Sara O’Connor, a new face to Australian country music was introduced to the genre by her country-loving partner Ben Soutter and to the industry by none other than Melinda Schneider. Introduced by a mutual musical friend, Melinda took the time to chat long-distance with Sara while at the G’Day USA party in Los Angeles. Sara has high praise for the Golden Guitar winning artist insisting, “I don’t think Melinda realises that she mentored me in that one conversation”.
Sara has an impressive musical CV – a vocalist fronting jazz outfits for 20 years she has performed all over Australia including at The Enmore Theatre in Sydney, The Tivoli in Brisbane and Melbourne’s Forum Theatre. Covering artists from Billie Holliday to Blondie, Sara was intrigued when her band’s double-bass player suggested she check out the Texan Swing genre. She loved it so much and with the almost-encyclopaedic country music knowledge of partner Ben, Sara made the very comfortable move to country music.
The Sydney based artist has now recorded a four-track EP titled “Rollin’”. Sara’s stories are shared with lyricist, Terresa Marie Allen – the pair met on a ship in Antarctica, where they were helping raise money for “Love Your Sister” – the charity created by actor Sam Johnson. The tracks were then developed by the pair along with Peter Bailey (composer, arranger, producer and active jazz musician) and the EP’s producer Phil Stack (ARIA award winning bass player for Thirsty Merc).
‘Sleepwalking’ the first single from the EP recalls a period in Sara’s life when she was regularly performing across the country in front of huge audiences at casinos and convention centres. The problem was she felt she had fallen into a routine with the act and was creatively uninspired. Sara was performing but it was almost like she was ‘sleepwalking’ through the activity. Realising there are lots of things we all do in life where we feel that way; shopping, attending meetings, feeding the kids, paying the bills etc. Sara appreciated that everyone can relate to this from time to time. Hence the chorus “I’m upright, I’m talking, but I’m only sleepwalking”.