It’s always good to come across a talented young artist performing Irish music – when that artist has a style all of their own, it’s even more exciting.
Tara O’Grady certainly fits that category.
She mixes traditional Irish melodies with modern jazz rhythms and the result is a sound that’s completely her own and totally irresistible.
New York girl with Irish roots
Tara is from New York but with a name like hers there are no prizes for guessing her Irish heritage.
Her mother is from Donegal and her father, although born in the Bronx, is also from an Irish family and is a talented fiddle player.
It meant Tara grew up with dual musical influences. She was drawn to the New World excitement of blues and jazz, but always in the background was the old world charm of Irish traditional music.
Tell Me Ma … she’s got an America twist
It meant Tara was not only comfortable performing in either style, she was also able to mix and match and combine the two.
Classic Irish songs like I’ll Tell Me Ma and Black Velvet Band are given an American makeover. Suddenly they sound as though they came out of a 1940s Chicago jazz club rather than the country lanes of Ireland.
It works surprisingly well.
We invited Tara on to our video showcase
We were so impressed with Tara’s highly individual style that we asked her to feature in our video showcase.
Click through here to find out more about her and see her videos.
Are you a talented performer of professional standard?
Find out how you can feature on our showcase.
