TARA CARRAGHER
WOMADelaide! It’s that time of year when the picturesque Botanic Park hosts WOMADelaide which is surely one of the very best music festivals in the world.
TARA CARRAGHER By Robert Dunstan Having recently returned from Tamworth where she graduated from CMAA Academy Of Country Music, award winning local songstress Tara Carragher (photographed above by Tom O’Reilly) is now set to play a rare gig with her full band. “So it’ll be Richard Coates on accordion and keyboards, as usual, and Gilli Atkins [of Caliente] on drums,” Tara says before confessing to not having yet met the person who will be performing bass guitar duties. “Would you believe I don’t even know his name,” the songstress then admits with a laugh. “Actually though, that’s a lie about not having met him yet because he played bass with [US singer songwriter] Hayward Williams when he last came to town,” Tara then quickly realises. “And I now remember that his name is Mark, but I still can’t remember his surname. “All that will be sorted though when we all meet up this week to run through all the new songs I’ll be playing at the gig,” she adds. Some of the new songs came out of Tara’s recent trip to Tamworth when she was invited to take part in CMAA Academy Of Country Music. “Yeah, they choose artists each year and I got chosen this year along with 20 other singer songwriters from Australia and New Zealand,” Tara says. “So we had mentors such as Kevin Bennett from The Flood, Tamara Stewart and Lyn Bowtell so we had 12 hours per day with them for two weeks. “And Karl Broadie is the academy’s singer songwriter in residence, so it was quite an intensive course,” she continues. “We also got into some of the business side of things as well so it really covered all the bases. ‘So it was really inspiring to have access to all those kinds of people fot two weeks and to be really encouraged with my songwriting and to be taken seriously,” Tara adds. How did the process work? “Well we were split into three groups and assigned a mentor and the group I was in had Tamara Stewart,” Tara reveals. “So in the morning we had a bit of a warm up and a songwriting session with Karl Broadie and then in the afternoon we’d split up into groups and do some songwriting together. “But for the whole time we had access to all the mentors so that was pretty cool,” she continues. “So some of my new songs have come from that process. And while I enjoyed the co-writing, I came away from it all knowing that I am more of a solo writer.
“I think I’ll record another EP in April or May and then tour that,” she says. “And that’ll be in July because I’m going up to a songwriting retreat in Nundle, which is up near Tamworth at that time as well. “So I’ll tour the EP to Melbourne and Sydney as well and get some more stuff happening interstate rather than just playing Adelaide all the time,” she continues. “And I like the way my music has changed since that first EP,” Tara then remarks. “Live & Die By Love was my attempt at me being Lucinda Williams and I recorded Big River Crossing in New Mexico in 2012, but that was just a trio album with bass, accordion and me on acoustic guitar. “So I’m looking at my next EP as being done with a full band and hoping to spend more time on it,” she laughs. “Big River Crossing was recorded in just nine hours, so I am hoping to spend a bit more time doing the next one.” The songstress has already approached The Yearlings about recording her next offering at their studio, My Sweet Mule. “So, hopefully I’ll get Chris Parkinson [of The Yearlings] to co-produce and also play guitar on it as well,” Tara says. “And it’ll be really good to get out of the city and head down south to The Yearling’s studio. “It’ll be nice and chilled down by the beach with no stress,” she adds. Adelaide-based multi-instrumentalist Craig Atkins has chosen Tara to be one of his special guests alongside Jupiter and Benny C & The Associates when he launches his Fall Or Fly CD at The Jade Monkey on Easter Saturday. “Yeah, yeah, I’m excited to be part of that because Craig is a lovely, lovely guy as well as being a great songwriter and musician,” Tara enthuses. “Richard [Coates] actually plays accordion on one of the songs on Craig’s new album, so it will all work our well. “And I’ve known Craig for a couple of years now, but have never played many gigs with him,” she then says.
