When Callista Clark talks about some of her musical influences and idols, she mentions people like The Judds, Bonnie Raitt, Eva Cassidy and Aretha Franklin – people who were 20, 30 or even 40 years into their careers before Callista was born in 2003. And even though she is only 17, Callista explains how she developed such a love and respect for some of the classics.
It started when she was a child, singing with her siblings in and around her tiny town of Zebulon, Georgia. “There’s not many options to play, especially when you are eight years old,” Callista says with a laugh. But, she says, “My favorite venue was The Music Barn. It was an older crowd, and my mom said, ‘This is great. If you’re gonna do this though, you’re gonna play what they want to hear. So, we learned The Judds, all the classic rock, Motown, 80s and 90s country.”
As a child, Callista didn’t know the difference between current music and classic music. She just learned to sing the music people wanted to hear, which happened to be older music, and eventually fell in love with a lot of it, and Callista says, “I think you’ll hear a lot of that in my music that I write and the way my music sounds now.”
Callista Clark – older musical influences :44
“I started singing with my siblings, and the first place we ever sang, the first place I ever sang, was at my granddad‘s church. From there, we realized that we were having a lot of fun, and being from a very small town that I am from, there’s not many options to play, especially when you are eight years old. My favorite venue was The Music Barn. It was an older crowd, and my mom said, ‘This is great. If you’re gonna do this though, you’re gonna play what they want to hear. So, we learned The Judds, all the classic rock, Motown, 80s and 90s country. And so, I think you’ll hear a lot of that in my music that I write and the way my music sounds now.”