Riveting Riffs Magazine

Ciara Grace - Earthy and Edgy

A few months back, a publicist friend of mine Mike Farley sent me some information updating me on the artists he represents. I scrolled through the list, some names familiar, others less so and I happened upon the name of Ciara Grace. I was intrigued by the release of an album, Write It Down, that at that time was still three months away. I gave a listen to the music of the blonde, blue-eyed young woman, who I guessed to be late teens or very early twenties and found I was pretty close.

Ciara Grace’s music is earthy, edgy with some of the vocals and music being staccato in nature. The themes we want to say mostly dealt with relationships, but that would not be true, because the songs were all about relationships! Even though they were written between her high school years and the summer immediately prior to entering college, whether you are sixteen years old, twenty years old or forty-two years old, there is something here for everybody to sink their teeth into, both musically and lyrically. Yes, we are hearing the expression of feelings from what was then a teenage songwriter, and from a female perspective, but we think we are correct in saying that many women out there are going to listen and say, ‘I knew a guy just like that!” or ‘I remember that guy who treated me poorly,” and “I can’t believe I fell for that guy.’ Now, just so we do not give you the wrong impression, while some of these lyrics do bear the signs of feeling jaded or angry at the time, it is important to note that these are not angry songs, at least in our view. There are enough images and metaphors that keep this from becoming a dark brooding album and you can sink your teeth into the uneven beats and vocals.

We requested an interview and Ciara Grace was gracious enough to accept our invitation. Sitting on opposite ends of a phone, thousands of miles apart Ciara Grace proved to be a woman wise beyond her years, very poised and very affable. Although the musical styles are different her sense of knowing who she is, being comfortable with who she is and being professional reminds us a lot of actor, singer, songwriter Maya Hawke at the same age. We wondered if that comes from both young women growing up with parents in the entertainment scene. Maya is the daughter of Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman and Ciara is the daughter of singer and songwriter Lizanne Knott and well-respected producer and sound engineer Glenn Barratt. Alas, we are getting a bit ahead of ourselves, so we will revisit Ciara Grace’s musical connections in a minute or two.

The first single released from the album is “Lost Cause,” and well we will let Ciara tell us about this song, “Oh god he was awful. He was a boy I met in detention. You can tell right away, especially in high school, when a boy has a particular aura about him and that he is not going to care about you very much.

This is kind of a weird story, but somebody deserves to hear this. I went to his house for the first time, and he lived in this really rich neighborhood. He had some kind of bet going on with his neighbor about who could steal more things from each other’s properties without getting caught. He had stolen an inguana. This big ass lizard and it was running around his living room. His brother was with him, and they were acting like idiots and I am going what did I get myself into?

He eventually proved that his romantic intentions were just as I thought, Read More