When
Lucy Kaplansky was 18 years old, she shocked her neighbors in the Hyde Park area near the University of Chicago when, instead of going to college, she went to New York City with her boyfriend to become a folksinger. Fifteen years later, having become a clinical psychologist as well as a sought-after duet and harmony singer, she made another surprising decision: she gave up her private practice and her position at a New York hospital to pursue a full-time singing career.
Drawn to Greenwich Village in the late '70s by the resurgence of the folk scene, she became a regular at Gerde's Folk City. By 1982, she was a member of the CooP (later Fast Folk) and was featured on nine of the group's "musical magazines," along with
Suzanne Vega,
Shawn Colvin,
John Gorka,
Richard Shindell, and others. By 1983, however,
Kaplansky had enrolled in New York University with the aim of becoming a psychologist. Well known on the folk scene for her crystalline harmonies,
Kaplansky sang harmony vocals on
Nanci Griffith's
Lone Star State of Mind and
Little Love Affairs albums and performed in New York clubs as a duo with
Colvin while earning her Ph.D. from Yeshiva University. But when she and
Colvin attracted attention from record companies,
Kaplansky declined, becoming a staff psychologist at a New York hospital and establishing a private practice while
Colvin recorded her first three albums for Columbia Records.
As a record of what
Lucy had accomplished on the folk scene, and to give
Colvin a chance to try her hand at production, the two collaborated on
Kaplansky's first album,
The Tide, comprising three of
Kaplansky's own compositions and a collection of well-worn covers, including songs by
Richard Thompson,
Sting, and
Robin Batteau. By 1994, when
The Tide was released by Red House Records,
Kaplansky decided to shift gears again and become a full-time touring folksinger. She spent much of the next few years playing the folk circuit of coffeehouses, church halls, and festivals, accompanying herself on guitar and performing in concert with
Shindell and
Gorka. In 1996, Red House Records released her second album,
Flesh and Bone, produced by
Anton Sanko (
Vega's
Solitude Standing and
Days of Open Hand). It includes eight original songs (co-written with
Kaplansky's husband, filmmaker Richard Litvin), as well as duets with
Shindell and
Gorka.
Ten Year Night followed in 1999.
Every Single Day appeared in 2001 on Red House Records, with
Red Thread in 2004 and
Over the Hills in 2007, both also on Red House. ~ Claire Keaveney