Krystin Anderson

In a small venue across the Atlantic Ocean, American Fork-born Debra Fotheringham stood before a crowd of Germans and called out an uncertain "Guten Abend," meriting a few chuckles. Undiscouraged, she turned to her guitar and let her music speak for her.

More than a year earlier, her voice caught the attention of Russ Dixon, former member of Utah band "Colors," who will perform with Fotheringham on Saturday at the Tahitian Noni Auditorium for a Valentine's Day concert.

"The first time I heard her play I knew she was the real deal," he said. "She's got one of the cleanest, purest voices I think I've ever heard."

The two have never played together before, but Dixon said he is excited to be her guest artist and "add a little flavor," which could include some freestyle rap.

"I like to rap a little here and there," Dixon said, "so I may ask her to pull out the drums on Saturday and maybe we'll do a little rap. That would be fun."

Unknown to most are Fotheringham's skills on hand percussion instruments, which Dixon said she has played for other local musicians.

"She's actually a really good drummer," Dixon said. "She won't brag about her percussion skills, but someone should."

Fotheringham gives away her percussive abilities, however, in the way she plays the guitar.

"There's such a wide range of sounds you can get from a guitar, and it's a little bit percussive," Fotheringham said. "I can kind of be a percussionist and a guitarist at the same time while I play the guitar."

Her music is primarily folk with a strain of pop, a combination of factors that sparked the interest of Kurt Hale, co-founder of Halestorm Entertainment, who heard her play at Border's Bookstore and offered her a spot on "The R.M." soundtrack.

This helped get her name out of Utah and opened her career to the national and international scene. In 2007, after releasing her self-titled album, she took advantage of that scene and toured across the United States, even crossing into Europe through France, Germany and Scotland.

"It was awesome," she said. "It was a little difficult because of the language barrier thing, but it seemed that music was the universal language ... but the between-song banter was kind of cut short."