Featured Artists
Tara Hack
My Journey, So Far by Tara Hack
I was born and raised in West Babylon, NY, a small town on the south
shore of Long Island and less than a ten-minute drive from the Alibi. My father,
(who unexpectedly passed away in December) worked as a conductor on the Long
Island Rail Road. He noticed musicians busking for tips inside NY City's Penn
Station and he suggested that I give busking a try. Little did I know that my
father's suggestion would change the course of my musical journey.
After auditioning, I was accepted as a performing member of NY City's
"Music Under New York" program, which permits performers to play at
designated times in Manhattan's Penn Station and Brooklyn's Atlantic Terminal.
I met many interesting people during these performances. One of my favorites
was meeting Sid Rosenberg of WABC Radio's Bernie and Sid Show. Sid invited me to be on their show. I guess it went well because they invited me back three more times … so far 😂.
Then came that “lucky break” that every musician starting out can usually
only dream about. A businessman, who is also an avid music lover, heard me
perform at Brooklyn’s Atlantic Terminal. He was involved in a project that needed music and asked me if I wanted to write a song or two for it. Nothing really became of that project, but he did agree to invest in my first album.
Now I needed to assemble a team of professionals (producers, musicians, promoters etc.) to help me introduce my music to the world. The outbreak of Covid in March 2020 certainly didn’t help the situation, but the team quickly adapted to working remotely. My first song "She Wants to Be Loved," was on SiriusXM (two separate episodes of Meg Griffin’s Disorder program on The Loft channel and in rotation on the Velvet channel). What a thrill that was!! My next song, "Let Go," was featured on SiriusXM’s Pat Monahan's Train Tracks program. I landed an interview on The Suki and Scott Show. We continued to release music through January of 2021, including "Overthinking" with Ryan Cabrera and Dear Abbey, an EP of five songs that were recorded at Abbey Road studios in England.
As great as all this was, I still wasn't gaining much traction. I had to
dismiss my team of producers, musicians and promoters. My investor told me that he was about to give me the “we tried our best” speech but he had just received an email from a business acquaintance, Ron Altbach, who, as a member of King Harvest, wrote the iconic piano intro to their monster 1973 hit “Dancing in the Moonlight.” Ron also toured with The Beach Boys for five years and co-wrote many songs with Mike Love, Brain Wilson and Al Jardine. He had asked Ron to listen to my music and give him his honest opinion.
Ron shared my music with his good friend Phil Pickett. Phil Pickett was a
co-writer and vocalist on Culture Club's “Karma Chameleon,” one of the biggest hits from the 1980’s. Phil has also worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry including Paul McCartney, Phil Ramone, Quincy Jones, Joe Cocker and Jeff Beck.
Ron’s email basically said that they loved my voice and that the legendary
Phil Pickett wanted to work with me!
To date, Phil and I, along with Martin Sutton and Jeff Franzel, have
written seven new songs and we continue to write more. Phil wants me to fly out to England next month to start recording some of this new material.
Will I become a famous singer? I don't know. But I hope that you will
continue to follow my exciting and unbelievable journey until we know the
answer. Stay tuned.