This area has a strong musical backbone, and Tara and Trevor MacKenzie are two of its most crucial vertebrae. While a multitude of musical knowledge, talent, charisma and overall swagger runs rich in these two, they possess something somewhat rare for musicians: a lack of desire to be in the limelight.
While every facet of a music community plays its own important role, there is something very special about those whose love of the craft and the people who make it, compels them above all else, to do everything in their power to uplift and encourage others.
Having both grown up in the area, Tara and Trevor had musical beginnings in their own rights. At 18, Tara led worship services at her church and found artistic passion in Celtic music. These combined loves prompted her to return to Ireland when she was 19 to study music, to lead worship, and to tour in bands through Europe.
Trevor cut his teeth playing in local groups and attending open jams. He reminisces about his first band; Darafuzz, a psych rock group he’d formed with Tommy B and his best friend Jesse Clements. He recalls some of the incredible local spaces like the Golden Café in Mar who hosted free-flowing open jams for any and every flavour of music and fostered a “permissive environment to be who you are,” he says. Tara remembers this space being an alcove of inspiration, love and motherly cooking.
In regular Owen Sound synchronistic fashion, it was a chance encounter in Fromagers Music that led the two to each other. While Tara made the trip from Flesherton to stock up on guitar strings, Trevor just so happened to be in the shop on his day off. You could say the rest is history, but I’d beg you to add ‘in the making’ to that sentiment.
Since then, Tara has pursued her calling of inspiring young musicians to embrace the music within them. Since 2008 she has run a vocal coaching school that blends technical knowledge with a holistic approach to self-betterment. She explains that her form of mirror touch synesthesia allows her to interact with others and to perceive music in a uniquely connective way. With this gift, Tara helps young artists with self-confidence and expression, and although music is the vehicle for this particular journey, the destination is much more than that.
After studying at the Ontario Institute of Recording Arts, Trevor worked at Byrdland, an analog studio in Allenford. He tells me about working on records for artists like King Crab, Exhale, and Alpha State, Mike Weir’s early prog rock band. Soon after, he and Tara opened their own recording studio and have cut records for acts like Joel Morelli, and for their own project, the Maple Blues Award winning MacKenzie Blues Band.
Although he has a long history of performing the area, the way I met Trevor and the way most musicians my age did, was when I got my first guitar. Trevor is one of the humblest people you’ll ever meet, which is why you might be surprised when you first see him play. His mixture of stage presence, raw talent and wardrobe can be categorized thusly: he shreds.
But the thing is, Trevor isn’t the kind of guy to make you feel small when you enter a music store. His depth of knowledge about recording, gear, playing, and instruments is outweighed only by his approachability and his willingness to share said knowledge. A visit to Trevor at Fromagers was definitely no “don’t touch the Rickenbacker” from the pissed off clerk at Steve’s on Queen West. Trevor was kind, and helped a generation of local musicians feel comfortable talking to the real deal. Now at Long and McQuade, he helps people learn to record, to run live sound, to choose which pickups will give the desired tone, and to build confidence as a musician.
It would be easy to spend weeks talking about Tara and Trevor’s accolades, think: The Choir that Rocks, The Honeyhammers, and Mackenzie Blues Band; their unbelievably inspiring talents, or the lives they have affected positively. However, what is most notable about these two is their unwavering dedication to lifting up, building, and giving tools to young artists, in hopes of inspiring the next generation.
When I ask them what they love most about the area and what they hope to see change, they tell me that all they hope for is that some of the people they have inspired will fill their shoes someday. They tell me that they hope artists will use their unique skills to continue to lift up those who need lifting up, so that they can become the best versions of themselves. They tell me that they will do everything in their power to continue doing this, until they no longer can.
Grey and Bruce is filled with history of formative cultural hotspots like the Golden Café in Mar. It’s places like these that remind me of Tara and Trevor. Thanks to their sheer existence for a moment in time, music and community will live on differently, and we will be better for it.
Written by Marshall Veroni
Photos by Ashley Winters Photography
