Join us for this very special evening at Common Ground as folk-rock icon and singer-songwriter extraordinaire Maura Kennedy hosts an evening of songwriters in the round, featuring Karen Savoca with Pete Heitzman, and Sam McTavey. Maura Kennedy was born Maura Boudreau in Syracuse NY, home of a fantastic live, original music scene when she was a teenager. She played in many different bands, on different instruments while she was in her formative years: bass guitar in punk and heavy metal bands, keyboards and acoustic guitar in a British Folk Rock band, guitar and mandolin in a roots-rock band. She found her true calling with her now husband, Pete Kennedy back in 1993, when she joined Pete as part of Nanci Griffith's backup band on a 2 month world tour. When that tour was over, The Kennedys was born, and the duo have been traveling, writing and recording ever since. Their tenth album, "Better Dreams" is released on 1/22/08. To mark this anniversary, both Pete and Maura have decided to put up solo myspace pages, and been performing a select number of solo live dates where they hope to offer music to their fans outside the scope of The Kennedys.

Karen Savoca and Pete Heitzman first met on a stage and each immediately recognized the other as the ideal musical partner. Years of leading their all-original, dance-driven group imbued this duo with the power to sound like a full band, whether it’s pulsing funk or haunting ballad. Electrifying, unique, and always uplifting, these improvisational performers possess "the fearlessness of a high wire act working without a net." Karen Savoca puts her heart into a song the way a great actor throws herself into a role. Her supple, soulful alto is “both sex and spirit, growling and whispering the listener into submission”. Savoca is a gifted songwriter, drawing you into her world with humor and compassion, telling her stories with such grace and ease, you feel as though you've been invited to her table for supper. Savoca composes and records on a variety of instruments, but opts for the primal combination of voice and drum in live performance, and the groove is deep and satisfying. Pete Heitzman’s “inspired and transcendent guitar work is central to their signature sound.” He’ll mimic a cello, a pedal steel, a rutting elk, and some things only imagined. With this broad pallet of tones and textures he paints the ideal landscapes for Savoca's engaging songs. An innovative and sensitive accompanist, Heitzman is so full of surprises that he has been called  “a human aurora borealis”. An 1890’s church in the hills of upstate New York serves as home, recording studio and headquarters for their own Alcove Records. Savoca’s sixth solo release, In The Dirt (2006), was captured in a two day session with Heitzman and longtime collaborator, T-Bone Wolk (Shawn Colvin, Elvis Costello, Hall & Oates). Notable appearances include The Today Show, A Prairie Home Companion, Mountain Stage, Big Top Chautauqua, and The Vancouver, Edmonton & Winnipeg Folk Festivals. They have recorded and produced other artists, their music has been heard in movies and documentaries, and they have scored two feature length films.

Sam McTavey comes from a long line of gifted singer/songwriters. His family tree (mom Sloan Wainwright, uncle Loudon Wainwright III, and cousins Rufus, Martha and Lucy) reads like a who’s who of contemporary popular music. Yes, like each of his musical kin, he offers a stylistic mix that is uniquely his own, in his case, bringing a dark, rich and gravelly approach to his music. If you took Dr. Hook, then threw in a little John Prine, with a splash of Tom Waits and served it in a Wainwright/McTavey glass you would have a taste of what comes out when Sam sings.