\

Article on Cathy in a BRITISH
BLUES MAGAZINE interview - Issue Feb. 2022
By Blues Broadcaster Ian McKenzie

[READ ARTICLE]

 


CATHY'S LIVE RECORDING NOW AVAILABLE ON SMITHSONIAN FOLKWAYS LABEL

An album Cathy Ponton King was part of (Blues Compilation) has been acquired by the Smithsonian, Cathy's version of "TORE UP" -- Recorded live at "CITY BLUES" club in Washington DC.

Wayne Kahn, the owner of Right On Rhythm label in DC, recorded the artists on this CD, which is now available through the Smithsonian FOLKWAYS RECORD LABEL.

To purchase the CD or just Cathy's song, click here!

 


"If you love American music, then this book cannot be missed and deserves a place in your book library"

from Vincente Zumel, Blues DJ and harmonica player
and now Author in Spain.

There's a section included on Cathy Ponton King







 

BLUESERAS, ROCKERAS, SOULERAS ...

365 Reseñas Discográficas: Un Disco Para Cada Día Del Año

By Vicente Zúmel

(In Spanish)
Editorial Lenoir
Año 2020
22 €



It is a tribute and homage to all women who, with their musical art, contribute to spread African-American music

Some of the women who are mentioned in the book pages are well known, some other ones are less known, but they all love what they play and give the best of themselves to perform and sing the blues and American music with passion and commitment.

Here comes a book totally devoted to the great work that 365 women have done and do in blues music.

You can order it asking directly to the publisher at:

https://www.lenoir.es/blues/2958-blueseras-rockeras-souleras.html

Happy to have this new song on CD baby for sale; sharing proceeds with CANCER CAN ROCK.

Great organization that pays for artists facing cancer to go in the studio. I love the way this turned out. It's very hopeful and a song about resilience. The musicians were the top notch guys in DC and beyond. Jim Ebert, produced and did keyboards and even sang some. My husband Jeff, a producer in his own right, was also there for arrangements and backup vocals.

I hope people go find this on CD Baby and purchase and be inspired. 1st time I've tried a download only single......

Happy to share this news, with you, my friends and loved ones and music folks out there.....
New song available on CD Baby.com. Thank Jim Ebert producer ... from Cancer Can Rock. Great band "NO FRICTION, NO FIRE" Proceeds donated to CCR. Buddy Speir, Mike Melchione, guitars (wow).Eric Scott, bass, Andy Hamburger, drums. Sean Russell the magic at CUE in Falls Church. Great artwork from CINDY KUNST - if you look closely, you'll see a HEART that formed in nature - in the embers.

Jeff's eye caught that and we flipped the image to put the heart on top.

We always play and record with heart.

Buy a copy, dazzle for the ears. I wrote this song about overcoming and resilience. BEAT CANCER!

TO PURCHASE: PURCHASE CD through SOULSPEECH@HOTMAIL.COM


CURTIS POPE, ANTOINE SANFUENTES, MIKE MELCHIONE, CATHY PONTON KING
JOHN PREVITI, RON HOLLOWAY, SAM PALADINO


 

 

 

Photo Credit: Larry Benicewicz

 


Bobby Parker with the Cathy Ponton Band


Sorrow for the loss of a great guitarist and BLUES GUITAR LEGEND BOBBY PARKER, my friend (who just did a show with my band Oct. 5th at the Bethesda Blues and Jazz Supper Club) who died suddenly of a heart attack at the end of October - He has gone to rhythm and blues heaven.

Not enough words to express my appreciation for his kindness and generosity to me, and respect for his great accomplishments. The photo of myself with Bobby Parker's band was at Adams Morgan Day, a huge street festival in Washington. He was kind to sit in with my band on several occasions and including our theatre show Oct. 5th.

God Bless and rest you Bobby Parker!

------------------------------------------------------------------


------------------------------------------------------------------


New EP/CD - "QUARTET / DUET"

Produced by Jeff King
Recorded, Engineered, & Mastered by Scott Shuman
at Shuman Recording - Falls Church, VA

* * * * * * *

$10 plus $2 postage and handling


TO PURCHASE CD: Click here!

