Paul Thorn | Kevin Higgins w/Barbara Malteze October 31, 2009

Ticket Prices:(Children 5 years & Under Get in Free & NO REFUNDS)
Advance Price- $14 a person (includes $2 Handling Fee)
Regular Price- $15 a person

The first thing you notice about Paul Thorn is The Voice, unique and distinctive, the voice of a man who has walked a long, hot span over dusty Mississippi country roads. At turns soulful, raw, melancholy, brazen, funky, circumspect, serene, brooding, and mutinous, the voice expresses the range of human emotions, from forlorn grimness to incandescent optimism. And after repeated listens, you realize that his is not merely the voice of a poet but also of a merciful prophet, a summation not unjustified. Those who follow his career believe he is both.

Kevin Higgins, (guitars/vocals/songwriter), was raised in El Paso, playing in cover bands until he decided to pursue a career in songwriting. He moved to L.A. in the early '90s where he met Barbara Malteze, who was fronting her own blues rock band at the time. After the couple moved to Austin and recorded Higgins' solo CD, they formed the Cosmic Dust Devils, performing over 100 shows a year, all over the state of Texas. The group released a self-titled CD in 2002 which received rave reviews, such as "Higgins is quite possibly the next great Texas songwriter," -(Rockzilla.com); and "...a sparkling and important release" –(AllMusicGuide.com). In 2004, Higgins' song, “Company Time”, was placed in the movie “A Day Without A Mexican” (and released on the EMI soundtrack).

In early 2005, Barbara Malteze,(vocals/keyboards/mandolin), was invited to perform the headlining tribute at the "18th Annual Janis Joplin Birthday Bash" at the Port Arthur Civic Center. Back when Cashbox was the voice of the music industry, they wrote, "Barbara does know how to pump out ripping vocals." Malteze's past as L.A. heavy metal vocalist/songwriter for her self-titled band, Malteze, is still very much alive in Europe, as evidenced by a 3-page 2003 interview in Metal Maidens Magazine (Netherlands), the 2006 worldwide vinyl LP release of Count Your Blessings by Femetal Records, and a recent interview with "Heavy" Magazine (the 2nd largest heavy metal magazine in Germany), for the Nov. 2006 issue. Malteze continues to make waves in Texas, as she accepted the honor of "Female Vocalist of the Year" for two years in a row at the 2006 & 2007 Texas Music Awards, a feat of repetition that no other artist has accomplished thus far.