The American Poets

Local Band to Shed Some "Light" at Release Concert
Written by Hollywood Gazette
Tuesday, 14 August 2007


Indie pop/rock band, The American Poets, will unveil their “Light of Life” album at a release party and concert set for 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 18th at the Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center.
Local South Florida singer/songwriter duo Jeff and Christine Maldonado attained national recognition with their first album “Blue,” a simple acoustic and raw collection of beautifully arranged songs. As a result of their notoriety, the duo has been invited to perform nationally and appear on live radio and television broadcasts, as well as have their music featured in several independent films. A follow up to the stripped down, folk melodies of “Blue,” the recently released “Light of Life” offers new depth into the journey of The American Poets. With conscious lyrics and a vibrant, sonic landscape, this album allows listeners to empathize with each and every song.

WHO: The American Poets

WHAT: Album Release Party/Concert

WHERE: Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center
1770 Monroe Street, Hollywood (south of Young Circle off of U.S. 1 and Monroe St.)

WHEN: Saturday,
August 18th: Party/Reception:
7:30 – 8:45 p.m.,
Concert: 9 p.m.

Advanced tickets are $8 or $10 at the door and include food, drinks and chocolates compliments of Jimmie’s Chocolates. For additional concert information and information about The American Poets, contact 954-927-9390 or log onto http://www.theamericanpoets.com/

- Hollywood Gazette

Married to the Sound
An acoustic duo reinvented with a new name, new album, and a bigger band
By Jonathan Cunningham
Published: August 16, 2007

The Maldonados: Way cooler than Sonny and Cher

The hard part of being a musician in love is choosing between making music and making love. One wins at the expense of the other.

If you're lucky, like Jeff and Christine Maldonado, you'll never have to make that choice. For the Hollywood-based singer/songwriter couple, music and love are like blinks and eyelashes. It's almost impossible to determine where one stops and the other begins because both are integral to their ability to see the world clearly.

The Maldonados have trudged through the local music scene as a folk-Americana duo for the past nine years, delivering their acoustic music everywhere from Lincoln Road to the outside of Aventura Mall. Whether they were busking or working paying gigs, their musical odyssey has been bathed in humility and hard work, qualities that echo from their fingertips every time Jeff strums his guitar or Christine strikes her djembe drum.

Given the amount of time the Maldonados spend in each other's company, you'd think their spark might fade. Yet the synergy they exhibit on- and offstage says that nothing could be further from the truth.

"Performing with her has been amazing," says Jeff. "Before being married, we're best friends. Before being in a band together, we're best friends. It's like we're two halves of one thing: Our brains are locked. We get into arguments, sure. But we're doing what we love, and every time I perform, I'm sitting next to my wife. It's a great feeling."

For years, the Maldonados have performed under the name the Providence, but they're in a period of transition now. The smart love songs and acoustic ballads are still part of their repertoire, but so is a lot more material. They've beefed up, to a six-piece electric band. Their new album, Light of Life, will be released this weekend under a new name: The American Poets. But don't expect Ginsberg and verse when you pop in the CD.

"None of us are actually poets," Christine says, laughing. "Not in the traditional sense. And we're not calling ourselves 'poets'..." Really, all humans are poets, she says, "and we're all writing our own stories every day — so that's where the name comes from."

The change of names is also the result of the discovery by the Maldonados' attorney that several other bands were out there calling themselves the Providence and the Maldonados' desire to avoid confusion once they blow up bigger than the Beatles. Don't laugh: With a disc as well-crafted and honest as Light of Life, it could happen. The band sound is so tight that new listeners will find it hard to imagine the Maldonados were just a duo once. It's like the difference between black-and-white and color.

"We've definitely evolved," Jeff says. On their first album, 1999's Blue, "the whole thing was acoustic; the sonic arrangement was basic. This one, we got to make each song feel like a mini-movie. There are strings, drums, distorted guitars — the whole sound is different."

While the Maldonados seem as if they've enjoyed a relatively smooth road along their musical journey, that doesn't mean they haven't had to overcome peril. When they first started working on Light of Life in 2005, the couple spent close to a year recording the album and encountered a horror story they'll never forget. During numerous recording sessions in a studio they both refuse to name, Jeff and Christine poured their hearts into song after song without actually owning the masters to any of their recorded material. When things went awry with the owners of the studio and the Maldonados chose to find another venue, they were forced to pay a whopping $4,000 just to buy back their own songs.

"We were way too trusting in that situation," Christine says. "But everything happens for a reason, and that experience is what really propelled us into thinking that we can do this ourselves."

For her part, Christine wrote the lion's share of Light of Life, and it's a talent she apparently inherited. She's the granddaughter of Al Jacobs, a songwriter in the 1950s and '60s whose material was recorded by Doris Day, Eddie Fisher, and the Manhattans. The Poets cover his song "Hurt" on the new album, breathing jazzy life into it.

For Jeff and Christine, it's another marker on a long road. They made the new album themselves, financing it with donations. "We just started walking around Hollywood, going into businesses and telling them what we wanted to do," Jeff explains. They netted $2,600 that way, he says. In return, the sponsoring businesses will get links on the band's website and display space at the release bash.

"We want it to just be a big party," Christine says. "We want everyone to hang out, have a good time, and then after a while, we'll get up there and play and let it all out. It's been a long time coming... We're - New Times Magazine

The American Poets

Jeff and Christine Maldonado have a new name, a different sound and no regrets.

"It feels as though we were caterpillars in our cocoon," said Christine Maldonado, part of the recently formed four-piece group the American Poets. "Now we're butterflies. We can soar."

The Maldonados built a loyal following over the past seven years, performing on vocals and guitars as the acoustic folk duo "The Providence".

They decided to go electric in 2006, adding a drummer and bassist.
Although the stage is a bit more crowded these days, the couple doesn't mind. "We always wanted to have a band," said Christine Maldonado, who picked the group's new name with her husband because they share a love of iambic pentameter.

"We had such success performing as a duo, not to mention it was easier being just the two of us," she said. "We were playing coffee shops and small clubs around the country. We wanted to enjoy that, for a while. But it came time to make the change."

Now, it's all up to the fans. The Poets will introduce its debut CD, Light of Life, at a release party and concert at 7 p.m. Aug. 18 at the Hollywood Central Performing Arts Center, 1770 Monroe St.

Longtime listeners shouldn't expect "Light" to resemble the couple's first effort, the 2000 Providence disc "Blue".

"Blue was mostly acoustic," Christine Maldonado said. "This has a full band rock sound."

The couple can claim all the songs on Light except the '50s Roy Hamilton hit Hurt, which was co-written by Al Jacobs and Jimmie Crane. Jacobs, a well-known songwriter, is Christine's grandfather.

Tickets to the CD release concert are $8 in advance and $10 at the door for adults and $5 in advance and $7 at the door for ages 12 and younger.

Jul 27, 2007


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