Dayna Kurtz at The Loft at UCPAC

Dayna Kurtz’s propensity for musical rule-breaking was forged early in life – she was still in her teens when she began performing her compositions in public. Over the past decade, the New Orleans-based vocalist/writer/musician/producer has built a formidable body of recordings, won an international reputation as a riveting live performer, amassed an extensive file of rapturous critical raves, and earned an equally devoted audience of fans around the world. She’s achieved these distinctions on her own terms, releasing seven albums and a live DVD on her own Kismet label, touring around the world on her own dime, and building a remarkably loyal fan base one person at a time.

Armed with an uncanny ability to stun audiences into submission, this musical free spirit has consistently refused to be pinned down by a single style or genre, building an inspired body of work that draws strength from a bottomless wellspring of American jazz, pop, blues, folk and country. The cinematic poetry of her songwriting is matched by the power of her voice, a rich, distinctly resonant instrument that’s capable of immense emotional depth.

After releasing the low-key live disc Otherwise Luscious Life, she won considerable acclaim for her impressively accomplished studio efforts Postcards from Downtownand Beautiful Yesterday. The former put Kurtz on the map in Europe and was particularly successful in Holland, where it became a Top 20 seller, culminating in sold-out headlining shows at Amsterdam’s fabled Paradiso (one of which became Kurtz’s first DVD, Postcards from Amsterdam).

Kurtz’s iconoclastic approach is underscored by her decision to simultaneously release American Standard and Secret Canon, Vol. 1 in 2012. Individually, each disc offers ample evidence of Kurtz’s abundant talent. Together, they make a compelling case for her status as a deeply adventurous, one-of-a-kind artist.

Dayna’s latest release, Secret Canon, Vol. 2, marks the artist’s second collection of lost and obscure blues and R&B gems from the 1940′s-1960′s. The sessions for the recording took place in New York as well as Dayna’s new home in New Orleans. The first official video is her riveting take on “Reconsider Me,” covered most notably in the late 60′s by the underappreciated R&B crooner Johnny Adams and remade into a country hit in the early 70′s by Narvel Felts.

Dayna has collected an impressive string of accolades and admirers over the course of her career. She was named Female Songwriter of the Year by the National Academy of Songwriters. Norah Jones and Bonnie Raitt have raved about her in interviews, and she’s performed on such high-profile radio shows as World Cafe,Mountain Stage and NPR’s Morning Edition. She’s toured with and/or opened for the likes of Elvis Costello, Antony and the Johnsons, Richard Thompson, Rufus Wainwright, B.B. King, Dr. John, Richie Havens, Keren Ann, Joe Henry, Olu Dara, Chris Whitley, Richard Buckner, Ladysmith Black Mambazo and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Best-selling author Steve Almond spends an entire chapter singing her praises in his book about music obsession, Rock and Roll Will Save Your Life. (“Listening to Dayna’s voice was like a drug. It wasn’t just her tone or her range or her power, which, if I knew anything about vocal technique, I could praise at length. No, it was something emotional. Her voice sounded like desperation hurled into the world with exquisite control.”)

Dayna will be touring the US and Europe through 2015.