through his paintings. “I immediately thought of the great Toulouse-Lautrec prints of the Moulin Rouge and this amazing tiny lady, Jane Avril who lived a life outside of conformity and within her own magnificent design,” says Zukerman, who lives in Brooklyn and frequently retreats to Columbia County for peace, quiet, and artistic inspiration – and to visit her mother, world-renowned flutist Eugenia Zukerman, known locally as artistic director of several music series, include Leaf Peeper Concerts and Classics on Hudson.
Zukerman comes equipped with a triple-threat musical toolbox: she’s an incisive songwriter with the vocal phrasing of a jazz-blues singer and a phenomenal instrumental talent on anything with strings. Zukerman is a master of guitar, slide guitar, Dobro, lap-steel guitar, and banjo – anything with strings. She’s even been seen to pick up a violin on occasion. Why not, when your private teacher is the world-renowned violinist Pinchas Zukerman (her father)?
Drawing upon these influences and her considerable talents as a visual artist, Zukerman is a compelling storyteller whose compositions capture moments of intimacy with the soul of Bonnie Raitt and the heart of Shawn Colvin. Indeed, she’s accompanied and opened for some of acoustic music’s greats, including Janis Ian, Willy Porter, Susan Werner, Erin McKeown, Shawn Colvin, Ani DiFranco, Richard Thompson, Tom Paxton, and many others.