Cara Luft

Cara Luft
Cara Luft in Calgary (2007)
Background information
Born	Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Genres	Folk, rock, Americana
Occupation(s)	Musician, Songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, banjo
Years active	1997–present
Associated acts	The Wailin' Jennys
Website	caraluft.com

Cara Luft is a singer-songwriter, guitarist and clawhammer banjo player, and founding member of the Canadian folk trio The Wailin' Jennys. She returned to her solo career in 2005.

Luft was born 27 May 1974 and raised in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to folk-singing parents. She was brought up in the city's vibrant folk music community. After spending 4 years living in BC, she moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba in the fall of 1999 to further pursue her music career.

She began playing dulcimer and autoharp at the age of four, and started singing with the family band. Her guitar self-studies began at age 11. She has a developed understanding of alternate tunings, numerous finger and flat-picking techniques, and is known as one of Canada's finest acoustic guitar players. She is also an accomplished claw hammer banjo player, and sings with a rich alto voice. Her writing and playing styles are influenced by rock groups such as Led Zeppelin, as well as both modern and traditional folk music (British, Canadian and American styles). She has become a sought-after workshop leader and instructor at various international music camps (Puget Sound Guitar Workshop, Foothills Acoustic Music Institute, Goderich Celtic College).

Cara often tours Europe with Liverpool-based side musician Scott Poley (Guitar, Pedal & Lap Steel, Vocals). In Canada she tours with bass player Gilles Fournier and often invites Donovan Giesbrecht and Chris Neufeld of The Other Brothers to join her on stage. Her co-writing partner for the album Darlingford was Lewis Melville, of Guleph, ON.

In 2016, Luft joined with JD Edwards to form the duo The Small Glories. They released their debut album Wonderous Traveller in February 2016.