Mary Catherine Lunsford Alive & Well After All These Years

Ever wonder about ‘the rest of the story’? I didn’t stop recording. I didn’t stop performing. I even sang with the Oregon Symphony Pops Orchestra for ten seasons and performed with the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts! Thanks for checking on me.

What You May Want to Know MARY CATHERINE LUNSFORD was released the same week as Carol King’s TAPESTRY album. Polydor paid for a one-month billboard display on Sunset Blvd. I never took a photo of it because I naively believed it would be one of many…silly girl! During the rare and magical years of 1965-1970 along with Mary McCaslin, Penny Nichols, Jackson Brown, Steve Noonan, Tim Buckley, The Sunshine Company, and a host of others on ‘hootenanny’ nights at the Paradox in Tustin, CA; the Troubadour in Hollywood, CA; the Ice House in Pasadena, CA. with great enthusiasm and collective support we developed our craft, style and performance acuity. There are those of us who enjoyed more fame than others but all of us created fine music and lyric and filled the world with beauty while lighting our souls. My purpose of performance is to create an experience which allows you to take home more of yourself to hold on to when you leave one of my concerts.

In 1994 I developed head/neck cancer. After 6,000 rads and two surgeries, I spent 2 years recovering my performance voice and sang 4 seasons with the Oregon Symphony Pops! As an artist, I was able to help myself ‘imagine’ myself through the treatment and recovery journey with journaling, visualization and the support of family, friends and the Grace of the Spirit.

While John Howard Abdnor Involvement opines “Mary Catherine is clearly a Joni Mitchell wannabe, but nonetheless she put together a very nice folk-rock album. Her vocals are like Joni’s without the annoying high notes, and there’s a sparklingly clear acoustic guitar sound that suits them extremely well. M.C. is a pretty good songwriter too, and this is a pleasant surprise, a one-off singer/songwriter album that’s much better than most in the genre.” [A.M.] I appreciate the kind remarks.