Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer
Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer – Hands to Play the Music and Hands to Write the Song
By Sue Barrett
As the night breeze swept through the Port Fairy Folk Festival, American performer Marcy Marxer was huddled against the cold. Nearby, Cathy Fink was buzzing – she had already introduced legendary American singer Faith Petric to the Port Fairy crowd and was now listening to Katy Moffatt yodelling. Throughout the weekend, Fink and Marxer entertained the crowd with traditional and contemporary folk, country, bluegrass and oldtime music and songs for children. And in snatched moments over the Festival weekend, and in the many months since the festival, Fink and Marxer have shared their story…
Marcy Marxer was born into a musical family in Detroit, Michigan in 1956. Her grandmother played blues and barrelhouse piano.
“My mother and two of her sisters loved to sing swing songs and one of my aunts played guitar. Music was greatly encouraged in our family. My mom talks about holding a harmonica up to my mouth when I was nine months old. I would hear the sounds and laugh.”
Marxer started on guitar at five and later learnt mandolin, ukulele, banjo, hammered dulcimer, button accordion and a range of percussion instruments. She became a full time musician in the late 1970s, after attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts and working on production at General Motors, as a clown with Ringling Brothers and with children with special educational needs.
Cathy Fink was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1953.
“I started playing piano by ear when I was four, guitar when I was 12 and later dulcimer, fiddle and banjo. I owe my grandparents for buying me my first guitar and my second guitar. But I didn’t really hear the music I love now and wanted to learn to play as a folk musician until I left home and briefly went to college [McGill University, in Montreal, Canada].
“Duck Donald and I played music together as a duo from 1974 to 1978 and from ’78 to ’79 we had a four piece band. Duck was a walking dictionary of bluegrass and country music and I learned these musics from him during that time. He was not threatened by my musicianship and encouraged me to be a strong instrumentalist. It was a pretty unique duo. We did about 10 years of work in five years and burned out!
“When I moved to the Washington, DC area in 1979, one of the first bands I heard was a western swing band with fiddler/singer/yodeller Mike Stein, guitarist Pete Kennedy, Mike Auldridge on pedal steel. I loved the band, met Mike and Pete and we went on to form Rhythm Ranch.”
In 1980, Marcy Marxer met Cathy Fink at a folk festival in Toronto. By the early 1980s, Marxer had also moved to the Washington, DC area and in 1984 teamed up with Fink as a performing duo.
Fink and Marxer have performed thousands of concerts for adults and families and toured the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Great Britain and Israel; released over 20 albums between them; put out instructional tapes and videos; prepared a songbook; and contributed to a reading curriculum project.
Fink says that the majority of their work is, by choice, as a duo.
“We each have some separate studio work we get hired for. Neither of us is interested in solo gigs at this time. In 1984 we made a commitment to the duo and it’s satisfied us both artistically. It continues to grow and change and be fun. We both do a lot of producing of recordings for other artists and some of these projects are separate, some are done together. Our songwriting is the same. Some songs are written by one or the other of us, others are collaborations. We’ve made things pretty flexible so that we both can grow and learn in new directions, but there’s always a common focus about having what we do serve us as a duo, even if it’s just in that it helps one part of the duo grow.”
From the beginning, Fink and Marxer have had dual careers in children’s music and music for adults.
“Before we met, both of us had experience working with children, both in classroom work and in concert situations. In the 1970s I worked in a group that performed in schools and community concerts for kids by day and folk concerts by night, all over western Canada. Marcy did the same with a string band that was based in the middle United States.
“Our dual careers feed on each other. We’ve met some life long friends in both situations, and a lot of kids who grew up on our music are bringing THEIR kids to the concerts!”
According to Fink, the duo’s music for children is not about their own childhoods.
