Every now and then, if we are really lucky, we encounter an artist like Sandra Bouza who gets right down into our blood and bones. An artist whose voice stops us in our tracks. 

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It's not something that happens overnight. Sandra, who was born in Toronto, and spent her childhood flitting back and forth between Canada and Spain, has been preparing for her whole life to arrive where she is right now. Never at home in any one place, she's always had an outsider's sense of not quite fitting into her surroundings. Sandra recalls, "When I was growing up, I was always on the fringes of wherever I was. When I was in Canada, I didn't feel like I was Canadian. When I was in Spain, I didn't feel like I was Spanish."

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Always a keen observer, Sandra absorbed many of the sights and sounds of her father's Galician homeland in Northern Spain where she spent nearly half of every other year. Her mother homeschooled her in much more than the academic subjects she was missing while away from her Canadian home. Encouraged to listen closely to songs on the radio as well as records from her mother's large collection, she received a natural education in music, and has been singing and playing guitar from a very young age. 

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It was a natural step for Bouza to choose a life in music and to begin performing professionally in Canada. She worked tirelessly on her craft and walked through every door that opened. After a decade of writing and singing her own songs at home, Sandra's life took another turn when a planned six week sojourn to Morocco turned into a three-year long odyssey. 

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You can hear echoes of Etta James and Carla Thomas in Bouza's powerful and highly nuanced phrasing. Like Amy Winehouse and Adele, Sandra's absorbed a lot from listening to the greats from the golden age of RnB, but like them, has emerged with a style that is all her own.