Sara Tavares at Ballatou - Montreal Nuit d'Afrique 2006       Speaking in English Sara Tavares, a Portuguese singer of Cape Verdean Heritage, described the metisse culture that she few up in  (Portuguese, Angolan & Cabo Verdean) to the largely French speaking audience at Club Ballatou in Montreal.  It was a moment without irony.  Her message got across more clearly to the audience during her performance, where she played sitting on a stool, cross legged, while strumming her acoustic guitar.  The intimacy of her music drew the audience in, and they followed her songs in rapt attention and responded with enthusiastic applause.             Sara Tavares concentrated her performance on songs from her new release "Balance" released on Times Square records. Balance is a word with positive connotations but whose meaning varies.  Sara explains "For me the song, 'Balancê' is also about balancing yourself," she continues, "between sadness and joy; day and night; salt and sugar. It's about balancing emotions. You are always walking a thin line and you have to keep your balance. You have to dance with that line in order to keep standing. If you stay too rigid, you will fall."  Singing in Portuguese, Creolle, and English, her songs exuded a quiet strength and optimism and established a firm musical identity from her culturally diverse origins. On Bom (good) Feeling Sara repeated the words over and over soaring and falling also using her voice to accompany the music with percussive rhthmic sounds.           Her band featured Ricardo Alves, percussion and guitar, Fernando Embalo on bass and percussion and Fernando Carlos on drums and percussion.  For more information on Sara Tavares please visit her official website at:  http://www.saratavares.com/