Toni Hopper
DUNCAN — While cold weather wind whipped around outside, and the hands on the large wall clock edged closer to 3:30 p.m. Tara Scott was busy watching her daughter, Ava Claire, as she toddled across the room.
“She just learned to do this last night,” Scott said, as her husband, Chad, opened his hands for Ava to grab.
“The boys should be here any time,” she said. A little while later, Chad saw the school bus pull up and the boys came up the driveway, but stopped outside at the porch.
“They’ll be awhile,” he said. The boys, Aiden, 8, and Eli, 5, were busy knocking ice around that remained from the past two winter storms.
After a few minutes, Tara got up to go and encourage the boys to come inside where it was warm.
If you were to see Tara Scott at a soccer game cheering her young sons, or visiting with friends, you’d think she was like most women — living the American dream.
There’s even a big yellow dog that has free reign in the backyard.
Except Scott isn’t your typical everyday mom and wife. With three children, a husband who’s a pharmacist and a satisfying career in speech pathology, she has a good life.
“It’s perfect — almost too good to be true,” Tara said.
And while she does have it all, she also has a weekend career that would exhaust most moms who are already juggling a full schedule. But for Tara, those weekends are what sets this mom apart from the majority of area moms.
When weekends roll around, Scott may be near home, yet, more than likely she’s somewhere in Oklahoma or north Texas singing and performing with a band — Overdrive.
Every member in the band lives in a different city or town, but for nearly 15 years, the group has played together on and off in various capacities.
It wasn’t until a year ago that the friends decided they needed an official name for their band. And, most people in Duncan probably aren’t aware that Tara is in a band or sings.
“I don’t think anyone around here knows I’m a singer,” she said. Scott isn’t just a singer, but lead for the band.
Having a rehearsal at the Scott’s home isn’t unusual either.
It all began for Tara when she was a child. Her parents, Sandi and Gary Wilkerson of Elgin, may have had different music interests — she liked Christian, he preferred rock — but their love of music was instilled in Tara early in life.
“My family is very musical. My parents led music at their church. We didn’t have cable television when we grew up, so my dad would play guitar and we’d listen and sing.”
When she was 10, several female members of her family formed a gospel singing group.
Tara followed her dad’s interest and enjoys mostly classical rock — Aerosmith, the Eagles, Doobie Brothers and Fleetwood Mac.
In college, Tara was fortunate that her job during the summers was singing at weddings on Saturdays. She laughs when she remarks that she was a wedding singer.
“It was never intentional, but it was great,” she said.
While Chad was attending pharmacy school, Tara was busy working to earn her master’s degree for speech pathology.
She heard about the Opry in Moore needing a singer and at that time met Kenny Anderson and began singing there.
Then Tara’s life as a mom interrupted, which she said, was OK, since she wasn’t seeking a musician’s lifestyle.
She just enjoys music.
Fast forward a few years and the Scotts had tickets to attend the Alfred P. Murrah building memorial event at which Vince Gill and other known Oklahomans were performing. While there, she thought someone on stage looked familiar. When she got to the stage, she discovered her old friend Anderson. It wasn’t long before Scott was singing backup for Anderson at the Rodeo Opry in the Oklahoma City Stockyards.
About three years ago though, the group of friends, Anderson, Jody Teeter, Deni Stubbs, Gary Bryan, Scott and Susan McGee, as a group, met with some “interesting dynamics” which altered their weekend performances. It wasn’t long before word was around the state they weren’t performing at the Opry on the weekends.
“We played a lot before we had an actual name. We all have separate lives and children. This has just fell in our lap,” she said.
Recently Jeff Donaldson, fiddle player, joined the group. There’s also an occasional steel guitar or keyboardist that plays with them.
“All of us are at different points in our lives. Playing on the weekend has turned out to be a huge blessing in disguise,” she said.
When Scott talks about some of the performances they’ve done, it’s not with any sense of bragging, but more of an acknowledgement of the honor. They’ve opened for Restless Heart, Darryl Worley and Blake Shelton.
“We’re not pursuing Nashville, we just get to be somebody else on the weekends. I enjoy the music,” Scott said. Plus, the group has not done any original songs, choosing to do those that their listening audience is familiar with.
“Our musical interests are not just country. We’re picking songs with full harmony and like to be versatile,” she said. While Tara has classic rock background, she mentions that Stubbs has a “jazzy” background and someone else may be country.
The closest to home they’ve performed was in Marlow in November for an Orvel Robinson production. They’ve also performed at Medicine Park.
Chad is extremely supportive of his wife’s pursuit, even though he admits to not having a musically-talented gene. He loves listening to her and watching the group perform.
He’s also encouraging local residents to brave the cold weather and attend the Oklahoma City Tea Party that will be Saturday night in Bricktown at the Coca-Cola center. Doors open at 6 p.m. and the show starts at 7 p.m.
“We’re the entertainment for the night. This is pretty big for us and we’re still thinking, ‘How did this happen?’ This is the passion we get to enjoy,” Tara said.
Tara, who loves classic rock, finds Trisha Yearwood to be one of her favorite country singers. She likes what Yearwood exhibits as a person and has even had the opportunity to meet her.
Tara’s biggest blessing for music is being able to include her family the majority of the time.
“We put on a family-oriented show. We play in places where we can take our own kids,” she said. And the group has turned down bookings that might not fit into their schedule or meet their qualifications.
“It’s worked so well so far. When I was pregnant, I kept thinking it’s getting too much, but it works out,” she said. Recruiting neighbors and friends to help shuffle the boys to practices and games has been helpful. Tara is also a proclaimed sticky note freak, she said. And she’s found that social networking is a great tool.
“I’m a complete Facebook addict. I said I’d never do that, and here I am on it,” she said. She’s surprised at the number of older fans who have found her and the band through the Internet.
— Toni Hopper is a reporter for The Duncan Banner. She can be reached at 580-255-5354, Ext. 132 or by e-mail at: toni.hopper@duncanbanner.com.
