Oram to headline Deer Lake’s Strawberry Festival
Tara Oram knows all about the saying “no rest for the weary” with her schedule.
As a judge on YTV’s “The Next Star,” she just wrapped up three weeks of touring across Canada. The show looks for some of the best performers under age 15 and Oram said the one message she has for all potential winners is to just be themselves.
It’s something she learned as a singer who loves to perform what she calls “pure country” as opposed to pop country. Staying true to one’s self, she said, is not always easy, especially in the music business.
Oram broke away from her record label a few years back, and she’s looking for a new team with whom to work to play the music she wants to play. She said she has sat through those meetings where she tells executives who she wants to be, then sees them try to make her into someone else.
“It’s hard to stay true to yourself in (the music business) because at the end of the day it’s a business,” she said. “I’m completely independent right now, I can do what I want and it’s a big weight off my shoulders.”
The Gander native said she may very well record a new CD in the near future. She said she’s thankful for Alberta country singer Terri Clarke, who she calls real country, and hasn’t strayed from who she really is.
Oram has also been listening to Alabama singer Ashton Shepherd, and sees Shepherd as an example of what she’d like to do with her own career.
“Ashton should be up there with Carrie Underwood or Taylor Swift but she doesn’t sing pop country, she sings about church and beans and that sort of thing,” said Oram with a laugh. “She’s making a living doing what she loves, writing and singing what she loves and that’s what I want to do.”
Interestingly, if Shepherd were not a woman she might have an easier time according to Oram.
“It’s easier for males to be able to sing country music that isn’t so much popular,” she said. “It’s harder for females to get away with performing pure country.”
When her TV gig does allow her time for touring she said, she realizes what awaits. She’s just wrapping up three weeks of touring for “The Next Star,” which premiered July 15, and said as much as she wants to perform, the endless touring isn’t easy.
“Waking up in different hotel rooms each morning can be tough, both physically and mentally, and I’m the kind of person who needs a home base, really,” she said. “But performing is something I want to get back to and this is what we as musicians have to do.”
Oram was born in Gander and raised in Hare Bay. She was a top six finalist on the fifth season of Canadian Idol in 2007 and in 2009 she received an East Coast Music Award for country recording of the year.
She was nominated for a Juno Award that same year and has opened for country superstars Taylor Swift and Marty Stuart.
Oram will perform Saturday during the second night of the Deer Lake Strawberry Festival at the Hodder Memorial Recreation Centre with singer Craig Young as the opening act and a special appearance by Newfoundland comedian Shaun Majumder.
Call the town office for tickets or visit the centre booth at Bowater Field Friday or Saturday afternoon. Her show, The Next Star, appears on YTV Monday nights until Sept. 22.