Maine singer/songwriter Sara Cox enjoys family, music, and life!

by Polly Pruneau

It was “gestated” during her pregnancy and time spent with her new baby daughter. “Crowded is the New Lonely” is the title of Sara’s Cox’s latest CD.  It is a combination of folk and alt/country influences derived from a Nashville childhood, singing harmonies around the family dinner table, and raising a family of her own. This CD is a “a snapshot of an era with me and my life, which is heavily influenced by family. Previous CDs have been collections of songs from different eras of my life and different compartments so to speak. This is a package, a portrait of a specific time more than any other work I’ve done,” she said

Sara was on a break from family recently as we sat in a local cafe talking about the CD, family and her music. A tiny girl with lovely big eyes was playing nearby and caught Sara’s attention. “If I had brought my daughter, if she wasn’t in day care, she could have played here, but I would have been watching her every minute, not totally paying attention to this,” she said smiling and gesturing to the notebook. Having a daughter was a shift for Sara, who said that when her two sons were younger, she enjoyed performing.  “When I was pregnant with my daughter, and after she was born, I had no desire to play out.” The daughter is now two and half and Sara is back in music venues, offering audiences songs rooted in her family life.

At a time when the typical folk music audience is in the 30 to 50 year old range,  Sara, one of the Portland area’s premiere singer/songwriters, has an avid following from this age group, and appeals to younger audiences as well.

She recently provided an evening’s entertainment for a group of youngsters attending a weekend event. Sara’s almost-10-year-old son’s tastes are solidly in the Led Zeppelin genre, she said, and she wanted to be sure that the person who booked her knew what her music was like: acoustic, and maybe not appealing to kids 10 to 15 years of age. The person assured her that the kids would enjoy it, and they did. They were clapping along to her music, and then formed a conga line and were having a great time dancing around the hall, she said.

Afterwards, a young girl told Sara that she very much wanted a copy of Sara’s CD, but the he didn’t have money to buy it.  “She started feeling her earrings and wrists looking at me intently. She was trying to figure out what she could trade me for the CD.”  Sara told her she could have it if she made sure five of her friends listened to it too. “No problem,” said the happy young girl.

Sara is astute about the relationships she builds with her audience. She works with Artist Development Co. to distribute her CDs. She focuses on the Americana Music Chart, a roots and folk music rating service. She does her own booking; she determines where her music is getting the most airplay and books venues accordingly. She said she wants to play for audiences that want to hear her. She has played the college circuit and finds that she doesn’t enjoy trying to play to an audience that isn’t always paying attention.  She is cautious about the clubs she plays, too, opting for the attentive audience. “I create an awareness of my music in geographical areas and then I go for a show,” she said.  She recently played Philadelphia, will be playing in many areas of New England and New York and is thinking about some areas in the Midwest, possibly Missouri and Ohio, where she is getting strong ratings on the charts.

“I don’t have a rock ’n roll dream. I am living my ultimate goal right now. I don’t want to feel bitter and negative about my music experience. I don’t want to set myself up for that. And I don’t want to give my life away to it either,” she said. But I have to do it, it’s too much a part of who I am.”

Being a mother is also a strong identity for Sara. “Parenting, it can be an isolating place, especially trying to be an artist. It’s a struggle. But I love it.”  Creativity can be hard to come by at times. But Sara does it where she can. “If I have 20 minutes I’ll pick up my guitar. If it comes out – great. Sometimes a song sits there for six months and won’t come out, but I know it’s there.” Sara keeps a tape recorder in the family room so she can capture “flashes” when they present themselves. She visibly fidgeted in her chair. “I get itchy,” she said. She twitched her ear with fingers. “I feel it inside myself then bam - there’s the song. There it is - it just comes out.” She said she was working on a song about not whining the other day, and her daughter was whiney and really vocal. “I should just incorporate her whining into the song,” she laughed. These are the moments that can inspire her. “I have to fit the songwriting in where I can.”

Sara and her husband have been married for 10 years now.  They have renovated 2 houses, had 3 kids, and put out six CDs. During all that effort, “we had to do the music; we didn’t want to feel like we were losing the music.”

It is a struggle to be an artist, and to successfully tap into one’s creativity, balance it with a family life, and be true to one's self. Some folks give up one in favor of another. Some folks can’t balance it all. Then there are those who figure it out; who succeed in blending it all together. Sara Cox is one of those successes.

Sara's latest CD, "Crowded is the New Lonely", is available at her shows, at all Bull Moose Music stores (and on the Bull Moose web site), and on-line at CD Baby.

Sara is performing at Local 188 (a great restaurant) on April 24, and at the North Star Music Cafe in Portland on May 9; both venues are in Portland.  She is also performing at the release party for the new "Greetings from Area Code 207" CD (volume ) at the Empire in Portland on May 22 (Sara has a track on the new disc!)