"I'm on a 'perma-tour', a tour that never ends," says Caroline Cotter, a folk singer-songwriter who was raised on the East Side of Providence and now, when pressed, would call Portland, Maine home. But this modern-day troubadour doesn't stay in one place long.

She began singing and playing piano at a very young age, in a home filled with music and with an older sister and brother who were always playing. She taught herself how to play guitar. Her education took her from Providence public elementary schools to Lincoln School, Classical High School, and Colby College. She counts her Colby a cappella group and local music educator Jay MacCubbin, the longtime choirmaster and music director at St. Martin's Church in Providence, among her strongest influences.

"At Colby, I took every opportunity to study abroad," Cotter says. "I'm addicted to traveling." After leaving Colby in 2006, having studied art, education, and Spanish, she taught English overseas in Thailand; moved to Spain and walked the Camino de Santiago; worked on a vineyard in France; then settled (sort of) in Barcelona, where she began writing, performing, and recording her own music.

Cotter's travels inform her music, and she has written several songs in languages besides English, including Spanish, French and Portuguese (she spent some time in Portugal in 2010) and even incorporated some Sanskrit mantras (after studying Yoga in India in 2009.) The international flavor of the music works hand-in-hand with the lyrics. As Cotter says, "It opens up unique sounds and ideas; it's a different way to be creative. The more I traveled the more I wanted to bring back these pieces of other cultures, like souvenirs."

Cotter's national debut album, Dreaming As I Do, has already received national attention, reaching #5 on the Folk DJ charts. Her single, “Bella Blue,” topped out at #2.

This Saturday, April 30, Cotter will be back in Rhode Island, performing a benefit concert for The Peace Flag Project. “I’m excited to be working with The Peace Flag Project,” says Cotter. “I want to be part of a movement that creates good.”

The Peace Flag Project (PFP) is a local non-profit that works to inspire people to “think about what peace is and ways to create more peace by how we live with one another each day.”  PFP hosts Peace Flag workshops for schools, community organizations, festivals and more. Each September, they host Peace Fest RI in celebration of the UN International Day of Peace; this event joins Rhode Islanders with millions of people worldwide coming together in peace on that one day.

What's next on Cotter's "perma-tour"? She'll be spending May to July touring up and down the east coast, with a couple of weeks in Alaska at some point this summer, likely followed by a return to Europe in November. "As long as I'm making music and touring," she says, "I'm happy. We'll just see how it goes."

The concert will be held at The Lincoln School Music Center, 301 Butler Ave., Providence. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., and the concert begins at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 per person and may be purchased in advance at ThePeaceFlagProject.org or at the door. For more information please call The Peace Flag Project at 401/862-9348 or email info@thepeaceflagproject.org.