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Kathy Larisch and Carol McComb -- both of whom sang and
played guitar and autoharp -- began singing together in their high school
years in Vista, California, about 40 miles north of San Diego. As esteemed
folklorist (and New Lost City Ramblers multi-instrumentalist) John Cohen's
liner notes on the original LP pointed out, Joan Baez was a major early
influence on the duo. McComb also cites folk musician Michael Cooney
(for whom Kathy & Carol often opened) as an influence on her guitar
style, and names Gene Autry, Pete Seeger, and Peggy Seeger as other
early favorites. The two worked the Southern Californian folk circuit,
opening for the likes of the New Lost City Ramblers, Bill Monroe, Taj
Mahal, and Phil Ochs, often at the Ash Grove in Los Angeles.
The key step in getting them onto the Elektra music roster,
however, took place when they drove up to the Berkeley Folk Festival
in mid-1964, where Baez -- whom the pair had previously met -- ran into
them after they played at the Bear's Lair on the Berkeley campus. Baez
recommended them to Elektra music producer Paul Rothchild, who invited
them to do a demo session in Burbank on the way back to San Diego. Soon
Elektra president Jac Holzman confirmed that the label wanted to cut
an album with them, and Larisch and McComb went back into the studio
with Rothchild around late 1964 or early 1965 for the sessions that
resulted in Kathy & Carol.
The album was released shortly before the 1965 Newport Folk Festival,
where Kathy & Carol performed Richard Farina's "A Swallow Song,"
a composition he'd specifically sent them to do. The 20-year-olds also
had a ringside view of the stage for Bob Dylan's famous electric rock
set at Newport that year, and took advantage of the trip back East to
play a few gigs, including some at Cambridge's fabled Club 47, where
lines stretched around the block. It was one of the few times they played
outside of California; other than that Eastern swing in the summer of
'65, McComb only remembers traveling outside the state for gigs in Tucson,
Arizona (where a young Linda Ronstadt opened for them) and Jackson Hole,
Wyoming.
For reasons that do not remain entirely clear nearly 40 years later,
however, the live Newport version of "A Swallow Song" (eventually
issued on the CD compilation Folk Music at Newport Part 1) would be
the only other Kathy & Carol track ever released.
Kathy & Carol never recorded for Elektra again. Some subsequent
recording for the small Folk-Legacy label didn't result in a release,
in part because the label was reluctant to let them step outside the
traditional folk world with their new original material and some of
the country songs they were covering (though they were continuing to
add traditional material to their repertoire as well).
Kathy and Carol -- who never did play with electric instruments or other
musicians on stage, -- went separate ways by the end of the '60s, when
Larisch decided to pursue a master of fine arts degree in the San Francisco
Bay Area.
Carol McComb has continued to be an active performer and recording artist
to the present day, playing and touring with Mimi Farina in the early
'70s; releasing several solo albums; scoring films; touring and recording
with the Gryphon Quintet; and authoring a country and blues guitar instruction
book (for more information on her work, check her website, www.carolmccomb.com).
Kathy Larisch retired from professional music, and is now associate
professor at California College of the Arts, though she and Carol have
sung together informally on occasion.
The California Autoharp Gathering marks Kathy & Carol’s reunion
as performers together on stage. We welcome this historical event with
our distinct pleasure.
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