Woman sees musical legacy come to life

Back in the 1950s and '60s, Sylvia Cara had herself a career in country music. The young singer was good enough to tour California with the late, great Marty Robbins and to share the stage with Rose Maddox, one of the luminaries of California's active country music scene.

Sylvia performed as half of The Cara Sisters with her friend Janet Burke or her actual sister Joan Jackson.

"We sang all through high school at all the dances," the Sisters woman recalled in an interview last Sunday. "We never went to a dance, but we sang at every one of 'em."

She and Janet drew the attention of a hillbilly singer named Johnny Dechaine, who offered to record with them in his basement recording studio in Oakland, California. They cut two sides, which were released as a 45-rpm record in 1956.

The B side was "A Losing Game," which Sylvia recalls as having excellent harmony vocals. The A side was "Come On Home."

That song has found a new life on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3yDsjsWFavk), posted by an aficionado of what is now being called "Hillbilly Bop." Sylvia finds herself taken aback to think that her old recording is now being heard around the world. She also wishes it was the "other side" that the collectors had dug up. She was never all that impressed with "Come On Home."

"I still think it's a silly song," she said.

The recording led to some exciting opportunities for The Cara Sisters. Dechaine took the 17-year-olds to the Oakland Auditorium to meet Porter Wagoner, who was in town with a touring Grand Ol' Opry show.

"Porter said, "Sing something girls!' So we sang a Marty Robbins song. We were singing a cappella and all of a sudden a guitar started up behind us. We turned around and it was Marty Robbins!"

Robbins was touring California and asked the girls to accompany him. Sylvia's father insisted on accompanying them. The girls played on naval ships and at a show at Camp Pendleton with The Maddox Brothers and Rose. Rose Maddox called the more-than-a-little-intimidated girls her "chickies."

Both Janet and Joan stepped away from music because of their husbands' disapproval. Sylvia chose a different path. She'd married in 1956.

"In '66 I had enough of that; I went to work," she said. "I got a Martin (guitar) and went out and sang."

She'd actually picked the Martin up in 1964, and it was to be her close companion for decades.

Sylvia pitched herself to an all-male act at a nightclub, telling them that what they were missing was a female singer. They agreed, and the act became Sylvia and the Sundowners. It didn't last.

"They didn't rehearse!" Sylvia said, with a hint of annoyance. "Instead of rehearsing, they'd play pool and drink beer. I got tired of that and quit 'em."

She played some with Cowboy Copas, a bandmate of her hero Patsy Cline. Cowboy Copas died with Cline in a plane crash on March 5, 1963, an incident Cara still recalls with sorrow. She had a gig that evening.

"We had a hard time getting through that night," she recalled.

Sylvia moved to Sisters in 1983, when the music scene centered around jam sessions in the local watering holes.

"I'd jam with the guys," she recalled fondly.

Her playing dwindled after a stroke in 1993, and last year she finally brought herself to give up her beloved Martin guitar, which she sold to a Martin collector.

"After 46 years, I sold Marty this past August," she said.

Sylvia freely admits to knowing nothing of computers or the Internet, and she's amazed to think that her old-time work is "out there" again.

"To have this record show up after 58 years - I still can't wrap my head around it," she said.