“Children’s music became more available and the market became glutted with children’s recordings. We decided that if we were going to add to that glut, the world didn’t need more ‘general’ albums, but why not create products that kids would find fun and that parents and teachers really NEEDED. The Help Yourself! album was created after we both worked for a while in Head Start classrooms. We were able to see what went on, understand the curriculum and create songs that related to what teachers and parents were already working on. Nobody Else Like Me features songs that celebrate diversity. It’s unique because it explores all kinds of diversity – race, language, culture, physical abilities, etc. And Changing Channels is full of tools for kids and parents for the age of media over stimulation!”
Fink explains the differences between their concerts for families and their concerts for adults.
“Our children’s concerts are totally participatory. We get the families (kids don’t drive themselves there) involved from the first song in singing along, clapping along, learning American Sign Language to songs, hand motions, dances, etc. They see and hear lots of instruments, but the focus is on fun songs that have ‘nutrition’, plus a lot of silliness. Marcy always says you gotta keep the kids occupied, otherwise, they’ll keep themselves occupied while you’re singing! They are more interested in what THEY are doing than what YOU are doing, so it’s our job to keep them focused so we’re all doing the same thing!
“Adult concerts are different. Adults are interested in the musicianship, harmony, stories behind the songs. Adults can sit and listen and appreciate without being otherwise active for many songs in a row. Kids don’t care about musicianship – they want to have fun. It’s our job to make sure the songs are well chosen and musicianship is good while keeping them totally with us.
“Our shows have a flow to them – like a book – an opening, middle, closing. We look to balance the energy of each set with some high energy stuff and some slower, thoughtful stuff, some humour, a mix of original and non-original material, mix of contemporary and traditional. There are often ‘suites’ of songs that go well together. For instance, there are several songs from A Parents’ Home Companion that we like to do back to back because they help create a flow and a storyline together. We spend a lot of time deciding on set lists.”
Cathy Fink’s songwriting has received acclaim and recognition around the world. Australian folksinger Judy Small pays tribute to Fink in her song, ‘Music in the Movement’, while Faith Petric says that Fink has written some “incredible songs”.
One of the songs that has brought Fink greatest recognition is ‘Names’, which she wrote for the Names Quilt, a memorial to the victims of AIDS.
“This song has really had a life of its own. It’s been recorded by over 25 other artists, in several countries, several languages. We did a whole concert tour in Japan with the volunteers from the Japanese Names Quilt and a folksinger there translated the song and we sang it together. I met a fellow in the volunteer line when the Quilt was being shown on the National Mall and we started a correspondence. One day I got a letter from him asking permission to use the song in his funeral services. Parents send me pictures of their children’s Quilt panels. I am grateful, and overwhelmed, that I wrote a song that means so much to so many people. I’m sorry it needed to be done. This song is the first of five in a suite of songs I wrote about the Quilt.”
As well as recording their own songs, Fink and Marxer have recorded a range of traditional songs and songs by other songwriters, such as Pat Alger, Lou and Peter Berryman, Hazel Dickens, Ferron, Alice Gerrard, Bill Harley, Si Kahn, Hugh Moffatt, Malvina Reynolds and Nancy White. And their new album, Postcards, includes songs by Tom Paxton, Pete Seeger, Ola Belle Reed, Hank Williams and Woody Guthrie/Billy Bragg.
The duo’s 1989 self-titled album, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer, includes ‘I’m Not Alone Anymore’, written by the then relatively unknown Mary Chapin Carpenter. And when asked about the rope twirling segment in Carpenter’s ‘Down At The Twist And Shout’ video clip (1991), Marxer admits, “That’s me twirling! Chapin called us to see if we’d dance in the audience for the video. We laughed and said, ‘No way! But we’d love to come watch.’ I brought my ropes along, thinking it might be fun and Chapin and the producers loved it.”
Cathy Fink says that the duo’s involvement with record production and session work “really started with producing our own recordings. Eventually…[record production] became a large part of what we do. We produce between three and five major projects a year for other artists. Some years, that’s in addition to one or two of our own recordings or videos.”
