Mary McCaslin, Folk Singer Who Lamented The Lost Old West Dies at 75
From Wiki : McCaslin met singer-songwriter Jim Ringer in 1972, and began performing with him. They married in 1978, and as a duo released the album The Bramble & the Rose. They moved to San Bernardino, California. McCaslin separated from him in 1989. Ringer died in 1992 after a long illness, and McCaslin provided the liner notes for a retrospective album of his songs: The Best of Jim Ringer.
McCaslin was busy with family matters for most of the 1980s, finally releasing a new album, Broken Promises, in 1994. She died from progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), a rare neurological condition a form of Parkinson's that can cause problems with balance, movement, vision, speech and swallowing.
McCaslin, who also played banjo and ukulele, was self-taught, and her open guitar tuning — tuning the strings to sound like a specific chord, as Joni Mitchell did — distinguished her guitar playing.
“While Joni’s tunings were more jazz-inflected,” said Mitch Greenhill, president of Folklore Productions/Fli Artists, who managed Ms. McCaslin and her first husband, the folk singer Jim Ringer, starting in the mid-70s, “Mary’s went the opposite way. They were more angular, more Celtic sounding. And she always put the tunings on her albums, which aspiring musicians always appreciated.”
Tunings are a never-ending hole of possibility. especially if you don’t limit it to western 12-tone standards.
Now we have mentioned guitar tunings before and I am a fan of trying different tunings so this came as a revelation, Mary has the most haunting voice and her guitar playing is exceptional and of great interest to folk like me!
Check this out . . .
Way Out West - Mary McCaslin
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