The blues is not a hugely popular genre in blues and folk singer Kara Grainger’s native Australia.
So Grainger, a 15-year veteran of performing, decided to take her music to an audience that would appreciate it and her: America.
Eight years ago, she relocated to Los Angeles, where she has carved out a respectable career for her rocking blues/folk career, one that borrows heavily from Alabama’s legendary Muscle Shoals sound (think Percy Sledge and Wilson Pickett) and the Southern and Memphis soul music that came out of the Stax Records era of the 1960s and ‘70s.
“I do put my own take on it. I usually mix it up,” said Grainger, who comes to the Boondocks Lounge Friday for her first Tucson show since playing the Southern Arizona Blues Heritage Foundation festival in 2013. “It’s got that roots sound, because that’s all of my influences.”
Grainger plays slide and lead guitar and sings with a soulful and bluesy voice that has led critics to compare her to Bonnie Raitt — a comparison that serves her well on many levels.
Like Raitt, Grainger can interpret the dickens out of a song, wringing all the nuances of the artists who came before her while adding just enough ingenuity to take the song to another plane.
She also pens her own songs, exposing a special part of her soul that is on wonderful display in her 2013 album “Shiver & Sigh” (available on iTunes).
Her fascination with American blues music started when she was 12 and was learning to play guitar. She listened to her brother’s record collection, with recordings of guitar greats Eric Clapton, John Lee Hooker, Ry Cooder and Stevie Ray Vaughan among them.
“I started falling in love with the sound that I wasn’t experiencing in pop music,” she explained during a phone call from LA last month. “The tone of the band, the guitar players coming from Texas, Louisiana. The sound of their voices was so rich and heartfelt. That’s why I fell in love with the music.
“The music to me has the most feeling in it.”
Grainger’s career has included performing in a band with her brother and touring solo in Japan, Indonesia, Europe and the U.S. In addition to her show Friday at Boondocks, she is also playing a gig at The Rhythm Room in Phoenix on Saturday.
Once every couple years, she makes it home to Australia.
“I still play there a little bit, but most of my energy is being focused on the U.S. the last couple of years,” she said.
