Added on Sunday 30 Sep 2012

A little jazz, a little folk, a little celtic and a whole lot of swing! That's what makes up Tara O'Grady's first new album Black Irish! It is definitely worth taking a listen to and picking up this new album. One of the tracks Danny Boy sounds just like it would if Billie Holiday had recorded it, it's just amazing. Tara O'Grady has a deep voice and style that blends each song perfectly. A cool mix of jazz meet's the traditional world of celtic song and songs she grew up listening to!
Tara O'Grady was kind enough to do a phone interview with me and share a few stories and some insight into her new ablum Black Irish, as well as the journey into finding her own voice and style. She also shared a bit a humor! "Basically, I grew up listening to Irish music because of my dad's interest in the trad music. He plays the fiddle in a Donegal-Sligo style. He's also a fine cabinet maker/master carpenter, so one day, he was cutting wood on a saw in his workshop and the wood slipped and the fingers he uses for fiddling went under the saw. He called 911 only after my mother pleaded for him to do so, and when the firemen arrived, they were so impressed with his furniture that they ignored the blood spurting out of his fiddle fingers. The firemen focused on the craftsmanship while my dad feared he'd never play the fiddle again. Luckily, he was able to get reconstructive surgery and he was back playing within months. "
We here at IRFT Celtic Radio would also like to congratulate Tara not only on the new album Black Irish, but also on being named by Irish Voice as One of The Most Influential Women of 2010! You can check out Tara O'Grady at http://www.taraogradymusic.com/
Thank you also Tara for taking the time to do this interview it is greatly appreciated!  

(Helen) Tell us a bit about yourself, a bit of background. What was life like growing? Did your parents sing or play music?

(Tara) Yes, my dad is actually a fiddle player. And my mom was born in Donegal. She didn't play music, it was really my dad (who was born in New York to Irish parents) he played music. But they always had music in the house! There was always Irish music....playing on the radio, they'd have Irish musicians over and friends and neighbors over to play. There'd always be a session here in New York or over in Donegal, and I also spent summer's there. But they would always ask me to sing a song at a house party or something, but for some reason I went in a different direction with the music. My parents also played a lot of 50's music. I loved Elvis and a lot of the bands from the 50's. And my brother was playing in the high school jazz band and in college with the 1940's swing and all that kind of stuff so I got interested in jazz. But I really like everything, folk and blues and jazz and even what was on the radio growing up.
But this is where it began. My eye doctor 10 years ago, I liked his glasses, so I said, "I'm looking for new frames", and he said, "well only jazz musicians can wear these glasses." He played jazz guitar on the side. I said, "Well I'm a jazz musician." And I just made that up on the spot, and I was telling him I'm a singer. And he said, "Well sing me something!" And I really didn't know anything to sing him, the only song I had on me was Patsy Cline’s song Crazy – it was my party piece. And I could do an Irish song, but I could never remember the words. So he suggested that I go downtown to this place called Off Wall Street Jam. And it was a place for like, wall street bankers who liked to play music on the side, to go on their lunch hour, after work and they would have jam sessions and meet other “wanna be” musicians. Well I actually started going there every Sunday because that’s when they had jazz. A bunch of jazz musicians would just get together and jam and then a couple singers would show up. So once I started singing and they heard my voice they would say, "Oh you need to learn this song by Billie Holliday, or this song by Ella Fitzgerald, or learn this one." So I went home and bought all these CD's and learned whatever they told me to learn and I'd come back and sing it for them. And so for the past 10 years that’s what I've been doing, learning songs from the 20's, 30's, and 40's. And just last year, I always had Danny Boy in my repertoire, but last year I was singing it to someone at work. I said, "I can sing Danny Boy like Billie Holliday." And he said, "I didn't know Billie Holliday recorded Danny Boy." And I said, "No, no she didn't! I'm just telling you that I can sing it, I can sing Danny Boy like Billie Holliday!" And so he said, "come on let's hear it!" And I started singing it and he was just blown way, he said "my God you can!!!" And I can take off all kinds of singers, I can imitate their style, even though I just prefer the jazz style. So he said, "Wow! You should record that!" And I said, "Yeah I should! I should make an album of traditional Irish songs, but perform them in a jazz kind of a blues way." And he said to me. "You should do that!" And I said, "I will! And I'll call it "Black Irish"!! I just made up the idea on the spot. So I just picked these songs that I grew up listening to at house parties and in Donegal and what not. And songs that when I listen to them they just remind me of all these family parties. So I basically had to sing them to my jazz musicians, because if they looked them up, like The Chieftains, or The Dubliners, or Sinead O'Connor or anyone else who's performing these songs, they would be like "well how the heck are we going to play that." So I had to sing it to them the way I heard it in my head. Because I'm hearing it in a jazz way in my head. And even when my parents forced me to do Irish step dancing when I was a kid I hated it. Because I hated standing straight, I just wanted to shake and flail my arms and everything. So I think the same thing whenever they want me to sing an Irish song, I kind of didn't think I had the voice for it, because my voice lends itself to a different style. So often times I'd be at a party and they'd say, "Tara give us a song but none of that jazz shite!" And I'd say, "Fine, I'll sing you an Irish song, but I'm going to sing it in a jazz shite style that you don't want me sing in!" (both of us laughing)