It’s one that I have had the good fortune to attend since the very first one on 1992 that was part of that year’s Adelaide Festival Of The Arts and it is estimated that some 30,000 people were in attendance over the course of the weekend. The highlight for many, myself included, was a late night set by the now late Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and served as a taste for what was to come over the next 20 or so years.
It all seems so long ago now but I do recall friends coming down from Sydney to attend WOMADelaide that year little realising they would be spending much of Sunday along with much of their hard-earned buying me birthday drinks. It was also around this time that WOMADelaide was moved from being in late February to early March in an attempt to avoid the hot February weather. It’s mostly worked a treat although there have been some hot festivals over the years quite apart from the music. And thus I have also interviewed many artists who have appeared at WOMADelaide over the years with the most recent one being with Swedish-born rapper Neneh Cherry.
The first WOMAdelaide also boasted Seneglese singer Youssou N’Dour who had already worked with WOMAD founder Peter Gabriel on the song Shakin’ The Tree and was set for further mainstream success two years later in 1994 with the song 7 Seconds recorded with Neneh Cherry.
I knew that Neneh had begun her career with UK band Rip Rig + Panic, named after an album by Rashaan Roland Kirk and who had formed in 1981 and featured Gareth Slinger and Bruce Smith who had formerly been with The Pop Group.
Ironically, or perhaps not, Neneh and Youssou will both be appearing at this year’s WOMADelaide so there is some chance, especially as both will be here on the very same day, we may hear rather more than seven seconds of 7 Seconds.
When speaking to Neneh, I mentioned to her that The Pop Group, who have reformed, were touring Australia around the same time and would be performing in Adelaide at Freemason’s Hall, North Tce, from 8pm on Thursday 5 March as part of Adelaide Festival.
Such was its initial success, WOMADelaide soon became an annual event in Botanic Park apart from 1996 when it was staged as a train trip from Perth to Pimba in the far north. I didn’t go on the train trip but do recall interviewing Paul Kelly about it at Adelaide Railway Station when the train made a pit stop. And in 1998 for some reason, WOMADelaide was staged as a one-day festival in McLaren Vale. Hmm, if memory serves me right, and it does, the year of 1996 was the one in which Adelaide Festival finally recognised Adelaide Fringe as a bit of a threat and festival director Barrie Kosky set up Red Square on Torrens Parade Ground as a late night venue made entirely of red shipping containers. But that really is another story to be squarely red another time. The 1995 WOMADelaide, which featured such acts as The Leningrad Cowboys, Vika & Linda, The Mutton Birds and Papa Wemba, was particularly special for me at least as it was where I celebrated my 40th birthday one sunny Sunday afternoon.
“Are they?” Neneh asked. “Really! I didn’t know that. “My God! I had no idea. But I’m actually catching up with Gareth tomorrow because I’m going over to his house. So that’s so funny. Amazing. “And, Bruce Smith, my first husband is The Pop Group’s drummer,” Neneh then adds. “Bruce is Naima’s father. She’s the one I was pregnant with when Rip Rig + Panic played the very first WOMAD. “But it’ll be typical if we don’t actually cross paths in Australia and are just chasing each other’s tails around the country,” she laughed. WOMADelaide takes place from Friday 6 March until Monday 9 March in Botanic Park. Book via <womadelaide.com.au>.
The night prior to her own full band gig, Tara will be serving as a special guest alongside Kelly Menhennett for Little Miss when they undertake a free entry affair at The Exeter. For her own free entry show, Tara will have Zkye & Damo as special guests. “So that’s going to help make it a really good night,” Tara concludes. Tara Carragher will presenting new songs in full band mode when she plays a free entry gig from 9pm at The Wheatsheaf Hotel, 39 George St, Theabrton, on Friday 6 March with Zkye & Damo as special guests.
“It was still good to bounce ideas off of other writers though, and the whole process really inspired me to write a whole bunch of new stuff,” Tara adds. “And I’m really happy with the direction all that’s heading in.” Tara is now set to record her next album which follows her Live & Die By Love EP and the full-length album Big River Crossing a couple of years ago.
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