Although they've only been living and working in the Wood River Valley for a short time, Peruvians Alejandro RIvas and Maria Laura Bustamante have already carved out an increasingly-recognizable name for themselves as musicians here in the Wood River Valley -- first at Ketchum's CIRO Market Wine Lounge, then as one of the many musical acts featured during the recent Crisis Hotline fundraiser at the nexStage Theatre, and then less than two weeks ago at Papa Hemi's Hideaway (which is where I finally got a chance to see and hear them perform their unabashedly beautiful music for a very large -- and grateful -- audience).

Primarily singing alternately in Spanish and English, and featuring a number of original compositions they wrote either collectively or separately -- as well as wide cross-section of traditional Peruvian ballads, and also a smattering of American songs (Disney's "When You Wish Upon a Star" and The Who's "Squeeze Box," among them), and also some from Mexico, Portugal, Chile and Argentina -- these two college-age singer-songwriter-musicians have become something of a cause celebre here in the Valley lately, particularly at CIRO.

In fact, Bustamante and Rivas were the very first musicians to approach CIRO Market's newly-created Wine Lounge about performing music there at least one night a week (now Duchin Room regular, Bruce Innes, performs there on Thursday and Friday evenings, Aaron Baker's "open mic night" takes place on Saturdays, and local Freehand band members Sheryll Mae Grace and Aaron Pugh perform periodically there, on Tuesday evenings).

But music isn't exactly a new sideline for either of these 20-something Peruvians, who are slated to return to their native country March 15th, in order to resume their respective studies.

Bustamante got her first guitar when she was only six years old, and has been a very avid singer as far back as she can remember -- partly, she says, because her father is a very accomplished singer-songwriter and guitarist in his own right.
"I don't think I can ever remember a time in my life growing up in our house, when there WASN'T some kind of music there, which probably made it a lot more conducive for me to want to study and perform music later one," she told me recently.

Bustamante performed her first concert before a live audience at age seven -- at a small coffee shop in Lima, Peru -- singing the Grammy Award-winning Carole King "Tapestry" album classic, "You've Got a Friend", and has been happily, eagerly and regularly singing away ever since, counting among her many musical influences growing up Joni Mitchell (who, btw, likewise got her start performing in small coffee houses -- in Calgary, Canada -- back when she was still using her original name: Joni Anderson), Ella Fitzgerald, Etta James, Norah Jones, Martha Wainwright, as well as a wide variety of popular Latin American music (Mercedes Sosa, Chabuca Granda, Jorge Drexler, etc).

A Performing Arts major who admits to always being an avid theater buff and otherwise "very theatrical in nature" growing up there in Peru, Bustamante, for several years, was part of an acclaimed jazz trio in Peru that produced an album less than a year after it was first formed ("A Tierra Negra"). Footage of their jazz band is in this video (music starts at 0:45)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbc2iJWmyog

No musical slouch either, RIvas likewise starting performing music (the cello) at age six, but later dropped it after he discovered the guitar -- and rock 'n roll. Prior to sharing his music with U.S. audiences, Rivas was a singer and guitarist for a Peruvian rock band, "Los Winkerbeats": http://www.space.com/loswinkerbeats that Bustamante likewise sang and played guitar for as well. Currently an Audio-Visual student back home, RIvas has performed music at coffee houses in Chicago, and also at Indiana's Notre Dame University. He counts among his many musical influences Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, The Beach Boys, Jeff Buckley, Rufus Wainwright and Cafe Tacuba (a very lively and eclectic Mexican band Rivas loves).

Prior to coming to work and live for a number of months in the Wood River Valley in late 2009, Bustamante and Rivas visited her uncle in Los Angeles (Alejandro has family in the U.S. as well -- a sister who attends Stanford), during which time they saw a production of "The Barber of Seville" that featured Juan Diego Flores, a world-renowned Peruvian tenor whose music Rivas and Bustamante are both quite enamoured with.

Any Wood River Valley venue owners interested in booking Bustamante and Rivas during the remainder of their stay here can contact them at: malabu4000@gmail.com

Musical samplings from both Rivas and Bustamante are also posted at their http://www.myspace.com/alejandroymarialaura page.