(Helen) That was nice of them.

(Tara) It's funny because if you look up online there are so many different meanings to what "Black Irish" means, so many definitions of it. And my brother sent me one recently which makes a lot of sense now to the project that I took on because it says, that if there was any kind of invasion, whether it be the Vikings, or whoever, a group settled itself with the different Celtic tribes or whatnot, they say they were Irish but then the Irish who were there before them on the island would say, no, you’re black Irish. Just meaning that, even though they wouldn't have dark features or dark hair, they were just not the true Irish. So the songs that I'm singing, they’re not true Irish because I'm not singing them in the style that they're meant to be performed. But then people call me black Irish because of my dark hair and my looks. But there are just a variety of ways to take the title of the album. It's funny now because I've just started performing them around Irish audiences, and they’re sitting there and they don't expect it, because right before that I might have performed a Nat King Cole song or a Frank Sinatra song, and all of the sudden I start singing Wild Rover or Black Velvet Band, but they don't recognize it, but then when they hear the lyrics they’re like, "wait a minute!" The look on their faces is priceless. They smile to themselves, they don't realize I'm looking at them. I'm getting mixed reviews. Some people are like, this is "blasphemous" and others are like, "Wow, this is interesting what you've done to that song!" The melody is still there, the lyrics are still there, it's just saxophones, and trumpets, and there's a different tempo.

(Helen) Yeah, that is kind of cool you have to admit, what you've done.

(Tara) Yeah I don't know if it's been done before or why anyone would do it, why you would take Irish songs and make them jazzy. But I don't know or think if you could call it Celtic Jazz.....!

(Helen) Well you have Celtic Rock. You know with more of a heavy metal type of feel. Maybe this is just a next step!

(Tara) Yeah, you know it all started with Danny Boy. And Danny Boy has been performed in so many ways. It's just one of those songs that reaches so many different people in so many different cultures. And whether it's sung by an opera singer or a jazz musician, or a folk singer, it just reaches everybody. It's a favorite around the world. So I put that in my repertoire, and I tried to do other ones, and I'm enjoying performing them.

(Helen) So how were your musical influences growing up?