------------------------------------------------------------------

"QUARTET / DUET"

It's two original songs I wrote and invited some fantastic singers in to harmonize with me. 1st song is with my great singing girlfriends, Sista Pat, Mary Ann Redmond, and Caz Gardiner. It's four women testifying the blues.

"That's When a Woman Calls the Blues by Name"

Second song is me in a duet with the great Joe Triplett - for years his smooth soulful voice led the Rossyln Mountain Boys. It is called, "FAMOUS LAST WORDS" - Gut wrenching country/blues with soulful piano by Bill Starks.

~ Cathy ~

 

------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 



A big thanks to BAARN FM for playing Cathy Ponton King in the Netherlands! Love you Madly!


Many thanks to Ms Irene R Barret for featuring me way down under on Cairns FM 89.1 - Made my day! - CK

Visit the Cairns FM 89.1 Website!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

BACK TO TOP OF PAGE

 

 
Web Counter
Since Nov 3, 2009

www.cathypontonking.com © 2009 - 2024
Website Design by Crawdaddydave™ - All Rights Reserved

 

 

REVIEW: The Crux

BALTIMORE BLUES SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
JUNE 2012

FAIRFAX VA based singer and guitarist Cathy Ponton King has been flying beneath the radar for well over
two decades despite a heavy work schedule (a longtime fixture at Madams Organ and now Flanangans
Harp & Fiddle in Bethesda, Md).

Perhaps in the past this lack of public perception could be blamed upon a
paucity of significant recorded output -- her first CD, LOVIN YOU RIGHT came but in 1993, her
"message in a bottle", which actually proved durable and had a long shelf life.

But now there should be no more excuses for her lack of renown in the blues community after having released the acclaimed UNDERTOW in 2007 and the brand new THE CRUX, the latter especially, which should go a long way to rectify this recognition issue. Maybe she's not quite yet a household name locally but King has absolutely no problem being the featured artist on the airwaves in far off Australia or Argentina and furthermore, doesn't have to twist arms to engage blues legends such as (in this case) guitarists Ronnie Earl and Jimmy Thackery, sax stalwart Ron Holloway, and ex-Herbie Hancock and Thelonious Monk bassist Butch Warren, all who generously contributed their time to see this project through to its fruition.

And yet another feather in Ms. King's cap is her ability to both attract and maintain a great supporting cast of musicians, including erstwhile Danny Gatton and Big Joe Maher bassist, John Previti ,drummer of five years, Antoine Sanfuentes (whose day job is NBC news DC bureau Chief) and the virtuoso pianist Bill Starks, a treasured member of King's group for
over 20 years.

At least two of the reasons that King's catalogue of albums is relatively limited for her long time spent immersed in the blues are both her insistence on perfection in the studio and that the selections be original compositions (with extremely few covers). Moreover, what she writes is memorable, derived from intensely personal but universal experiences which translate into confessional feeling ballads. "Naturally, I'm inspired to write from what life lays before me but also the tiniest phrase may set me off to write" she said in an interview. And while well versed in the blues (having been inspired by and weaned on the music of Muddy Waters, Albert King, and Willie Dixon), she proved again in THE CRUX that you don't have to play standard 12 bar blues to be considered a blues singer (although she's very capable of executing some of the authentic gut bucket variety if the occasion demands).

When I asked Ms. King why she chose the title, THE CRUX, for this undertaking, she mentioned that
this CD represented the word in all its definitions, including, "an essential or deciding point" or
"crossroads", whereby she could thereafter take the positive course or she could try to take bull by the
horns, so the speak, to surmount a "difficult problem" at that juncture of her life. And amazingly enough,
THE CRUX, for the most part is indeed a concept album (remember them?) ---unified by the idea of
shouldering on, or rising above, a bleak or negative situation that someone of her mature perspective
is bound to encounter just by enduring long enough on this earth.

And the key words throughout this endeavor are "loss" or "change", be it dealing with or overcoming
the death of someone , personal (possibly unspecified career) setbacks, or a relationship
turned sour. For example, in the achingly heartfelt, "Tattoo on My Heart", King ambiguously mourns
the passing perhaps of a close friend (the song is dedicated to late jazz chanteuse and mentor,
Clea Bradford), or of a lover --gone but not forgotten (the name metaphorically etched).

