Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne
Partners for more than 25 years, they've
played most of the major folk festivals across North America and
have been featured on many National Public Radio programs. Their
recordings are heard around the world.
They've received critical acclaim from the Village Voice, the
San Francisco Examiner, the Washington Post, Stereo Review, Sing
Out!, Folk Roots, and Dirty Linen.
"...the duo virtually created their own hybrid of Bay-area
folk-blues and jazz". --- (Sing
Out!)
"...This pair of artists are a Bay Area treasure. They deserve
accreditation as historical landmarks, not because they're that
old but because they are preserving popular music styles that
have for the most part been allowed to sink into the sands of
time."--- (San Francisco Examiner)
Voss is known both as a singer and songwriter. Her
songs have been covered by many artists, including Rosalie Sorrels,
Chuck Pyle, Jody Stecher and Kate Brislin, and the late Dave Van
Ronk. Her songs have the ring of instant classics, and have been
taken for much older songs at times, because of the thoroughgoing
craft and poetry of her lyrics, and her flowing, singable melodies.
However, she doesn't stop with her own songs. Every
performance includes powerful readings of great contemporary songs,
as well as rare and classic gems of blues, folk, and popular song,
from Hoagy Carmichael to the Beatles, from the Carter Family to
Bessie Smith. She is often compared to the great French singer
of the mid-Twentieth Century, Edith Piaf. She recently celebrated
her thirtieth anniversary as a national touring artist.
For many of those years, Voss has performed, toured,
and recorded with the amazing piano artist Hoyle Osborne. Osborne
is the perfect match to Voss in the range of his eclecticism and
in the subtlety and authority of his musicianship. His gorgeous,
often intricate accompaniments support and ornament Voss's voice
and guitar. Osborne has also performed solo ragtime piano at The
Diamond Belle Saloon in Durango -- more than a thousand nights
over the last 14 years.