Cathy Lemons and Lisa Kindred, April 17th, 2003

Photo: Johnny Ace

This is a picture of Cathy Lemons and Lisa Kindred taken in a coffee shop. Ze blues sisters! They are looking sweet as pie--but you had best watch out! Oh Yes!

Lisa Kindred has been singing for over three decades. She started out in the New York City folk scene in the late '60's. She even had an album out on Vanguard called "I Like it Like That." She knew many of the folk heroes of that time, people like David Crosby, Dick and Mimi Farina, Dave Van Ronk, Fred Neal, Lightnin' Hopkins, Skip James, Misissippi John Hurt, Son House--Whew! Crosby mentions Lisa many times in his interesting biography. Later, when Lisa gets into electric blues instead of folk, she becomes a real blues stylist. Lisa, like Cathy, has her own unique voice. She also knows how to tell a story--and she has the sadness which allows for greatness in any genre. Lisa's latest CD "Steppin' Up in Class" on The Saloon Recordings label is wondefule--check it out--it's great!.

As to the sweet as pie stuff ... here's a little antidote:

"I remember when I ws about 24 years old and I was in Texas . It was one of those hot nights and the trees were lush and sort of blowing around. I was standing outside the doorway of Robert Ely's club in Fort Worth, TX, The Blue Bird Club. It was a strange place full of all kinds of ghetto creatures lurking in the shadows, and even stranger, the rich white people, wearing really fancy clothes. They would appear in their big cars, come in, sit in corners, smile. I heard Robert Ely sing that night, and his voice was so big and smooth. I knew instanlty what a great he was. I had sang earlier that night with the blues band 'Mark Polluck and the Midnighters' --I even remember the song "It serves me right to Suffer"--by Hooker. Anyway, Ely comes up to me outside while people are packing up and points his finger at me and says with a broad white toothed smile, 'You's a son-of-a-bitch!' I never felt so good in all my life! Yee ha! I was called a 'son-of-a-bitch' by the great Robert Ely! Yee Hah!"

The point? To be in this business predominantly peopled by the male sex you have to be a "son-of-a-bitch" somewhere deep down inside or you won't even get to the gate! Now I don't mean you have to be mean--I mean you have to be strong!--Cathy Lemons, 2002