California Autoharp Gathering

Kathy Larisch

Kathleen 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 them. 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. Kathy adds Tex Ritter and The Everly Brothers to the list. The two worked the Southern California folk circuit, opening for the likes of the New Lost City Ramblers, Bill Monroe, Taj Mahal, Phil Ochs, and Sonny Terry/Brownie McGee, 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 the Bears Lair on the Berkeley campus. Baez introduced 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 in 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 Farinas “A Swallow Song”, a composition Farina wrote specifically for them. 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 the lines stretched around the block. It was one of the few times they played outside of California. Other than that Easter 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 otherKathy & Carol track ever released.

Kathy & Carol never recorded for Elektra again. Some subsequent recording for the small Folk-Legacy label did not 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 Kathy decided to pursue a master of fine arts degree in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Kathleen Larisch is now Associate Professor at The California College of the Arts, teaching in the textile and printmaking departments. In addition she maintains her studio practice and exhibits her work in painting.

With the re-release of the original Kathy & Carol album on CD with Collectors Choice Music in 2004, and the renewed outside interest it generated, Carol McComb and Kathleen Larisch are singing and performing again with great pleasure. They are reworking old material, adding new songs, both traditional and contemporary, and experimenting with other acoustic instruments. This is their third visit at the California Autoharp Gathering, which staged their reunion concert in 2005. This year has also included appearances at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley, CA, participation in the Adams Avenue Roots Festival in San Diego, CA, and at the Mt. Laurel Autoharp Gathering in Pennsylvania.

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