RIP Mary McCaslin

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 22 Oct 2022 6:12 am

So sad to read of Mary McCaslin's death. I loved all her early albums and performed her version of "Don't Fence Me In" for years. Incredibly voice and guitar work. She was adopted as a baby and only in later life did she find her birth mother and discovered she was Native American. Mary always had a craving for a forgotten "west" that no longer exists. Ironic to find out she was a native american the whole time.

Doug Beaumier · Post by **Doug Beaumier** » 22 Oct 2022 6:19 am

Winnie Winston played pedal steel on at least one of Mary’s albums, and back around 1994-95 Mary sang on Winnie’s set at the PSGA show in Norwalk CT.

Joachim Kettner · Post by **Joachim Kettner** » 22 Oct 2022 6:26 am

Very sad. I like the record Doug mentioned.

Dana Blodgett · Post by **Dana Blodgett** » 22 Oct 2022 12:14 pm

https://youtu.be/ulHQY4ivRak

I like this version …

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 22 Oct 2022 3:55 pm

Thanks for posting - I missed this, but she passed on October 2. One of my favorites of all the folkies, ever. Her voice was so plaintive and emotive, and it was all obviously natural. Her songs and voice evoked a different time and place, and she fit in that landscape.

She was very popular in New England, at least back when I was living there. I would catch her whenever I could when she played at places like Club Passim in Cambridge or the Iron Horse in Northampton. Sometimes with Jim, sometimes solo. I saw her at UMass Amherst once while I was in grad school in the early 80s. There was a radio show Sunday afternoons on the UMass FM station WMUA called Country, Blues, and Bluegrass (CBB RIP) that featured her regularly - I also seem to recall she broadcast live when she played there that time.

RIP Mary.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 28 Oct 2022 11:36 am

This was the first tune I ever heard from Mary:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n011lIChInM

RIP.

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 28 Oct 2022 11:44 am

I had all those early albums and she influenced a lot of my song choices early on when I was a "singer songwriter" folk singer And then like so many influences of our youth, I lost touch with her and her career. But her voice takes me back to an important part of my life: when Ramblin' Jack Elliott represented a viable career path to a recent graduate. For 15 years, from 1970 to 1985 or so, everything seemed possible and folk music was everywhere.