Tara Somerville

Tara is half of the Taos-based band Seven Six, with Ben Fields; their album Lizards released Jan 8. Born and raised in New York City, Tara has enjoyed time on both coasts and moved to New Mexico in 2005. An elementary school music teacher since 2010, one of her greatest delights is singing folk songs in groups. She organized Taos’ Pete Seeger sing-along in March 2014 to honor his life, and now runs a monthly acoustic music circle in Taos for all ages, acoustic instruments and genres of music.

After the Seeger tribute, she began playing for the elders at Taos Retirement Village with performer and song-preservationist Jenny Vincent. Here she learned to play a repertoire of traditional northern New Mexican tunes on fiddle and guitar. The group still meets twice a month to sing for nursing home residents. Finding inspiration on snowy hikes in the sagebrush and at hot springs reflecting on her city childhood, Tara started writing songs when she was living off-grid near Taos’ Rio Grande Gorge. Now some of her songs, such as “The Subway Song” have become sing-along songs at local venues.

“We Have a Dream” was co-written with Bruce David Martin and released in March 2019. Watching footage of the migrant caravan on TV, Bruce was moved to tears and asked for Tara’s help writing a song of kindness, hope and protest. After countless phone calls, emails and mp3s between New York City and Taos, “Dream” was born.