Lisa Kindred (1940 – November 11, 2019) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

folk Folk or Folks may refer to: Sociology *Nation *People * Folklore ** Folk art ** Folk dance ** Folk hero ** Folk music *** Folk metal *** Folk punk *** Folk rock ** Folk religion * Folk taxonomy Arts, entertainment, and media * Folk Plus or Fol ...

and

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

. Kindred, born in 1940 in

Buffalo, New York Buffalo is the second-largest city in the U.S. state of New York (behind only New York City) and the seat of Erie County. It is at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of the Niagara River, and is across the Canadian border from South ...

, was a figure in the Greenwich Village and

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston, ...

folk scenes of the 1960s. She played with

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...

Dave Van Ronk David Kenneth Ritz Van Ronk (June 30, 1936 – February 10, 2002) was an American folk singer. An important figure in the American folk music revival and New York City's Greenwich Village scene in the 1960s, he was nicknamed the "Mayor of Mac ...

and other legendary folk singers, and was mentored by guitarist and songwriter

Fred Neil Fred Neil (March 16, 1936 – July 7, 2001) was an American folk singer-songwriter active in the 1960s and early 1970s. He did not achieve commercial success as a performer and is mainly known through other people's recordings of his material&n ...

. She performed at the

Cafe Wha? Cafe Wha? is a music club at the corner of MacDougal Street and Minetta Lane in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. The club is important in the history of rock and folk music, having presented numerous musicians and ...

Club 47 Club Passim is an American folk music club in the Harvard Square area of Cambridge, Massachusetts. It was opened by Joyce Kalina (now Joyce Chopra, Chopra) and Paula Kelley in 1958, when it was known as Club 47 (based on its then address, 47 Moun ...

The Bitter End The Bitter End is a 230-person capacity nightclub, coffeehouse and folk music venue in New York City's Greenwich Village. It opened in 1961 at 147 Bleecker Street under the auspices of owner Fred Weintraub. The club changed its name to ''The Ot ...

and other venues.Golden Gate Grooves - Issue 11
''The Golden Gate Blues Society Quarterly'', Johnny Ace & Cathy Lemons, October 2011. Retrieved December 23, 2018. In that extraordinary musical era in the Village, she was influenced as well by visiting blues greats such as

Mississippi John Hurt John Smith Hurt (March 8, 1893 – November 2, 1966), better known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer and guitarist. Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself to play the guitar around the age of nine. He w ...

and

Skip James Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James (June 9, 1902October 3, 1969) was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter. AllMusic stated: "This emotional, lyrical performer was a talented blues guitarist and arranger with an impressive ...

and legendary jazz pianist/composers

McCoy Tyner Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938March 6, 2020) was an American jazz piano, jazz pianist and composer known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet (from 1960 to 1965) and his long solo career afterwards. He was an NEA Jazz Masters, NEA ...

and

Thelonious Monk Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", "B ...

. Kindred's debut album, ''I Like It This Way'', was released on

Vanguard Records Vanguard Recording Society is an American record label set up in 1950 by brothers Maynard and Seymour Solomon in New York City. It was a primarily classical label at its peak in the 1950s and 1960s, but also has a catalogue of recordings by a n ...

in 1965. Her second album was to have been released on Vanguard in 1966 under the title ''Kindred Spirit'', but the master tapes were stolen and delivered to

Mel Lyman Melvin James Lyman (March 24, 1938 – March 1978) was an American musician and writer, and the founder of the Fort Hill Community, which has been variously described as a family, commune, or cult. Early life Lyman grew up in California and Ore ...

, a musician in the backing band and soon-to-be leader of the Mel Lyman Family. The album was only released four years later on

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

Reprise Records Reprise Records is an American record label founded in 1960 by Frank Sinatra. It is owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Warner Records, one of its flagship labels. Artists currently signed to Reprise Records include Enya, Michael ...

under the aegis of the Lyman Family, titled ''American Avatar - Love Comes Rolling Down''. The album cover showed a picture of Lyman, not Kindred. That was Kindred's last album on a major label. She became a long-time fixture on the

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

bar scene, appearing on occasional compilations and two self-released albums, ''Steppin' Up In Class'' (2003) and ''Blues and Beyond'' (2013). In 1966, she organized and was the lead guitarist and singer with the UFOs, an

avant-garde The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...