(Tara) Well definitely Patsy Cline. I've been told I have a very similar voice to hers. And I think the country musicians here, you know when I hear a fiddle in a country song it just reminded me of Donegal, Ireland, of the Irish music. Even Hank Williams, the old country music from the 50's. And Elvis, and even like Louis Prima, and Louis Armstrong. But then more singers type, I loved Eva Cassidy's voice, I loved Sarah Mclachlan's voice, I'd be listening to female singers and figuring out what they'd be doing with their voices. And more recently people would just say "oh you've got to listen to Lena Horne, Peggy Lee. I'll just listen to all these styles and whatnot. I can sing in the sean-nos style, I did try to sing to a lot of the Irish singers. I always liked Mary Black. And Enya is a gorgeous singer, and totally different style. I use to be a soprano in school and now my voice has sunk so deep, that now when I sing people think I don’t sound how I look. That's what they tell me all the time. I was singing last night, I had a gig last night. And there were these girls sitting in front of me and they had their backs to me. And they purposely didn't want to turn around, because they said that when they hear me and look at me they don't think the voice matches the look. And they thought, they honestly said I sounded like an African American woman, and they kind of just wanted to imagine that, and they purposely kept their backs to me the whole night and they told me this. They said "we're not trying to be rude, it's just when we look at you it just doesn't make since." But then I just realize that my voice just lends itself to that style, it's rich and deep.

(Helen) I read on your facebook post that you where named by Irish Voice "One of the Most Influential Women of 2010. And congratulations on that by the way!

(Tara) Yeah! And I have know idea who nominated me! I asked Niall O'Leary if he had anything to do with it, but he just said no he has no idea. But I don't know how that happened.

(Helen) So how does it feel?

(Tara) I'm kind of wondering why I'm on the list, because there's like ambassadors, and senators, and CEO's, and actors! I mean I'm flattered, it's great, because I see it as a great working opportunity, because I get to meet all these women in a couple weeks. And I loved that they mentioned the CD, it's coming out soon, so it will be great for me to promote it.

(Helen) Which is always good!

(Tara) Yeah I know! I joined the Irish Network, the IN -NYC. And you get to meet a lot of people, and you go to a lot of events. And you get to be with a lot of high profile people, and influential people. And it's interesting when you start hanging out in the circles how you meet so many people from so many different fields, whether they’re artists or in law or politics or medicine or finance, it's just interesting! And I've always been fascinated by anyone who comes to America, like my mom coming over when she was 17. And I know these young Irish who come to New York to work and make a life for themselves. And I'm just curious and fascinated by how they made that journey! Because I know what it was like for my mom and how much she missed her family and she couldn't afford to go back. And now it's easy, you have skype, and you can fly back and forth and it's a lot easier. But I've just always found it interesting that people come here and how New York changes them, they can find who they are and how they bring what they know from back home and come here with it, it's just interesting for me.

(Helen) So do you have any hobbies or anything you do to relax?

(Tara) I do yoga, I read a lot and I'm writing a book. I travel extensively, I'm always planning a trip to somewhere. I just got back from Japan, I wanted to see the Cherry Blossoms. Basically if I want to do something I write it down and make it happen. As soon as I put it on paper that means it's fact. I wanted to work on my Spanish language skills so I moved to Spain and started taking flamenco dancing lessons while I was there. And singing in bars with bull fighters. I even went to Buenos Aires to take tango dancing just because I felt like it. I'll travel, I'll go somewhere because I want to learn something or experience something truly new. It's not a hobby, but a passion I guess.

(Helen) Wow, that's amazing! So in your travels what place have you been where you enjoyed it or learned the most I should say?

(Tara) Maybe Spain. I spent a long time there and I lived with a family. When you’re not a tourist and you live in a place where you actually go food shopping, you know there are so many memories from then, it's like watching a movie in my head from the trips. Seeing your reflection in the shop window when you’re on a motorcycle holding onto a friend who you’re traveling through the streets with, it's a very romantic city. There are orange trees all throughout the city and all the oranges have fallen down onto the streets into the gutter, it just smells so sweet. It's like another world. Everything just slows down because of the heat. And the Spanish are just real passionate. A lot of my Spanish friends were very much against me going to bull fights, but I was just so curious to see what it was about. There's so much history and so much art to it actually. I'm totally against any violence or any kind of brutality, but there's this whole art within the arena, even what the matador wears, and how he stands and every turn that he makes, it's like a flamenco dance, it's just fascinating!

(Helen) Is Black Irish your first album or have you been pursuing music for quite sometime?

