Singer Tara DeMoulin (s4E13)

Photography by Michelle Kilfeather

Tara DeMoulin grew up collecting eucalyptus buttons in the Panhandle with her mom.

In Part 1, the singer/songwriter, activist, and filmmaker shares the story of her life. It starts in San Francisco in the late-1980s, travels east to Maine and New York City (where she discovered and became obsessed with Broadway), starts to circle back west with a stop in Texas before scooting over to Southern California.

In the early 2000s, after some college, Tara decided to come back to her native home in San Francisco, which we'll get more into in Part 2.

The rest of this episode includes some of Tara's thoughts on living in such wildly different places in the U.S. 

In Part 2, Tara talks about how to be in the world. The thoughts are related to her time in La Cañada, California, where she finished high school and took some college courses before deciding to move back to her hometown—San Francisco.

From there, Tara discusses sentimentality and having more diverse perspectives in life and art.

Tara picks up the story of her move back to The City, which involves handing over exact change—all she had left—to the toll-taker at the Bay Bridge. She talks about jobs she had, including at Tower Records.

Then we get into her history with singing. It started back when she lived in Maine (see Part 1). She played Eva Peron in Evita in Texas when she was 12. She reflects on art, passion, limitations, and collaboration. She talks about singing in Europe before coming back to San Francisco and singing mostly jazz and American Standards.

Tara ends the podcast with her vision of what San Francisco can be as we emerge from the pandemic.

Visit Tara's website, tarademoulin.com, and follow her on Instagram @tarademoulin.

We recorded this podcast at Vesuvio Cafe in June 2021.