Just Us Folk

Reaching a milestone birthday can be a cause for celebration. You might want to go on a special vacation or challenge yourself to accomplish a meaningful task like running a marathon. Winnipeg singer-songwriter Cara Luft marked her 50th birthday by performing 50 concerts.

“I wanted to do a series of concerts that were about celebration, collaboration, friendship and creativity,” she said.

It was a time of emotional upheaval for Cara. The successful duo The Small Glories, which she shared with JD Edwards, had ended after eight years. During that time, they had released two full-length albums and two EPs and toured extensively. They also won Artist of the Year at the 2020 International Folk Awards. Their album Assiniboine & The Red won three Canadian Folk Music Awards and received a Juno Award nomination and was named Album of the Year by Penguin Eggs magazine.

Faced with presenting 50 shows, the challenge for Cara was gathering together enough songs so that each concert was different. She couldn’t just rely on her Small Glories material. Her last solo album, Darlingford, was released in 2012 and songs from her time in The Wailin’ Jennys were 20 years old.

The advice from her management team was to put together some new songs that she could release after the concerts.

“I was sitting on a stack of unfinished songs,” she said.

“Clayton Parsons was one of the people I played with for my 50 for 50 shows. He asked if I wanted help in finishing some of the songs.”

It turns out Clayton is a talented songwriter in his own right, besides being an excellent musician. Soon enough, he and Cara were off to the studio to record her new album, My Heart Will Always Be.

“Even though it’s under my name, it’s a collaborative record,” Cara said.

“Clayton co-wrote all of the songs and he’s playing all over it.”

Cara then brought in Scott Poley from Liverpool, England to play pedal steel guitar.

“I met Scott when he was 12! He’s a phenomenal player,” she said.

Also included in the sessions was John K. Samson of The Weakerthans and Grammy-winning banjo ace, Alison Brown. The engineer for the album was Julia Graff, who’s worked with Shari Ulrich, The Bombadils and Bentall, Taylor and Ulrich.

“I got to surround myself with these people who I love very much,” Cara said. “And they all cared about the songs.”

While putting My Heart Will Always Be together was an exercise in releasing new music, the main purpose was for Cara to stay connected to her community. As she sees it, music is a force for peace, justice light and hope.

Having to return to a solo career, it would have been easy for Cara to release an album of songs dealing with doom and gloom. While she doesn’t avoid those emotions on My Heart Will Always Be, what you hear is a full range of experiences.

“I have been grieving a lot,” Cara said.

She was also diagnosed with ADHD.

“The diagnosis was a bit of a lifesaver,” she said, “but it’s also been a huge grief process.”

If she had known years ago what she was dealing with, she might have developed skills to work through life better than she had.

There was also the fact of turning 50 and experiencing changes to her body and mind.

“It was kind of a mixture of grief, hope, joy and acceptance,” she said. “I’m looking forward to the next wisdom phase of my life. So the songs on the album cover all of that.”

Cara was born and raised in Calgary to folk-singing parents. She moved to Winnipeg in 1999, and it’s that community, musical and non-musical, which has sustained her all these years. It was the bringing together of three solo performers for a Winnipeg show that led to the formation of The Wailin’ Jennys. A similar occasion helped create The Small Glories. Cara is looking forward to seeing how her community embraces My Heart Will Always Be.

“What I’ve noticed after touring for so long is I have pockets of community all over the world,” she said.

Working with JD Edwards in The Small Glories, there was a similarity in ages between the two of them. Clayton Parsons is a younger songwriter with a different perspective on life and a different way of writing.

“What I’ve noticed in the last eight years is that music comes very easily to me,” Cara said. “Choruses are easy but the rest is scrambled goop.”

The analogy Cara uses is that her brain is cooked oatmeal but there are raisins and walnuts in there. It seems Clayton is good at pulling them out. He’s also more of an emotional writer that Cara is. Their process for writing songs is to talk about what Cara wants to say and then find the best way to say it.

“He’s a very intentional person, very gracious and a heart person,” Cara said. “So I felt safe and comfortable being vulnerable with him.”

Touring to support the new album, Cara will be joined by Clayton, and sometimes with Rob McLaren from the bands Union Duke and The Barrel Boys. So there’s the opportunity to see three banjos on stage at the same time.

“I mean, give the people what they need!” Cara said.

Also on tap for Cara this summer is teaching at music camps.

“Music is one of the few things out there that is the great equalizer, and a way to foster community and connection,” she said.

For more on Cara Luft and My Heart Will Always Be, go to https://caraluft.com.