“I’m so excited to play that show. That’s definitely gonna be a huge thing. I don’t wanna say it’s all about me, in like a narcissistic way [laughs], but I really want it to be a showstopper,” says locally grown pop singer/songwriter Ciara Grace of her upcoming CD Release Celebration Show, which will take place Thursday, August 8th at The Lounge at World Café Live and which will have the emerging artist joined by a band of famous Philadelphia musicians, including Erik Johnson and Chico Huff. The show will celebrate the release of Grace’s debut LP, Write it Down, which dropped on May 10th. Ciara and I are chatting via phone in late May, shortly after her semester at college wrapped.
While her upcoming show at World Café Live will be the biggest headlining show Ciara Grace has played yet, she did already have a smaller CD Release Show about a week after the album premiered: “I just recently had a CD Release show at my parents’ studio [Morningstar Studios], with just a small group of friends and family, but I got to play the album through and have people hear it, which was so nice.” Grace’s parents are 2X GRAMMY Award-winning producer and engineer Glenn Barratt (Melody Gardot, Shirley Ceasar), who co-produced the album with Ciara, and Americana singer/songwriter Lizanne Knott, who’s also the studio manager.
I’m curious if Ciara has felt like having such accomplished musical parents gave her a leg up, or head start, in the industry, and she tells me that she does, but that that isn’t something she was always necessarily comfortable with: “I originally felt kind of guilty about it, like I was taking opportunities away from other young musicians. So, when I was like 13 or 14 I kind of renounced music and I was gonna be a psychologist, but I was still writing songs, and my dad wanted to just try recording them, and eventually it was like, ‘Do we have a whole album?’”
The 11 songs of Write it Down were written over the course of three years while Ciara was in high school and chronical her first trials and tribulations with the adult world. She tells me that she’s very proud of everything on the album, although admits that some of it feels like it’s from a former era of her life: “A lot of them definitely feel like a long time ago. One of the reasons the process took so long is because I kept writing songs that I thought were better [laughs], but eventually my dad cut it off [laughs]. But I still love all of them.”
Despite being surrounded by professional musicians her whole life, I’m surprised to hear that very few of Ciara’s friends and colleagues were aware of her musical proclivities and abilities until recently, and apparently their responses have been very inspiring: “I had a very select group of people who had ever heard my music, so it was just recently that people beyond them got to hear anything. Like, people I know from college, and a bunch of people at the barn where I ride horses, and all these people who didn’t know I did this, hearing their reactions was just so cool.”
Discussing some of her favorite music, Ciara displays an affinity for a range of heavy hitters in the world of singing and songwriting. She tells me that boygenius’ recent area performance left a major impression on her, and when I ask about some of her favorite debut LPs, she mentions Fiona Apple’s Tidal and an often-overlooked LP from pop’s biggest star: “Taylor Swift’s first album, which I’ve been thinking about a lot because I’m waiting for her to rerecord it [laughs].” Although, she does admit that she generally likes experiencing live music in cozier rooms than any of these artists have played in quite some time (especially when she’s the one performing): “I really prefer intimate shows over big rooms… I definitely do like the smaller shows. Growing up, my mom played smaller shows at places like MilkBoy and World Café Live, which I love.”
“I am definitely full-fledged, full throttle on music right now,” Ciara tells me, admitting that she’s taking the next semester off, after trying to balance her music with her studies. She also says that working with her father got her interested in another facet of music making: “I’d really like to get more into the production aspect of music. My dad’s an engineer; that’s what he does for a living. So, he got me more into that working on the album.” And while she’s beyond excited to be performing her debut full-length for fans and friends at World Café Live, she tells me that she’s always thinking about and working on what’s going to come next: “I think it’s important for people to know that I’m always trying to make something new and fun.”
*Get your tickets here.