As a backup singer for Leonard Cohen, Perla Batalla learned early on the business of touring and performing, and indeed, she can be seen in the great Leonard Cohen tribute film I’m Your Man, singing a blood-tingling version of “Bird on the Wire.” Yet when Cohen encouraged her to go solo, she turned ever further into her past for inspiration: her parents’ L.A. record store, which sold Spanish and Latin music, and where Batalla absorbed the songs that help make up her great album Discoteca Batalla, named after the store. Having secured a place at the Kennedy Center and the Sydney Opera House with her bicultural output, Batalla returned again to the songs of Cohen; for the release party of her Cohen tribute Bird on the Wire, no less than Michael McDonald, Jackson Browne and Bill Frisell showed up to join her onstage. Witness pure emotion when Batalla sings on Friday, Jan. 15, at the Napa Valley Opera House. 1030 Main St., Napa. 8pm. $21. 707.226.7372.Gabe Meline
.Jan. 15: Perla Batalla at the Napa Valley Opera House
