Americana Music Magazine – Bluegrass, Roots, Folk, Blues, and Old-Time
The amazing musical collaboration of Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer spans more than 40 years, has resulted in 53 albums and garnered two Grammy awards, among many other accolades (including over 60 WAMMIE Awards for folk, bluegrass and children’s music from the Washington Area Music Association) based on their strong vocal harmonies and mastery of guitar, five-string banjo, ukulele, mandolin, cello-banjo, along with many other instruments. Stylistically, they encompass western swing, gypsy jazz, bluegrass, old-time string band sounds, and contemporary folk, including traditional repertoire and original songwriting. “Well-rounded Americana” provides a shorter description of what they offer their many and varied audiences.
Cathy’s and Marcy’s most recent unique musical endeavor has added a third key performer to the mix. With Chinese hammered dulcimer player, Chao Tian, they have created From China to Appalachia. In 2015, they mentored Chao in the Artist in Residence (AIR) program at the Music Center at Strathmore just outside Washington, D.C. They began collaborating as a way to help Chao overcome the language barrier that made performances difficult for her in the US. “I said well let’s just go do a few small things together…I’ll emcee and you’ll feel how that works…” They continued in this way for a few years, until, “…a couple of years ago,” Cathy says,
They have made a point to highlight the connections between American and Chinese music traditions. When going through tradition Appalachian songs, for example, Cathy says, “We’ll get to a tune, like there’s one on our new album called ‘Kitchen Girl,’ and Chao says, ‘There’s a Chinese tune that sounds a lot like that.’…So we put together a medley of those two tunes.” A TikTok video they made of another similar medley went viral.
Cathy says they think of what they’re doing as “peope-to-people diplomacy.” “This is three people, individuals, with beating hearts, who are sitting there saying, ‘We have a lot in common and why don’t we focus on that?’”