Kathi McDonald

Kathi McDonald

Person from United States

Genres: blues rock, blues, soul, rock, female vocalist

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About Kathi McDonald

Kathi McDonald (born Kathryn Marie McDonald on 25 September 1948; died 3 October 2012) was an American blues and rock singer and songwriter. As a teenager she sang with different bands around the Pacific Northwest before she was discovered by Ike Turner. She sang as an Ikette with Ike & Tina Turner and eventually succeeded Janis Joplin as the front woman of Big Brother & Holding Company. McDonald became a background vocalist for various artists, including Leon Russell, Joe Cocker, The Rolling Stones, Freddie King, and Long John Baldry. She recorded as a solo artist and fronted her own band Kathi McDonald & Friends. McDonald grew up in Mt. Vernon, Washington, where her passion for music flared early on. She began singing professionally at the tender age of 12 in clubs around the Seattle area. She had her first real brush with stardom at 19, when she was invited to audition as the lead singer of what was to become Big Brother & the Holding Company by none other than storied music promoter Chet Helms, often referred to as the Father of San Francisco’s 1967 “Summer of Love”. While McDonald hitchhiked her way down the coast from Seattle, a young Janis Joplin beat her to the audition and snagged the gig for herself. McDonald stayed in San Francisco when, on one chance night, while attending an Ike & Tina Turner concert at the fabled Fillmore West, as she remembered in a 2009 interview*: "I was about eight months pregnant. […] When they were doing 'River Deep Mountain High,' I sang a part I'd memorized from the record. Ike heard me and said he wanted to see me in the back after the show. I thought he was pissed and that I'd embarrassed myself in front of one of my biggest influences. But he said he wanted me in the studio the next day. I said, 'OK, I'm there.' After that, I did all the backup work for three and a half years. I was the Ikettes in the studio. They had the girls onstage and they had the studio Ikettes, and that was me." McDonald would spend the following three and a half years performing as an Ikette for the beloved Rock ‘n’ Roll act. During this period, she honed her vocal craft and learned the art of live performance, touring practically non-stop and even recording backup on their acclaimed 1970 record, Come Together. She took only 10 days off to return home to have her baby daughter, Erin, before jet setting back to Las Vegas to continue performing, newborn child in tow. It was on tour with Ike & Tina Turner that fellow-Ikette Claudia Lennear invited McDonald to join her on Joe Cocker’s hit 1970 tour. McDonald ’s soulful sound proved a perfect match for the famed British Rock and Blues performer. Her vocal talents were featured throughout the celebrated live album, Mad Dogs and Englishmen, which commemorated the tour. Following the tour, songwriter and fellow Mad Dog, Leon Russell, asked McDonald to perform on his 1971 album, Leon Russell and the Shelter People. She went on tour with the act, as well, for three and a half months, before returning to Russell’s Tulsa, Oklahoma, estate. When Janis Joplin left Big Brother and the Holding Company in 1968 to form her new Soul-inspired backup group, Kozmic Blues Band, McDonald was asked to replace the timeless singer as lead vocalist, touring with the cavorting Blues ensemble, as well as delivering performances on several records, including Be a Brother in 1970, How Hard It Is in 1971, and the later released Can’t Go Home Again. As a result of her stints with Joe Cocker, Leon Russell, and Big Brother and the Holding Company, McDonald's renown began to grow, and she was soon in high demand by other major recording artists of the time. She performed on Elton John’s Tumbleweed Connection in 1970. In 1971, McDonald contributed to Delaney and Bonnie’s To Bonnie From Delaney, Rita Coolidge’s eponymous debut album, as well as Freddie King’s Getting Ready, and in 1972, she recorded on Dave Mason’s Headkeeper, as well as on “All Down the Line” and “Loving Cup” on the Rolling Stones’ electrifying double album, Exile on Main Street. In 1974, McDonald recorded her debut solo album, Insane Asylum, with Capitol Records. Featuring an illustrious line-up of musicians, including the unforgettable Sly Stone on the opening track; Nils Lofgren, Ronnie Montrose, and Neal Schon on guitar; Aynsley Dunbar on drums; Pete Sears on bass and keyboards; as well as the incomparable Pointer Sisters on backup vocals and the Tower of Power on horns, McDonald ’s compelling Blues record earned considerable critical acclaim and experienced great success in Japan. Soon after completing her Insane Asylum tour, McDonald found the opportunity to audition for British Blues singer Long John Baldry, setting off on what was to become a decades-long musical relationship with the celebrated artist. Baldry came up singing in Blues bands in England throughout the early 60s, performing with other would-be greats of the time, like Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, and Brian Jones in Alex Kroner’s Blues Incorporated, as well as with Rod Stewart, Julie Driscoll, and Brian Auger in Steampacket and later with Elton John in Bluesology. Kathi and Baldry toured together for over 20 years. Their 1980 interpretation of “You’ve Lost that Lovin’ Feelin’” was a smashing success, going gold in Canada and Australia, where they were first released, and gaining considerable popularity in the US, as well. In the 90s, McDonald once again pursued her solo career with Save Your Breath (101 North Records), released 20 years after her debut album. Like Insane Asylum, Kathi’s second solo record garnered the attention of critics and music-insiders alike. Shortly thereafter, McDonald joined the Merrimack Records label, entering a collaboration that would see some of the most rousing, swinging, heartfelt music of her long, unbelievable career. In 1997, she worked with singer and guitarist Nick Vigarino on The Ghost of Time, a swaggering, sultry Blues record, which featured an all-star ensemble of Rock, Blues, and Jazz musicians, including guitarist Robben Ford, keyboardist Brian Auger, bassist Nathan East, drummer Ralph Penland, and saxophonist Hollis Gentry III. Kathi’s sizzling performance on the Blues anthem, “Yardbird” was certain to rattle the walls and set loose the floorboards on every listen. McDonald followed in 1999 with her third solo record, Above & Beyond, also for the Merrimack label. On this singular Blues album, Kathi evoked the power and soul of other female greats before her, like Etta James, Billie Holiday, and Bessie Smith. Delivering a vibrant vocal range, growling in one song and belting to the rafters in the next, Kathi dazzled listeners on a slew of original numbers – like “A Soulful Prayer” and “Don’t Give Up on Me”, written by Rob Carmichael and producer Joe Melnikas, as well as “Chicken Today Feathers Tomorrow”, which Kathi had composed 20 years prior while performing in the Roots Rock community. She likewise blew audiences away with gusty interpretations of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ “I Put a Spell on You” and Donovan’s “Season of the Witch”. Later in the same year, McDonald contributed to two albums by the Seattle Women in Rhythm & Blues, Back Porch Gossip and We Are Not Good Girls, both recorded on the Joe Records label. The Washington Blues Society also recognized her with several awards for Best Female Vocalist and added her to its Hall of Fame roster. Following her rash of success in 1999, McDonald would go on to make two more records: the eponymous Kathi McDonald in 2003 and On with the Show, by Kathi McDonald & Friends, in 2010. McDonald died, suddenly, on October 3, 2012, in Seattle, at the age of 64. ________________ *Liberatore, Paul. “Kathi McDonald Solidifies Her Legacy as Rock ‘n’ Roll Survivor.” Marinij 13 Aug. 2009: Web. Accessed 4 Nov. 2013.

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