Cara Austin and Margaret Becker meet! This was a cool moment, it was fun to see Cara meet one of her greatest musical influences, and Margaret Becker was gracious and friendly. Cara did not really want me to take a photo, but I followed her and forced her into the picture. (I guess I didn’t really have to force too hard, honestly.) My favorite part of the moment was that MB complimented Cara’s outfit and told her that she looked “too cool to stand next to her.” Funny.
The night before Cara played at The New England Arts Festival, we went up early to catch the Margaret Becker concert. She did an acoustic set to raise money for a school up in Maine. The concert was amazing. We were in about the second or third row and it practically felt like we were on stage. This was my favorite song that she did – Just Come In. Cara told me that this song was one of her favorites, as well, and held a lot of meaning for her from years ago when she first heard it. (Please forgive the poor videography!)
This link has lots of interesting information about this venue, including the story about Joan Baez getting her start here, Bob Dylan playing between acts, and Bruce Springsteen getting turned down for a gig here. Yikes! I am definitely not going to show Cara this stuff before tonight – it’s even making me nervous.
“It’s hard to believe that thousands of musicians consider playing in a room no larger than 30’ x 40’ that intimately seats 125 in a basement in Harvard Square as “making it.” But they do, because this brick-floored subterranean locale is Club Passim, one of the nation’s legendary cultural icons and epicenter of great folk and acoustic music. A place where musicians like Joan Baez, Tom Rush, Jackie Washington, Peter Wolf, Taj Mahal, Patty Larkin, Goeff & Maria Muldaur, Shawn Colvin, and Suzanne Vega cut their musical teeth before playing larger venues.”
Margaret Becker is a huge supporter of World Vision, an organization that helps tackle issues of poverty in Third World countries. This is a video of her recent trip to Malawi and what World Vision is doing there to help.
Today I sent in Cara’s application to play at the New England Arts Festival. It’s going to be in Maine, in June. The coolest thing about this event – and really the reason that I think Cara wants to play there – is that Margaret Becker is the headliner for the event. Cara has really been into Margaret Becker’s music at times in the past – mostly (I think) because she’s such an amazing songwriter, and her lyrics are unbelievable.
A couple of years back, Cara gave her friend Beth Rice* tickets to go see Margaret Becker, and Beth got Cara a really cool signed copy of Margaret Becker’s book. Does Cara still have that book? Hmmmm….doubtful, because Cara is notoriously bad about keeping books. But that one just might have been meaningful enough to keep.
*Beth Rice is the same “Beth Rice” referenced in Cara’s song “In Heaven.”
The video below is of Cara Live at the Rhumb Line in Gloucester, MA, last night. She was on stage following Fly Amero, who is a really nice guy and plays an hour set there every Wednesday night. Forgive me for the quality of the video. I was sitting a ways away, I was using my camera to take the video – and it’s a great camera, but struggles with video in the dark. Also, there really were a lot of people there, and they kept getting in the way and you can hear the background noise….but enough excuses. Hopefully you like it.
This blog is about Cara Austin, singer, songwriter and emerging rock star. It is written by Cara's friend Melissa, who also happens to be the president of her record label Fat J Records.
Send Me is Cara's most recent album.
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