Tara Kelly on her new single “The River”; the intoxication of new love

Tara Kelly is an American Folk singer and songwriter, and she is essentially putting a new spin on the cosmic country music stylings of artists like Kacey Musgraves and Emmylou Harris, however, with a songwriting style that evokes a darker, more mysterious edge.

“2021 has been a great year so far,” Tara expresses to Eat This Music. “I released one of my favourite songs I’ve ever written and an accompanying music video that I’m super proud of. It’s an exciting refresh coming off of a truly insane year for everyone.”

“SO good! It’s the best feeling to have your art in the hands of the people who will appreciate it most, and that’s anyone who relates to it.” — Tara Kelly

“I feel lighter now that everyone else can share in that joy with me,” Tara continues.

The River

Tara Kelly’s “The River” is a song about the intoxication of new love and how it can blind you to the truth about someone.

“It was written from a deeply personal experience,” Tara reveals. “I was dating someone who led me to believe he was falling for me in a very elusive way. His energy was alluring but I always felt like something was out of reach with him – like I could never fully see where he was taking me, or how deep I would be led into his waters, so to speak.”

At that time, Tara knew that she wanted to keep going, despite the risk it posed. However, it turned out that Tara’s intuition was right – the person was already married and Tara was completely blindsided. Tara explains, “I definitely couldn’t ignore the reality of what I’d become involved in when it was right there in front of me.”

When Tara walked into the [recording] session the day she wrote this song, she already had the title “The River” as a general concept, but wasn’t sure exactly what she was going to do with it.

“I told my co-writers that story and they lit up. Stefan PVDS said “let’s put that pain into this song” and we did.” — Tara Kelly

When Tara started writing the song, she wanted to convey that she had been duped by love, in a lot of ways by ignoring her own intuition. Which is a very relatable feeling that Tara thinks still comes across in the song.

“We wrote the entire song in about an hour so every idea lent itself to the next. It was one of those rare, studio moments songwriters dream about,” Tara says.

“I think the reason “The River” worked so well creatively was the team we assembled in that room,” Tara continues about her song. “I had never written with my co-writers Alex Wilke and Stefan PVDS before, but Alex and I had worked together on a vocal for another track, and he thought Stefan would be the perfect addition to the session.”

The stars really aligned for Tara – she could tell those co-writers instantly “got” what she was trying to do as an artist and the three of them believed in each other. From there, the rest was easy to round out the song.

Tara’s life is essentially a vessel for songs to come through. She thinks that she self-sabotages and takes risks, knowing that if all fails, at least she will get a good song out of it per se.

“I’m partially kidding, but I do think that truly great song ideas come from personal experience in some way, and can take whatever shape the creator desires to best convey the message,” Tara adds. “Art and life are blurred lines.”

“I want listeners to know that as corny as it sounds, they are not alone. We are all learning more about who we are and what we deserve every day.” — Tara Kelly

“I hope my fans learn along with me to trust their intuition when something doesn’t feel right,” Tara continues. “It’s there for a reason, and whenever we steer off course, I hope songs like mine remind us that we’re all doing our best with the information we have at the time.”

2021

In 2021, Tara Kelly has new music coming. “I’m building on the musical world we created with “The River” and want to take it even further,” she says. “That may or may not mean a Joshua Tree-themed EP… Stay tuned.”

Although, while the entire 2021 is up in the air, she is grateful that despite the pandemic, she and her team do have a virtual tour with incredible artists and friends of hers; a music fundraiser and hopefully some safe, live shows in the works.