Lucy Kaplansky CD Release w/ Rose CousinsShe started out singing in Chicago bars. Then, barely out of high school, Lucy Kaplansky took off for New York City. There she found a fertile community of songwriters and performers—Suzanne Vega, John Gorka, Bill Morrissey, Cliff Eberhardt, and others—where she fit right in. With a beautiful flair for harmony, Lucy was everyone’s favorite singing partner, but most often she found herself singing as a duo with Shawn Colvin. People envisioned big things for them; in fact, The New York Times said it was “easy to predict stardom for her.” Lucy temporarily left the musical fast track to pursue a doctorate in Psychology and open her own private practice, although she continued to sing. Lucy was often pulled back into the studio by her friends (who now had contracts with record labels), wanting her to sing on their albums.
Now, after returning to recording and performing full-time, Kaplansky’s voice continues to remain in high demand by her peers. She harmonized on Colvin’s Grammy-winning Steady On, on Nanci Griffith’s Lone Star State of Mind and Little Love Affairs, and on four of John Gorka’s albums. She also landed soundtrack credits, singing with Suzanne Vega on Pretty in Pink and with Griffith on The Firm, and several commercial credits as well—including “The Heartbeat of America” for Chevrolet. She can also be heard on the Greg Brown tribute album Going Driftless (also featuring: Ani DiFranco, Iris Dement, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Gillian Welch, Eliza Gilkyson, and others). She teamed with Dar Williams and Richard Shindell to form the supergroup Cry Cry Cry, the three choosing to celebrate the amazing revitalization in contemporary songwriting. The resulting album, Cry Cry Cry (which The New Yorker dubbed “a collection of lovely harmonizing and pure emotion,” and to which Entertainment Weekly gave an “A” rating), has been an astonishing success in stores and on radio. A national tour of sold-out concerts by the trio served to introduce Lucy’s luminous voice to a new expanse of eager listeners.
Lucy’s The Red Thread followed the commercial and critical hit “Every Single Day” (released on 9/11/2001) and marked Lucy’s tenth year (and fifth album) on Red House Records. The Red Thread’s beautiful production was made evident with harmony vocals by Jonatha Brooke, Richard Shindell, Eliza Gilkyson and John Gorka, production and drums by Ben Wittman (The Story), guitarists Duke Levine (Mary Chapin Carpenter) and Jon Herington (Steely Dan), bass player Zev Katz (Bryan Ferry, Roxy Music, Rosanne Cash), and others. In 2005, Red House re-released her debut album The Tide, re-mastered and with two previously unreleased tracks—Jesse Winchester’s “Everybody Knows But Me” and The Beatles’ “I’ve Just Seen a Face.”
Lucy’s rising popularity has led to appearances on the CBS Morning Show, NPR’s Weekend and Morning Editions, Mountain Stage, West Coast Live, Acoustic Cafe, and Vin Scelsa’s Idiot’s Delight. Lucy also contributed her story to a unique new book, SOLO: Women Singer-Songwriters in Their Own Words, which includes some of the best known women on the music scene today including Ani DiFranco, Shawn Colvin, Sheryl Crow, Jewel, and Sarah McLachlan. She was also featured in Lipshtick, a collection of essays by NPR commentator Gwen Macsai.
Released in 2007, Lucy’s album Over the Hills is a collection of songs that explore love and the dark, winding road that leads us there. Her new life as a mother has not hindered her musical life but has enhanced it, deepening the emotional depth of her songwriting. Lucy continues to tour extensively across North America, reminding audiences why she has been hailed as “a truly gifted performer…full of enchanting songs” (The New Yorker).
"New York songwriter Lucy Kaplansky is becoming the troubador laureate of modern city folk." - Boston Globe
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Rose Cousins finds insight in solitude and strength in numbers. Supported by a thriving Halifax music scene and welcomed by an equally vibrant Boston community, her new album We Have Made A Spark was made in the spirit of community and collaboration.
We Have Made A Spark follows Cousins’ two multi-award-winning albums The Send Off (2009) produced by Luke Doucet and If You Were For Me (2006) produced by CBC in Halifax. Yet another collection of stunning songs by Rose Cousins, her third album braves weighty topics.
“We develop patterns that keep us from moving forward. It takes a deep breath and a bucket of courage to face the uncomfortable, painful things we work so hard to avoid. Reward comes from recognizing the obstacle exists and pushing through fear.”
Rooted in authenticity and conviction of voice, from driving opening track The Darkness to stark piano ballad Go First, you feel as though Rose Cousins sings for you, about your life. It is that sincerity that leads some to compare Cousins to our most beloved songwriters, and yet, her passionate delivery is distinctly, Rose. From writing songs from a tiny cabin without electricity on a New Hampshire island (All The Stars, The Shell) to the stage of one her many international tour stops her lone voice reaches out to listeners, all of us surrounded by our own forms of darkness, and charges us to have the courage to forge ahead.
It’s not surprising that Boston performers were quick to adopt Cousins when she started traveling there 8 years ago. To make We Have Made A Spark, she gathered her friends and collaborators Zachariah Hickman (producer) and Austin Nevins (who both play in Josh Ritter’s Royal City Band), songwritersRose Polenzani, Kris Delmhorst, Mark Erelli, Jennifer Kimball, Laura Cortese, Amy Correia, Ana Egge, Edie Carey, members of Session Americana Billy Beard & Dinty Child, and multi-instrumentalists Sean Staples and Charlie Rose together to make the record at well-known American studio (Q Division) used by James Taylor, Aimee Mann, Patty Griffin. Along with new music comes a short film called If I Should Fall Behind, about the heart of the community where the record was made.
Canadian collaborations have included recording and touring with Joel Plaskett on his multi-Juno-winning album Three and recording A New Kind Of Light, a Christmas CD, with label-mate Jill Barberand 2011 Juno New Artist of the Year, Meaghan Smith. Cousins’ herself recently took home 2011 East Coast Music Awards for Female Solo Recording and Songwriter of the Year.
Cousins just released We Have Made A Spark on Outside Music in Canada and independently on her own label Old Farm Pony Records in the rest of the world.