Among the performers produced by Fink and/or Marxer are Grace Griffith, Bill Harley, Sue Trainor, Pat Humphries, Magpie, Tom Paxton, Si Kahn, Bonnie Rideout and late country music legend Patsy Montana (1908-1996).
“Marcy and I produced Patsy Montana’s The Cowboy Sweetheart album and Rhythm Ranch was the backup band. That was a real highlight. Patsy was the first woman in country music to sell one million records, with a song called, ‘I Wanna Be A Cowboy’s Sweetheart’ in 1935. I met Patsy in about 1980 and we became immediate friends. And Marcy and I toured and performed with her until about 1995.”
In 1997, Fink’s and Marxer’s album of lullabies, Blanket Full of Dreams, was nominated for a Grammy Award.
“The biggest impact was the FUN of it! We went to the Grammys, in fact we took Marcy’s mom, and we had a great time there. The nomination did lend us some additional credibility as producers and writers, and we were very proud of it.”
The duo has subsequently had Grammy nominations for the albums Changing Channels and Pillow Full of Wishes, as well as their album with Brave Combo, All Wound Up!, and an album that they produced for DinoRock, Dreamosaurus.
In relation to the pressures and demands of frequent touring and performing, Cathy Fink says that, “Because of our production schedule, we ‘keep the ball rolling’ all the time. We tend to be on the road on weekends, and during the week doing business, rehearsal, songwriting and production work. We try not to let it become a pressure cooker. Occasionally, there will be a tough deadline to meet with a production piece. If we find we got burned out in the process, we try to take a few days off, clear our heads, go on a several day bike ride, change the channel and re-charge.”
While music is a key part of their life, Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer manage to fit in a range of other things.
“We both love cycling. Marcy’s taken up bread baking. She’s also a fine woodworker and an astronomy nut! I practice yoga, work out some and spend a lot of my ‘free’ time doing volunteer work. I helped found the Maryland Center for Assault Prevention which brings a child assault prevention program to the schools in our area. I also mentor and tutor kids from time to time. And, we’ve both got god-children and a nephew we try to spend a lot of time with.”
Little hands and big hands, there are no two the same/
Hands of every color touching hands of every name/
Hands to play the music and hands to write the song/
Hands that know that hearts can’t live on handiwork alone
_____________________________________________________________________
MORE ABOUT CATHY FINK & MARCY MARXER
Website
www.cathymarcy.com
Selected Discography and Production Credits
All Recordings Produced by Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer unless otherwise noted
* Denotes Children’s Recording
Folk (And More)
Postcards (Community Music, 2002)
Voice on the Wind (Rounder, 1997)
A Parents’ Home Companion (Rounder, 1995)
Banjo Haiku (Community Music, 1992)
Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer (Sugar Hill Records, 1989)
Blue Rose (Sugar Hill Records, 1988)
The Leading Role (Rounder, 1985)
Doggone My Time (Sugar Hill Records, 1984) – Produced by Cathy Fink & Dave Essig
Children’s/Family
Pocket Full of Stardust (Rounder, 2002) *
All Wound Up! With Brave Combo (Rounder, 2001) *
Pillow Full of Wishes (Rounder, 2000) *
Changing Channels (Rounder, 1998) *
Blanket Full of Dreams (Rounder, 1996) *
Nobody Else Like Me (A&M, 1994; Rounder, 1998) *
A Cathy & Marcy Collection for Kids (Rounder, 1994) *
Help Yourself! (A&M, 1993; Rounder, 1998) *
Air Guitar (High Windy Audio, 1993) *
