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Born to it: For Clare Follett, a musical path was forged from the start

Clare Follett started learning musical instruments as a young child, and is now a professional musician.  (CBC - image credit)
Clare Follett started learning musical instruments as a young child, and is now a professional musician. (CBC - image credit)
Clare Follett started learning musical instruments as a young child, and is now a professional musician.
Clare Follett started learning musical instruments as a young child, and is now a professional musician. (CBC)

Clare Follett, a singer and guitarist who has been making waves in Newfoundland and Labrador's music scene for a few years, says her career choice was no surprise at all.

"From the second I was born, it was like, 'We're going to put Clare in music lessons,'" said Follett. Violin lessons came first, then piano and then the instrument that spoke to her: the guitar.

She started to write songs "just to kind of deal with my teenage angst," even if, at 12, "I wasn't even a teenager."

Still in university, Follett has already made her mark as a singer, a side musician and a producer.

Last year, her focus was on playing in Nick Earle and the Restless Hearts — that is, until COVID-19 upended everything.

"We had just released a record and we were really excited for it. And then, even the release show got cancelled," she said.

On the other hand, the pandemic also offered a silver lining: Follett used the time to make another solo album of her own, Reclamation.

Follett is the subject of our latest segment in our series For the Love of Music. She shares her story in the video below.

Read more from CBC Newfoundland and Labrador