Lately, we've been feeling a little blue, but not the sad kind of blue....the 12 bar walking bassline kind of blues. We've been working with a band named Cara Being Blue and are so proud of what they've recorded in the studio. They've got some new tracks coming out along with the launch of their new website we helped them create! Want to know more about our new favorite blues band? We thought so...
After 30+ years of fine-tuning, Cara's smooth and edgy vocals entertain and energize. A native Bostonian, she's hustling the Blues scene in Nashville, and recently put together the band Cara Being Blue, featuring Cara accompanied by some of the greatest local musicians in the city of Nashville. Vivacious, honest, and true, her personality arrives ten minutes before she does! Buckle your seat belts.
Where did you grow up? Hopkinton, Mass. (where the Boston Marathon begins.)
What is your first musical memory? My grandmother tells me I plunked out the Blue Danube on a toy piano when I was two - my own first memory is giving my first concert to my stuffed animals when I was four.
What was your first song about? Written in middle school, wanting love to return. "Baby, oh baby, come to me/I love ya dahlin'/Baby, oh baby." I only remember the chorus. It was pretty bad. Haha!
Where did you perform your first concert? The stuffed animal concert was really a dress rehearsal for the real thing with my kindergarten class at Center School.
What first inspired you to write music? I wrote poetry and short stories in middle and high school. I figured I'd be a great songwriter too. Took about 20 more years for THAT to happen!
Does anyone else in your family play music? Did they inspire you? My immediate family is largely non-musical - although my dad plays the bongos and my mother played piano when she was young. I still have never heard her play! They raised me on crooners from the 40s and 50s though, so yes, in a way they did kick things off for me. My birthmother Michelle is who I get my pipes from though. A lifetime memory was made when I met her several years ago and we sang Time After Time as a duet together at her favorite karaoke bar.
What was the first instrument you learned to play? Aside from messing around on toy pianos and my mother's real Steinway, I learned the recorder in grade school.
What instruments do you play? None well, I'm afraid, but I can plunk out a few simple things on piano and guitar. I failed music theory in college. Only class I've ever failed too. I have one and a half strumming patterns on guitar. Yay!
Who are some of your favorite performers? I am inspired greatly by Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Etta James, Koko Taylor, Irma Thomas, Whitney Houston, Karen Carpenter, Rumer, Johnny Mathis, Muddy Waters, etc. Locally I adore Markey Blue, Eight O' Five Jive and the Brian James Band
What is your musical background? I sang in all the school, college, church choirs and choruses, performing as a soloist, background singer, and worship leader. I participated in many musical theatre shows and won both the National School Choral Award and Best Thespian Award my senior year of high school. I co-founded an a cappella group in high school called the SoundAffects and participated in gospel choir at the University of New Hampshire. I joined my first Blues band in 2003 in Boston called Otis Street Rhythm & Blues and upon arrival in Nashville joined two good friends in their band, The Red Wine Effect prior to forming Cara Being Blue.
Where/what did you first record in a studio? I recorded a demo with Otis Street Rhythm and Blues at the Boston Art Institute in Cambridge as an even trade for their engineering students to learn how to record Blues music as a project.
What themes do you find yourself writing about the most? Love, of course.
Describe your writing process for me. Usually begins with talking to people. I love to write on my porch by candlelight and a glass of wine with a friend. Sometimes I will come up with a very simple tune and send it to a co-writer to develop it.
Do you have a specific audience in mind when you write your music? I write for me, the "older single gal."
How would you describe your live performance? Full throttle. Fasten your seat belts. We try to bring the fun to crowds who are looking for a little entertainment escape.
What emotions are you trying to make listeners feel when they heard your music? I don't necessarily intend to make people feel things, unless the song is for/about a specific person. Those are usually when I want them to pay attention and hear how I feel for them. Generally I like to make people laugh if I can. I prefer live performance to studio as there is a great catharsis between performer and audience. I get back what I give out. It's really very special to me and why I do it in the first place and continue to do it.
What’s the greatest compliment you have received about your music? There have been so many genuinely lovely things said to me over the years by listeners. I really do cherish them. One that stands out to me is when I sang for a friend's memorial and an older gentleman hugged me tightly and thanked me saying, "You make everyone feel beautiful when you sing." That made me tear up, for sure, and I will never forget him.
To hear more of Cara Being Blue's music and keep up with their shows:
Until Next Time,
Launch Pad Production
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