Blue Notes by Robin Lynam: Kara Grainger

The wider world usually pays little attention to Australia's lively blues and roots music scene - largely, I suppose, because so few of these musicians choose to work much outside the country.

This is a shame, because as any visitor to Sydney's The Basement club can attest, there is no shortage of talent, and every now and again an Australian blues artist does manage to grab the attention of an international audience.

In 1992, slide guitarist Dave Hole signed to the prestigious US independent blues label Alligator Records. He has since continued to record, and tour the world with considerable success, while remaining based in Australia.

Hole won a 1999 ARIA (Australian Recording Industry Association) award for best blues and roots album with Under the Spell; as did Australian slide guitarist Jeff Lang, in 2002, for a duo album, Rolling Through This World, made with US slide virtuoso Bob Brozman.

A third Australian slide guitarist-singer-songwriter is beginning to enjoy similar success: Kara Grainger, who has played her share of gigs at The Basement. She is now based in Los Angeles and her 2008 album, Grand and Green River, is a slickly produced collection of songs recorded in that city and featuring some big-name players, including guitarist Eric Johnson and Little Feat drummer the late Richie Hayward.

As a vocalist Grainger - who played at the Timbre Rock and Roots Festival in Singapore on March 22 - was strongly influenced by Bonnie Raitt (who also performed at the festival); it was a pleasure, Grainger said, to be one of three female lead guitarists on the bill, the third being Susan Tedeschi.