The Memoir

03.14.2023

THE MUSIC

03.31.2023

HIGHLIGHTS
National Best Sellers
Original Non-Fiction - Debuted at No. 6
Canadian Non-Fiction - Debuted at No.4
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Apple Music Playlist - NEW IN SINGER-SONGWRITER
Apple Music Playlist - BREAKING SINGER-SONGWRITER
Spotify Music Playlist - THE EH! LIST by EXCLAIM!
Spotify Editorial Playlist - Folk & Friends

“This is a powerful book: it is fierce, unflinching, raw, honest, and finds joy in the most unexpected places.”

- Channing Dungey, Chairman Warner Brothers Television Group

Singer songwriter Tara MacLean has had an extraordinary music career. From being discovered singing on a BC ferry to touring with Dido, Tom Cochrane and Lilith Fair, her solo albums and those with the band Shaye have touched legions of fans. But she hasn’t, until now, disclosed the details of how the power of song saved her from a childhood filled with danger.

From her earliest days in the backwoods of PEI, Tara was surrounded by nature, by the songs of her musician father and by the love of her actor mother. But love was not enough to feed their growing family, nor were the at first Wiccan, then evangelical Christian teachings her parents followed. Poverty and uncertainty were constant companions as were the dangers that began to enter their world. Predators can come in many forms from even the most trusted circles, and Tara soon learned that a young girl is never safe. It was only through Tara’s inner strength and the sanctuary she found in singing and songwriting that she created a refuge and a future for herself.

Song of the Sparrow is a daring, heartbreaking and provocative memoir of a life filled with music, told with the same raw, open and elegant poetry that Tara’s fans have come to expect.  From her early days in PEI through her teenage years in BC to her meteoric rise in music, Song of the Sparrow reveals Tara’s remarkable strength and shows that a song and a wide open heart are the best weapons for fighting monsters.

Song of the Sparrow, hit the Best Seller List the week it was released and Tara quickly followed up with “Sparrow” - the soundtrack for the book.

QUOTES

  • 'Tara MacLean’s gorgeous prose draws you into a story that will break your heart and heal it at once. This rare marvel of a memoir is instantly engaging and fiercely gripping — but also like having coffee with a friend, one who happens to be fascinating, talented, and full of stories about the music industry, life on the road, and what it’s like inside the star-making machinery. MacLean is Canada’s musical answer to Glennon Doyle as she shares her extraordinary, harrowing, inspiring experiences while also delivering a generous and compassionate masterclass on courage, passion, and resilience. Everyone, read this book! Then return to it over and over to remind you of why life, despite its hardship and despair, is beautiful.’
    — Marissa Stapley, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky

  • "Tara’s Song of the Sparrow, is an honest insight into her life and how her creative process has allowed her to not only survive, but soar!”
    — Bryan Adams, Award winning Singer/Songwriter

  • “Fans of Tara MacLean’s music have long admired her evocative use of words in crafting her lyrics, and this skill translates masterfully to her beautifully written memoir. This is a powerful book: it is fierce, unflinching, raw, honest, and finds joy in the most unexpected places. Tara’s incredible personal journey proves that a truly bright light may at times be dimmed but can never be extinguished.”
    — Channing Dungey, Chairman Warner Brothers Television Group

  • "This is the most incredible and moving memoir. Tara has lived so many lives in just one life and this book is inspiring, painfully honest, visual, funny and heartbreaking. I couldn’t put it down. I feel like I’m still in Tara’s world long after reading and want to be back there with her where she can turn survival into beauty and write such an honest story with such warmth, grace and resilience."
    — Dido, Award winning Singer/Songwriter

  • "Wise and heart breaking. Tara MacLean writes with tender fierceness about triumphs, horrors, love and upheavals through the lens of an awakened heart. Her alchemical prose elevates the personal to the universal in a way that left me both sobbing and laughing in turn. This book is medicine. Song of the Sparrow is what the world needs now—a map back to the home of the heart. If it were up to me, these pages would be dropped from the skies so everyone could read it."
    — Lisa Ray, Author, Actor, Activist

  • “It has been a great privilege to work with Tara MacLean on this incredibly moving and engrossing memoir. Tara’s gifts are present on every page, where her beautiful light shines in even the darkest times. Those who have long admired her as a musician will be awed and inspired by her strength and by the woman she is today. I can't wait for readers to experience her story and the accompanying album,"
    — Jennifer Lambert, Editor in Chief at HarperCollins Canada.

  • “Tara MacLean has written a remarkable memoir about her remarkable life, bracing in its honesty, poetic and moving, rich with fascinating insight into the music industry, and vibrant with a power of song to connect, inspire, and heal.”
    — Elan Mastai, writer and co-executive producer of This Is Us and author of All Our Wrong Todays.

  • “Tara MacLean has managed to tell a difficult coming of age story without begging for our sympathy. My heart broke and burst for her and her intricate family. With each turn of the page I honestly did not know what would come next. Life is messy and marvelous—and you won’t want to miss the chance to get a front row seat to this fierce and lovely memoir."
    — Jann Arden, Juno award winning Singer/Songwriter, Author, Actor

BIO

Canadian singer/songwriter Tara MacLean has been an internationally renowned and award-winning recording and touring artist for over 25 years. She released her first album with the Nettwerk Music Group in 1996 and Sony Music Publishing Canada. Since then, she has been signed to Capitol Records as a solo artist and to EMI Canada with her JUNO nominated band Shaye. She has written and recorded six solo albums and two Shaye records. 

In 2008, Tara took a hiatus from being a touring artist to focus on being a full-time mother, raising her family on the beautiful west coast of Canada. She never stopped writing music. 

Tara returned to her music career in 2016 when she wrote, produced, and directed her hit show “Atlantic Blue-The Stories of Atlantic Canada’s Iconic Songwriters”.  The summer of 2019 saw “Atlantic Blue” presented by the world-famous Charlottetown Festival to sold out crowds.  Tara went on to perform  “Songs from Atlantic Blue” in Concert with the PEI Symphony Orchestra.

The same year (2019), Tara returned to recording original material with “Deeper”, an award-winning effort that was followed by a duet with close friend Catherine MacLellan.  “This Storm” won the Song of the Year Award at the Music PEI Awards.  In 2019 Tara also received the senate of Canada Medal fo her activist work in her community. Last year, Tara received the Stompin' Tom award by the East Coast Music Association, marking her outstanding contribution to music in the region. 

Tara MacLean is an environmental and social justice activist, a zen student, a poet, author, and a playwright. She resides primarily in her home province of Prince Edward Island, and lives part time on Salt Spring Island, BC. She considers herself bi-coastal. Her greatest joy is being a mother to her three beautiful girls.

Her first book, Song of the Sparrow, hit the Best Seller List the week it was released and Tara quickly followed up with “Sparrow” - the soundtrack for the book.

PHOTOS

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Tara MacLean_BW arms_ Jared Doyle
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Tara MacLean_Green live_Stewart MacLean
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VIDEOS

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