Kim Ciara is a bass playin’ girl!
Now why do I say such an asinine thing? More than once, in my search for talented bass players, it has occurred to me that there are just not enough female bassists out there, of the electric kind and also of an acoustic bent such as Kim.
For over 2 decades she chased a professional musicians life with great glee, doing multiple tours around the US, Europe and other exotic places. These days she balances her musical aspirations with a career in nursing but does not rule out heading out on the road again, should the opportunity present itself. The urge to tour really never leaves you.
She recently released her first CD on her new label, Neurotic Dancer and sent me a copy for a listen. When it arrived, it struck me immediately that this was a bass player of considerable chops producing an album of rather beautiful music. There is genuinely strong song writing in the album and her playing is nothing short of superb.
In conversations with her I found her to be witty and confident of her accomplishments and strengths but aware of her foibles. Her tremendous sense of humour was also very evident. You will find her conversation with Bass Inside peppered with various *special ways* of conveying her feelings and thoughts on music, putting arrogant players in their place, maligned hamsters and other musical and non-musical things.
It is easy for a magazine to clammer after all the safe names, the big names, and we have been known to do that too. It is however, very interesting, when everyone else is chasing those same names, to also talk to someone who has all the necessary talent and technical skill, has a clear mindset and sense of purpose and whose love of music and bass playing is huge, but has not yet hit the ‘Big Time’. Those, to me, are often quite interesting people. Their hunger drives them and that is both fascinating and inspirational at the same time. The accomplished folks get comfortable and sometimes feeling they deserve success. Not so with people like Kim.
After all, we never know where tomorrow’s heroes will come from…
“Through the Eyes of a Child”
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