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Tara Lyn Hart |
| Most kids will
do just about anything to get out of doing the dishes. But it takes
someone like Tara Lyn Hart to come up with a musical excuse. “I told
my mom one night that I had a great song idea, and had to go write a
song,” she laughs. “Of course, my plan backfired, because after the
dishes were done, she came in to hear it!” Tara Lyn’s childhood
scheme led not only to her first song, but more importantly, made her
realize she could express herself with songwriting.
Tara Lyn started singing when she was tiny, and by the time she was 5, her voice was already attracting attention. “I was always a ham,” she says with a smile. “I used to pretend I was singing ‘O Canada’ like they do at baseball games. My parents thought it was hilarious, so every time we had company, they’d have me sing. I have to admit that I liked the attention.”
Although she divided her time between
school, farm chores and piano practice, word got out quickly of Tara
Lyn’s powerful voice, and the neighbours in her hometown of Roblin,
Manitoba began asking her to sing at local functions. By the time she
was in junior high she was a popular singer at weddings, fairs, rodeos,
street festivals and private parties – anywhere she could find a
stage. She started getting out-of-town bookings in the sixth grade and
would make up her schoolwork on the road. However, by the eighth grade
she was traveling about 80 days a year, and she and her parents decided
it would be better for her to homeschool. “I love performing and my
parents knew that this was what I wanted to do. If I had said, ‘I want
to be a doctor, or a lawyer,’ they would have been just as supportive.
Still, growing up in rural Manitoba, the thought of getting a record
deal and being able to sing as a career seemed out of reach.” On the strength of a few demos, Billboard proclaimed her “Talent Pick for ’98: Most Likely To Succeed” and word of this Canadian songbird soon reached across the border. When they heard her sing, an impressive list of legendary producers lined up to work with her, including Walter Afanasieff, Peter Asher, Barry Beckett, Dan Huff, Josh Leo, and Tom Shapiro. Working with such talent was a dream come true for Tara, and the admiration ran both ways. “Tara is without a doubt, the best female singer I’ve ever had the opportunity to work with,” says Josh Leo. “I hadn’t heard anyone sing this pure ... and with this much feeling in a long time.” “ The young wife and mother of two has a sparkle in her eye, a keen wisdom that belies her age and no illusions about the road ahead of her. “Even though I’m only twenty-one, I’ve been doing this for ten years,” she laughs. “But there really isn’t anything else I’d rather be doing than performing and singing for people.” “I love being able to touch people with music I truly believe in,” says Tara Lyn. She was determined to make her debut album as personal and autobiographical as possible. To that end, she co-wrote four of the tracks on the album, and three others were written specifically for her. “When I was growing up I used to think that the things people sang about had really happened to them. When my mom explained to me that they were just singing songs that someone else wrote, I couldn’t believe it. I said, ‘you mean Garth Brooks didn’t really meet up with his ex-girlfriend and his wife at that football game?’”. She laughs. “I wanted the songs on my record to really be about my life, to give people a very bold outline of who I am. When people listen to my record, I want them to know about me.” |
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Even when she was alone, her parents
would often come across her singing along to the radio, dreaming of the
day her music could reach people. “My dad was a farmer in rural
Manitoba and we would spend countless hours in the tractor listening to
John Conlee and T.G. Sheppard,” she remembers. “Out where we lived,
there were only three radio stations that we could pick up: one was an
oldies station and the other two were country. In fact, until I was 12,
I didn’t realize that any other kind of recorded music existed!”
Tara Lyn is a singer of quite
remarkable gifts,” says Peter Asher. “She has a gorgeous voice and
sings with an emotional directness and compelling sincerity that hold
the listener’s attention in an instant. The first time I ever heard
her sing I became a fan, and working with her in the studio was a
privilege which only served to reinforce my enthusiasm.”