His name is Pehuenche and he will be in concert this Sunday, Nov. 17 at the Tres Fuentes hotel and as exciting a singer as the Veracruz native may be, there is an equally exciting story behind the concert.

San Miguel de Allende isn’t exactly on anyone’s music circuit – those well-traveled paths that bands and other performers follow from town to town – or at least it hasn’t been.

At least until now.

Pehuenche’s performance may just open the gate to all sorts of musical possibilities for this city. That’s certainly what budding promoter Sheree Boyer hopes with her new company Club Social San Miguel.

Boyer is a six-year San Miguel resident with more than 30 years experience with the Calgary Folk Music Festival in Canada, through which she has been “blessed with a great love of music.”  While she loves the local scene, she suspects there is room for touring musicians – especially indie, folk, blues, and roots-oriented acts. Which happen to be among her favorites.

Her plan is to tap into the deep waters of musicians already on tour and convince their managers to add stops here in the heart of Mexico. 

That is how Pehuenche got a date here. His manager Mario Bustamante and Boyer met at a music conference in Guadalajara and he likes the idea of adding a date. The manager currently has nine acts under contract. So, as they say in “Casablanca” – this could be the beginning of a beautiful relationship.

Here’s more proof that there’s a tapable resource out there: Gipsy Kings by Andre Reyes. They play here on Saturday night and the free show is part of their current tour. They have dates in Queretaro on Sunday and Mexico City on Monday – then Tampico, Xalapa-Enriquez, and San Luis Potosi.

There are acts like this, bigger and smaller, swirling around the outskirts of the city, like fish in the sea. There are acts from all over the globe who already have Mexican dates lined up. Those are the ones Boyer hopes to tap into.

At the Guadalajara conference, Boyer learned that there are other managers keen on the idea of tapping into the San Miguel market, what she calls an “unmet need.”

Pehuenche happened to be one of the musicians showcasing at the Guadalajara conference and Boyer was taken by his music – which is described as bolero meets modern rock. He’s an emerging star, on the cusp of outgrowing the indie circuit showcases. 

Just the kind of act, Boyer is seeking. Big enough to fill a San Miguel venue in a city without an arena.

Her company Club Social San Miguel has a subtitle. “Musica y Arte.” The plan is to pair musicians with visual artists for a little creative exchange before the performance begins. That is one resource San Miguel has no shortage of. “I’m inspired daily by the beauty (of SMA) and its visual artists, so many breathtaking and inspiring people. I want to promote them,” says Boyer.

In the future she hopes to take advantage of the variety of venues in San Miguel to tailor her acts to appropriate settings and pair them with complementary artists.

And so, on Sunday, Pehuenche (Rafael Mesa Zamudio) and Santiago Cruz, a Panamanian-born artist living in San Miguel, will discuss their crafts and how inspiration, creativity, performance and the like might overlap.

Opening for Pehuenche is the dynamic Stefy Loren a Colombian singer-songwriter familiar to many in San Miguel where she now lives.

Pehuenche in Concert will be held at Hotel Tres Fuentes, Baeza #7, on Sunday, Nov. 17, 4-7 p.m. Artist Santiago Cruz and Rafael Mesa Zamudio (aka Pehuenche) will share thoughts on their respective arts for about 15 minutes. Stephy Loren was recently added as the opening act.

Tickets are $400 pesos in advance and $450 at the door. For details and tickets go to www.clubsocialsanmiguel.com.

You can sample the music of Pehuenche here.