Cathy
Ponton
King
plays
Telecaster guitar, BLUES, ORIGINAL MUSIC, jazzy blues, 'Nawlin's
music and SWING, Rock 'n Roll/rhythm and blues and sweet ballads.
She was born in Washington DC and attended the University of
Md. and earned her degree in Journalism, and subsequently worked
at ABC news after college, before making the decision to put
journalism on the back burner as the call to sing, write and
perform music was overwhelming.
Over
the years she has played at many events, clubs, outdoor concerts,
great blues festivals, (such as Springing the Blues in Jacksonville
Florida for 20,000 attendees, and the BlueBird Festival in Largo
Maryland with such greats as Little Milton and the Holmes Brothers)
-and the band plays all kinds of venues: festivals and clubs,
receptions, corporate events, parties, city festivals, and many
outdoor summer shows at theatres.
While
a student at University of Maryland Cathy met Muddy Waters several
times at his concerts backstage and Cathy learned to love his
style of playing guitar and passionate vocals. Her friends the
Nighthawks brought her backstage for many shows and she always
enjoyed his warmth and friendliness and the way he performed
so commandingly on stage with deep deep blues.
Later
she got the chance to open for Albert King's band at the Wax
Museum in Washington, once a large concert venue, and he called
her on stage to sing with his band. She also opened for blues
greats Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Earl King, Bo Diddley, Willie
Dixon, Son Seals, Paul Butterfield, Roomful of Blues(with Ronnie
Earl on guitar),Marcia Ball, Sonny Landreth, the late Clarence
Gatemouth Brown, and Buddy Guy.
At the time Cathy was launching her own music career, many of
these giants of blues were older and most of them have passed
on now. Her education and learning in the style and family feeling
and affection with these musicians, has left her with indelible
memories and love for the musicians and their music and the
sacrifices they made for the music, and she got to meet and
socialize and learn and get to know this passing generation
at a time when their careers were ending, and hers was just
beginning. Fortuitous timing.
Cathy
performed a set at the Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival , which
was headlined by Mavis Staples and the Steve Cropper band. Her
band has played the Kennedy Center "Open House" festival,
the Kennedy Center Millenium Stage Series , she's played the
Wolf Trap jazz and blues festival with Keb' Mo', and Richard
Thompson Band; she's done concerts at Carter Barron Amphitheater,
played the Cape Charles Blues Festival with Bobby Blue Bland
and Bo Diddley, performed at ARTSCAPE Baltimore in fall 2001
-billed along with Ray Charles and Etta James; played the Merriweather
Post Pavilion Wine Festival, the Tinner Hill Festival in Falls
Church , Va., and many concerts with the late great guitarist
Bobby Parker, whose last concert was with Cathy at Bethesda
Blues and Jazz Supper Club before his untimely death in October
of 2013.
Cathy
has three CDs of original blues, swing, rockabilly and beautiful
ballads.
World renowned Blues guitarist Jimmy Thackery played guitar
on her first, "LOVIN' YOU RIGHT", and he returned
again on her latest, "THE CRUX" which also features
the great Ronnie Earl on lead guitar, as well as the late great
legendary bassist Butch Warren (who played bass with Miles Davis,Herbie
Hancock, and Thelonious Monk) as a guest bassist on two of Cathy's
original compositions. Her CDs are played from coast to coast
on various radio stations such as WWOZ in New Orleans, WRFG
in Atlanta, WMNF Tampa, and of course her hometown blues and
jazz station WPFW in Washington DC. Many blues DJs around the
world feature Cathy's music such as "Drivin' Home with
the Blues" in Cairns, (northeast coast) of Australia with
Irene Barrett, ROOTS General De Wittestraat 1, a blues program
in Belgium-and 'Blues and Friends' www.baarnfm.nl, With BERTWIN,
in the Netherlands, and Italy's Simon Bargelli - www.radiorcc.com
On each of her CDs, Cathy has written the songs along with her
songwriter producer husband Jeff King. A new EP was released
in 2013, which is also all original songs with Cathy harmonizing
with four Washington DC blues women singers, on "THAT'S
WHEN A WOMAN CALLS THE BLUES BY NAME", and a DUET with
the great legendary singer Joe Triplett , on "FAMOUS LAST
WORDS".
Cathy
and her husband Jeff live in Vienna Virginia and continue to
write and record and her band is in demand for all kinds of
music festivals and events for the soulful and high energy show.
Cathy's set features a mix of her love of traditional blues,
mixed with her swing, and ballads and rock and roll upbeat songs
which brings the dancers to their feet.
