After an uncharacteristically long nine-month break from touring, homegrown rocker Tara Holloway is thrilled to be back on the road doing a cross-Canada jaunt.
“I had been going for a few years straight there, so I just needed to regroup,” Holloway says. “But I’ve been songwriting with friends, and I got reinspired. It was like, all right! Back to touring – here we go!”
The Ottawa-born musician turned out her first professional recording effort, Sins to Confess, in 2010. It was released independently, but it’s since been picked up by Light Organ Records and will soon be re-released with a bonus track co-written by Holloway and Australian musician Ben Lee.
Fans probably won’t be complaining about the wait. They’ll be too busy getting their paws on the 2010 release, which many Canadians haven’t yet heard.
“I’ve toured a lot in Ontario and BC, but I [haven’t done] the cross-Canada thing for four years,” says Holloway, who has also spent time working in the US, where she recorded songs for the TV show Sons of Anarchy. “The first time I toured across Canada, in 2007, I just had my home demos. Now, I’ve made this fancy, well-produced record, and I’m signed to a label that I think is really cool.”
The tour will stop in 18 cities and close with a hometown fundraiser show on Oct 27 at St Brigid’s Centre for the Arts, as part of Babes for Breasts.
Babes for Breasts is a national touring benefit show founded in 2003 by Ottawa musician Ana Miura to unite female musicians and raise money for breast cancer, which affects thousands of Canadian women. The group has raised $45,000 to date.
The live show at St Brigid’s will also celebrate the release of its first fundraising CD, which is made up of 17 donated tracks from Canadian female musicians, including Ember Swift, Annabelle Chvostek and Jill Zmud.
Holloway’s homecoming promises to be a powerful night.
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