In "Cerulean Blues", King wishes to divest herself of her many cares and woes and throw them
in the deep blue sea and start anew. In the rollicking "Blues Companion", King wants to begin afresh
with a new love and is ready to go wherever he(or the road) takes her.

And in the zydeco infused (courtesy of the accordian work of Tom Corradino) "I Want You to Be Happy",
King acknowledges that life is too short for sorrow and she must find a way to stay upbeat and strive with all her might to let the good times roll.

Three of the four songs which conclude the CD, the deep bluesy "Sweet Change to My Heart", the funky
"Bridges that You Burned", and the melancholy "I'm Suffering", are thematically joined by the notion
that whatever untoward had transpired before, a new love would be able to both heal and be one's
salvation.

And this "new love" might take the form of the joys of a new found tranquil , bucolic existence versus
the petty annoyances of the grimy, noisy city life left behind in the breezy, jazzy,
"Little House in the Country".

So, THE CRUX, is about all but coping. As King, with longing and anticipation in her heart, expresses
in "Sweet Change to My Heart", she's sailing and moving on to distant happier shores.

And somewhere beyond that sea, better days, she swears, will be coming. It's a message of hope.

And in these troubled times, it's something we sure can use a little more of.


~ Larry Benicewicz ~
Baltimore Blues Newsletter, June 2012


Chesapeake All Music Guide
- May 2008
Artist: Cathy Ponton King / Title: UNDERTOW / LABEL: LONG GONE


Undertow is a showcase for Cathy Ponton King's talent and versatility as a singer/songwriter. Taking credit for eight of the 12 tunes on the album, she offers up a varied selection of hard driving rock, easy listening adult contemporary and a little jazz, all carried out with equal aplomb. One moment she's rocking as hard as she can, as she does on the rousing Little Bridge," and "Champagne Days are Over," a couple of horn-driven rockers, and the next she's in adult contemporary mode with "Can't Let You Walk Away" and "Let Me Be the One…"

~ Read Full Review ~

______________________________________________________________________________

Blues Arts Studio - Review of "Undertow"
Artist: Cathy Ponton King / Title: UNDERTOW / LABEL: LONG GONE

It's hard enough to create a new album even when you've got all the time in the world. For Vienna, VA-based singer/guitarist Cathy Ponton King, it's been particularly a struggle, actually a labor of love five years in the making wherein she's had to make time nearly each night for this endeavor while juggling the roles of working mother and career woman-not to mention frequent entertainer. "It was like giving birth," she says. But knowing Cathy, it's always been a matter of quality rather than quantity.

~ Read Full Review ~

______________________________________________________________________________

Blues Revue Magazine - April/May 2008
Cathy Ponton King / Undertow / Long Gone Records


Cathy Ponton King's 1992 debut, Lovin' You Right, was a stylish, stirring effort replete with excellent tracks like "Sweet, Sad and Lonely" with fine guitar work by Jimmy Thackery, the disc successfully announced Ponton King as a talent to watch… Her second disc finally has arrived, 15 years later, in the form of the sharp, moving Undertow. Despite her long absence from the studio, Ponton King hasn't been idle.

~ Read Full Review ~

______________________________________________________________________________

Washington Post Review of “Undertow”

CATHY PONTON KING “Undertow” Long Gone - Friday, January 25, 2008


Horns riffing, piano pumping, organ grinding - Cathy Ponton King's latest collection of original songs opens with the gospel-fueled shouter "Little Bridge." Its brassy jubilance stands out, thanks to several Washington-based musicians, but its spiritual tone foreshadows many of the songs to come, including the piano ballad "Let Me Be the One" and the soul groove "Comfort and Blessings."

~ Read Full Review ~

______________________________________________________________________________

Bluesville Magazine

Translation of a Dutch review from Bluesville, an online Americana blues music magazine

~ Read Full Review ~

______________________________________________________________________________


www.cathypontonking.com © 2009 - 2024
Website Design by Crawdaddydave™ - All Rights Reserved