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Review from Spanish Bluesman, musician
and DJ Vincente Zumel, of "THE CRUX": 2013 Review
MUY BUENO. Third album in the career of
this wonderful singer and guitarist called Cathy Ponton King,
this time, with the valuable collaboration of guitar players Ronnie
Earl and Jimmy Thackery, to round up a delicious work based on
blues and ballads. You will also find the good work of jazz and
fusion bass player Butch Warren, an effective hard musician, who
gives strength and a fine texture to the songs "Sweet Change
To My Heart" and "Little House In The Country".
All the selected material has been written by Cathy herself, who
has been involved for more than twenty years in the music business.
As she has not done so much work in studio till now, this new
album is even more welcomed. "The Crux" also includes
some great musicians, like saxo player Ron Holloway, a genuine
versattile musician, whose fruitful career places him as one of
the best actual saxo players. Less well known Bill Starks on piano
and Antoine Sanfuentes on drums, show a good virtouso technique
at their instruments too. In short words, this is a good album
that will drive you along the long and winding roads of blues,
with very pleasant feelings. VERY GOOD.---"La Hora del Blues"
Radio Show from Barcelona (Spain)
REVIEW OF "THE CRUX"
- TONY DEL REY, Boston Blues Society
The quick-tempo, boogie-woogie hum of "I'm
Just A Woman" has a wired feel, while the laid-back groove
of "Bridges That You Burned" finds its charged brilliance
in Ron Holloway's saxophone clarion call. Even a relaxed chug-along
like King's elementary "Blues Companion," can't help
but build to a propulsive swing as it heads to the fade.
Serving as the album's fulcrum, however, are its ballads. The
trio of gems that King bequeaths to her listeners is unabashedly
ripe with feeling. "Cerulean Blues," "Tattoo On
My Heart," and "Sweet Change To My Heart," all
bear the scars of King's anguish, the suffering blood that flows
within those who have found love, only to lose it.
Nowhere does emotion run deeper than on "Tattoo," where
King's gorgeous leap to falsetto at the song's refrain, "It's
four o'clock in the morning," carries with it all the despair
that one heart can stand. Who hasn't been there?
Clearly, The Crux deserves to be applauded as much for its emotional
resonance as its stellar musicianship. The effort King has put
forth stands on its own merit as a living, breathing entity. The
only "crux" involved in the matter is the concept of
a blues album built on pure expression of feeling rather than
a fusillade of fast wrist-work. And that's something to cluck
over. -2012 Review of CD "THE CRUX"
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BLUES MUSIC magazine: Sept. 2013
1st edition, www.bluesmusicmagazine.com
CATHY PONTON KING -The CRUX Long Gone Records
Cathy Ponton King, a female vocalist
and guitarist and 20 -year veteran of the blues and bar scene
in and around Washington DC, and Baltimore, has teamed with long
time musician friends to create a fresh slate of compositions
that affectionately embrace the blues and balladry.
"SUGARFACE", the earthy punch initial track on THE CRUX,
hgas a nice melody, solid instrumental parts, guitar, horns, rhythm
section. Contrast that with the graceful "Cerulean Blues",
which possesses a
literary quality and imagery not often achieved by those who strive
for it.
THE
CRUX's ambitious tableau deserves a complimentary frame, that's
what King has wisely constructed for us here. Ronnie Earl plays
guitar for her on several tracks, and Jimmy Thackery(a friend
since grade school), mans the frets for most of the others. Dan
Hovey and Dave Chappell -- celebrated in this region, if not beyond,
offer their guitar artistry to the effort as well. Saxman extraordinare
Ron Holloway, who's worked with Dizzy Gillespie, Susan Tedeschi,
Derek Trucks, Root Boy Slim, elevates the discourse just that
much more.
A
nice little Cajun-style two step, called "I Want You to Be
Happy", finds Tom Corradino stitching the song together with
his piano accordian. Supplying the Bottom are two of the finest
bassists available in this or any region, John Previti ( who worked
with the departed "Master of the Telecaster", Danny
Gatton, and the late songstress Eva Cassidy). Then there's the
renowned bassist Butch Warren. He's recorded with jazz piano colossi
Tommy Flanagan, Herbie Hancock, and Joe Henderson; trumpeters
Donald Byred and the mystic Miles Davis, and the reedman Dexter
Gordon Jackie McLean, Stanley Turrentine and Joe Henderson. Name
Dropping? Well yes. But these names are of a heft that, when dropped,
like E.F. Hutton,
the musical conversation stops.
I do have one slight grouse, not of King's doing. Too often she's
been portrayed as another Bonnie Raitt (presumably because she
sings and also plays a guitar. DUH). That's not an apt comparison.
Her voice lacks Raitt's range and sonority (which can be said
of many a vocalist). King knows her comfort zone, however, and
she stays within it; her sensibilities and presentation achieve
a bluesy style worthy of a larger footprint than she already enjoys.
She (along with husband Jeff King), writes sophisticated blues
music, she delivers it honestly , proudly, and
gracefully. -- written by M. E. Travaglini
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