DETROIT, Michigan - On route back to Rome after the holidays, I caught up with an old friend in Detroit where one of my favourite new folk bands, The Flutter and Wow were performing in a local pub owned by a popular micro-brewery.

 What were the odds? Whiskey beer cheese, old school chicken wings, artichoke dip and great music! Who could say no to that?

I have had my ear on the Flutter and Wow since they first got together in their current line-up in 2011. The band is a result of a reluctant, yet serendipitous collaboration between the husband and wife songwriting team of Tasha and Brian Lord. When the gravitational pull of their musical chemistry won out, the live-band was formed in the vein of Buddy and Julie Miller. The couple does not often share the stage, but the band line-up led by Tasha is completed with a showcase of Michigan's finest and the music and chemistry are unmistakable.

 Last Friday night, it was the full line-up and they rocked it. Amazing new songs and vocal performances that touched the audience. Meet the quintessential folk music front woman: Tasha Lord. This exotic and staggeringly beautiful lady has a fierce set of vocal chords that brought her to the stage when she was just a little girl. Tasha's vocal ability seems so effortless, she sings her soul out, and between each set she put her hair down and opened her heart to the audience. While she sang she recounted how she and her husband Brian met, and how their love for each other was intertwined with their musical journey.

Not to mention that the band-lineup was just as much a delicious musical treat. Tasha’s husband Brian was on guitar, and the drummer, Brandon Husken, was nothing short of first-rate. But that night the Flutter and Wow showed the crowd that you could do things with a harmonica, accordion, upright bass, ukulele, mandolin, banjo, and fiddle that we never thought possible.

I walked in just in time to hear their latest single, Black Train [video http://youtu.be/T1oarhvW4kY], which has a fresh video the band recently shot. Hear it and I dare you to resist humming its catchy hooks for weeks to come.

At the end of the night, one of the girls in our group asked us if we wanted to go backstage and swig a couple of beers with the band. She was friends with Takashi Iio, the upright bassist. The Flutter and Wow are essentially humble and talented folks who live for the music. We started talking and they asked what I did and where I lived.

And guess what?

The Flutter and Wow are embarking on a European tour this April under the auspices of the Detroit Institute of Arts [Link to DIA website http://www.dia.org] and a local auto manufacturer. They will be performing numerous gigs in Italy. First stop? Bella Roma! One performance will be at the Auditorium - a performance arts complex on the banks of the Tiber - and further details of the full tour are still in the making! Check back in with the Italian Insider for more on The Flutter and Wow's European tour, and for exclusive interviews with the new band.