Maria Laura Bustamante and Alejandro Rivas currently perform at the CIRO Market Wine Lounge (230 Walnut Avenue, a half block south of Sun Valley Road, across from Tully's and Iconoclast Books) every Wednesday evening -- from 4-6pm (during the weekly wine-and-cheese tastings there), and then again from 6:30-9pm or so. Call 622-4400 for more info.

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RAVE:

Other than local Wood River Valley band fave, Cow Says Mooo, I can't remember the last time a new musical group here has created such increasingly-radiant and uniformly-positive buzz about itself soooo quickly as Peruvians Maria Laura Bustamante and Alejandro Rivas have!!

Long before I finally, FINALLY got a chance to listen to their lovely and lilting music for a couple hours last week at Papa Hemi's Hideaway, I was hearing the names "Maria Laura" and "Alejandro" bantered about all over town for more than a month, like it was a new "Must-Have!!" line of European-made designer clothing or something!!! (LOL)

But it became verrry apparent to me verrry quickly recently WHY there has been that kind of "buzz" about them now for months because both their music and their stage presence is really quite astonishing!! Just that Peruvian Highlands song I heard them sing (the title of which I forgot to write down -- sorry -- but whose genuinely haunting and breathtaking melody I never will forget) would've been more than enough reason all by itself to make me very grateful I got a chance to see them sing together.

Ditto, Maria Laura Bustamante's tremendously-affecting rendition of the Oscar-winning "When You Wish Upon a Star" (from the 1940 Disney animation classic,  "Pinocchio") that had more than a few of us at Papa Hemi's in tears by the end of it that evening.

Although they've been a couple now for some two years, Rivas and Bustamante have only been performing together regularly for six months or so -- a fact that's more than little staggering when you see what sort of unequivocally electric and vibrant chemistry they have together on-stage (think Johnny and June Carter-Cash, or The Carpenters).

About thirty percent of the songs they perform are their own compositions (one is a love song Rivas wrote to Bustamente for their one-year anniversary together), while the others consist of various traditional and pop Peruvian tunes, as well as some from Mexico, Argentina, Chile and Portugal. They also have in their reportoire a good cross-section of American music (some of which is sung in Spanish, while others in English -- and one or two in Portuguese), including: "On Our Way Home," "The Girl From Ipanema," "Vibrate" (a terrific Rufus Wainwright tune that Bustamante often plays on the piano, when one is available to her), "Twist & Shout," "Squeeze Box," "Nowhere Man," "Kiss the Girl," "Don't Worry Baby," and even a song from the 1959 Jack Lemmon-Marlyn Monroe-Tony Curtis comedy, "Some Like It Hot".

Other faves of mine they sang that evening include: "Mundo Azul," "Cuidala Olvidala," "Nube Gris," "Las Flores" (a Cafe Tacuba song), "Yo Vendo Unos Ojos Negros" (a Chilean love song), "Presumida" (an Enrique Guzman track), "Quisiera Quererte," "El Tamalito" (from Andres Soto), "Quizas" (a Chabuca Granda cover), and especially "Una Manana" (which I was still happily humming quietly to myself a couple hours after hearing it at Papa Hemi's that night, it was so memorable and fun!!)

This a verrry entertaining and genuinely heartfelt duo whose music I sincerely hope you get a chance to hear AT LEAST ONCE before these two college students return to Peru on March 15. I mean how often do you get a chance to hear a myriad of truly amazing songs from Peru, Chile, Portugal, Argentina and Mexico in a small town in Idaho!?!?

We're extremely lucky to have them in our midst here, and I, for one, can't wait to see them perform onstage again -- and soon!!!

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Comments or questions regarding this recurring this SVO "Harmonic Convergence" column can be sent to John at: WriteStuffIdaho@gmail.com  And to read any of John's previous "HC" columns -- which include raves on local faves Cow Says Mooo, FourStroke Bus, Josiah Venter, and Bruce Innes -- simply type "John Pluntze" into the SVO search engine here.