The Runaway Bunny/Goodnight Moon (Harper & Row, 1989) – Cathy Fink, Marcy Marxer, Si Kahn – Tapes of Best Selling Children’s Books
When the Rain Comes Down (Rounder, 1987) *
Jump Children (Rounder, 1986) – Produced by Marcy Marxer *
Grandma Slid Down the Mountain (Rounder, 1984) *
Instructional
Old Time Music Slow Jam (Homespun Tapes, 2001)
Swing Guitar (Homespun Tapes, 1995)
Ukulele for Kids! 1 & 2 (Homespun Video, 1993) *
Kids’ Guitar 1 & 2 (Homespun Video, 1989) *
Making and Playing Homemade Instruments (Homespun Video, 1989) *
Learn to Sing Harmony (Homespun Tapes, 1987)
Cathy & Marcy’s CD Songbook For Kids (Homespun, 1998)
Other Selected Recordings Produced By Cathy and/or Marcy
Tom Paxton – Your Shoes and My Shoes (Red House, 2002) *
Sue Trainor – Under Tables, Out Back Doors (1999) *
Bonnie Rideout – A Scottish Childhood (Maggie’s Music, 1998) *
Si Kahn – Companion (Appleseed Music, 1997)
Bill Harley – There’s a Pea on My Plate (Round River, 1997) *
Grace Griffith – Grace (Blix Street, 1996)
The Great Dinosaur Mystery (DinoRock Productions, 1995) *
Si Kahn – Goodtimes and Bedtimes (Rounder 1993) *
Si Kahn – I Have Seen Freedom (Flying Fish, 1992)
Pat Humphries – Same Rain (Moving Forward Music, 1991)
Critton Hollow – Great Dreams (Flying Fish, 1989)
Patsy Montana – The Cowboy Sweetheart (Flying Fish, 1988)
The Children of Selma – Who Will Speak For The Children? (Rounder, 1987)
Critton Hollow Stringband – By and By (Flying Fish, 1986)
Southwest Revisited (Film Score Composed and Produced by Marcy Marxer, 1990)
Plus 80 Songs for McGraw-Hill’s Whole Language Reading Curriculum, A New View, 1991-1992
_____________________________________________________________________
JUDY SMALL’S TRIBUTE SONG
Thank you Holly, thank you Ronnie, Robyn, Cathy, Alix, Cris/
Thank you Margret, Meg and Peggy, Frankie, Glen and those I’ve missed/
Thank you for the inspiration, thank you for the song/
While there’s music in the movement then the movement’s going strong!/
Judy Small’s song ‘Music in the Movement’ (from her 1995 album, Global Village) pays tribute to “all the women singers and song-writers who have enriched and nourished the women’s movement in the last few decades”. The singers and song-writers mentioned in the song are Holly Near, Ronnie Gilbert, Robyn Archer, Cathy Fink, Alix Dobkin, Cris Williamson, Margret RoadKnight, Meg Christian, Peggy Seeger, Frankie Armstrong and Glen Tomasetti.
Holly Near – hollynear.com
Ronnie Gilbert – American singer Ronnie Gilbert was a long-time member of The Weavers. Her recent releases include The Best of the Vanguard Years (with The Weavers), This Train Still Runs (with Holly Near) and an expanded version of HARP: A Time to Sing! (with Near, Arlo Guthrie and Pete Seeger).
Robyn Archer – Australian performer, writer and director Robyn Archer is currently the Artistic Director of the Melbourne Festival.
Cathy Fink – cathymarcy.com
Cris Williamson – criswilliamson.com
Meg Christian – After retiring from public performing in the 1980s, American singer/songwriter Meg Christian is returning in 2002 to be part of the 30th anniversary celebrations for Olivia Records.
Glen Tomasetti – Australian poet and novelist Glen Tomasetti is also recognised as a collector and performer of folksongs and a writer of topical songs.
_____________________________________________________________________
Sue Barrett is an Australian music writer. She frequently makes Twersky’s Chocolate Applesauce Cake (from a recipe of the late Lori Twersky, co-founder/editor of Bitch: The Women’s Rock Mag With Bite). And now, thanks to Cathy and Marcy and their A Parents’ Home Companion CD, she is planning to make Orange Cocoa Cake.
Copyright: Sue Barrett 2002