(Tara) No this is my first album. I've always wanted to collaborate with musicians or make a cd, I just didn't know how or when I'd ever do it. But with the way technology has advanced I can do it shortly on my own and independently and in a studio. But everything now is now online even designing your own graphics, it's amazing what you can do! I wasn't ready 10 years ago. I'm very creative and I've studied every art form, but I'm never serious about one, where I'm "okay I'm pursuing this and thats it!" It just kind of happened because music just stood out and I just gained more confidence singing at venues, and parties, and at weddings. So once you realize you have a style and people react to it and appreciate it. But more than that, when you realize that you can move people with your voice then you think, okay maybe there's something here that I should pursue. Actually a photographer came up to me at a club in Spain and he said "I took this entire roll of film of you and I'm giving you the roll to develop." This is before digital. This was back in 1999. He said, "But there's one picture I want", I said, "Oh great one of the pictures of me!?" He goes, "no no I don't want any of the pictures of you, you can have them. I want the picture of the bullfighter who's here today. I just want you to mail that picture to me." I had to take his address and mail him the actual photo after I'd developed it. And I said well can I meet this famous bullfighter? And he said "sure." And this was actually at the end of my trip when my Spanish was up to par and he brought me over to the bullfighter, and we had a conversation in Spanish and he said to me, "when you sing I can feel it in my heart." He was so moved he said, "I want you to come with me tomorrow and ride on my horse in the parade." Because they were having a festival. And I said to him, "I'm flattered but I'm so sorry I can't." And he was devastated and he said "Why?" And the men around me where like shocked, because they thought, "how could she say no!" You don't dare say no, it was like one of their top sports and you’re saying no to the god of their sport? And I said, "I'm so sorry I'm actually going back to New York tomorrow." My time there was done. But to just learn that you could affect someone in such away. Because when I saw the photo, when I developed the picture of the bullfighter looking at me while I'm onstage and his mouth is open, his jaw is dropped and he’s holding his drink in his hand, I thought, wow, maybe I should pursue this. Because if you can reach people, if you can affect them in such a strong way, then that’s what I want to do. So I've decided to make music more than just a passion on the side, I've decided to share it with people, because it makes me happy and it makes the audience happy. And it's got to be a good thing if you can do that.

(Helen) Have you learned anything new about yourself through the music while you've been doing it?

(Tara) Everything is done by ear, I can't read or write music. If someone wants me to learn something I have to go, luckily there's youtube, and I'll go to youtube and listen to someone sing and I'll kind of make it my own. I can't figure out music! I've tried, and I don't know if it's a brain thing and I'm just choosing not to, like with math, my brain will say no, it doesn't want to do it. But 10 years ago I was shy with musicians, I didn't know what a bridge was or where to come in, or when do I return to the verse, I didn't know anything. And it took a long time, and work with a lot of musicians, learning songs to feel comfortable. Now I've learned I'm kind of at the point where I can be on stage and feel comfortable and feel the song. And even though I can't speak to the musicians in their language in music terms and what not, I can still express what I need them to do. I've learned that even though I don't speak the language of chords, I can still communicate with them to bring out what I hear in my head and what I need them to do. So I've learned you don't need to have gone to a music school or learned how to play an instrument or learn how to read music or what not, you can still be a musician and have music to express how you feel. It took a while to feel comfortable with my voice and what I could do with it. So that was an interesting process.

(Helen) So, last question. What advice would you give to someone who wanted to go into music or performing music?

(Tara) Well you basically have to think from your heart. You have to feel it! Like there's people who aren't great like when you hear them you wouldn't say they’re a fantastic singer, but they can carry a tune. You know what I mean? They can still move an audience and share a song, even if they aren't fantastic. Like Louis Armstrong for example, he wasn't a great singer, he was a great trumpet player, but he had a very enjoyable voice when you listen to him, because he feels that song when he sings it. So I think I would just say, the audience feels uncomfortable if you’re uncomfortable, and they can since, they want to enjoy your performance. So if you’re enjoying it, then the audience will enjoy it too. You've got to find a song or a style that just feels right. It took me awhile to find my voice and I feel like I finally have.