, all-female, rock band. It also featured Ann Sternberg, Diane Tribuno and Lorry Stanton. She and the other members were interviewed by

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was the first America ...

for the 1967 documentary, Inside Pop: The Rock Revolution, which also interviewed

Graham Nash Graham William Nash (born 2 February 1942) is an English musician, singer, songwriter, photographer, and activist. He is known for his light tenor voice and for his contributions as a member of the Hollies and the supergroups Crosby, Stills ...

Brian Wilson Brian Douglas Wilson (born June 20, 1942) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, and record producer who co-founded the Beach Boys. Often called a genius for his novel approaches to pop composition, extraordinary musical aptitude, and m ...

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American musician, composer, and bandleader. His work is characterized by wikt:nonconformity, nonconformity, Free improvisation, free-form improvisation, sound experimen ...

and from Herman's Hermits, singer

Peter Noone Peter Blair Denis Bernard Noone (born 5 November 1947) is an English singer-songwriter, guitarist, pianist and actor. He was the lead singer "Herman" in the 1960s pop group Herman's Hermits. Early life Noone was born in Davyhulme, Lancashir ...

. In the 1967 movie, ''The Love-Ins'', the group performed their song, ''Hello World''. Kindred formed and led the

Haight-Ashbury Haight-Ashbury () is a district of San Francisco, California, named for the intersection of Haight and Ashbury streets. It is also called The Haight and The Upper Haight. The neighborhood is known as one of the main centers of the counterculture ...

band Ascension, featuring lead guitarist Debbie Olcese and Kindred on rhythm guitar. Kindred played and sang for many decades at the Saloon in North Beach in San Francisco and other venues. She sang on the 2009 album, ''Stu Blank and Friends,'' which included

Charlie Musselwhite Charles Douglas Musselwhite (born January 31, 1944) is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the white bluesmen who came to prominence, along with Mike Bloomfield, Paul Butterfield, and Elvin Bishop, as a pivotal f ...

and

Tommy Castro Tommy Castro (born April 15, 1955, San Jose, California, United States) is an American blues, R&B, and rock guitarist and singer. He has been recording since the mid-1990s. His music has taken him from local stages to national and internation ...

.Live from the Majic Lamp
2009. Retrieved December 23, 2018. In 2013, after co-producing it over four years with keyboardist Austin deLone, and joined by Dennis Geyer, Willie Riser and Dick McDonough, she released ''Blues and Beyond.'' San Francisco Chronicle music critic

Joel Selvin Joel Selvin (born February 14, 1950) is an American San Francisco-based music critic and author known for his weekly column in the ''San Francisco Chronicle'', which ran from 1972 to 2009. Selvin has written books covering various aspects of p ...

, though not given to effusiveness, took the occasion to describe her as a "bona fide blues queen who sings like one of the greats." In addition to her decades-long contributions to the folk and blues community in her home in

Mill Valley Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 census. Mill Valley is located on the western and ...

Marin County, California Marin County is a County (United States), county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and ...

, and her many gigs at the

Sweetwater Music Hall Sweetwater Saloon was a bar and music venue located at 153 Throckmorton Avenue Mill Valley, California, with a 30-year history of live musical performances by the likes of Bonnie Raitt, Elvis Costello, Jerry Garcia, The String Cheese Incident, Jo ...

and other local venues, she has made civic contributions as well, directing the city's juvenile play program and worked for years as a teacher's aide at Park School.Lib at Large: At 71, blues singer Lisa Kindred has recorded her masterpiece
''

Marin Independent Journal The ''Marin Independent Journal'' is the main newspaper of Marin County, California. The paper is owned by California Newspapers Partnership which is in turn mostly owned by MediaNews Group.

'', Paul Liberatore, February 1, 2018. Retrieved December 23, 2018. Kindred died in

San Rafael, California San Rafael ( ; Spanish language, Spanish for "Raphael (archangel), St. Raphael", ) is a city and the county seat of Marin County, California, Marin County, California, United States. The city is located in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), ...

on November 11, 2019 at the age of 79 from

POEMS syndrome POEMS syndrome (also termed osteosclerotic myeloma, Crow–Fukase syndrome, Takatsuki disease, or PEP syndrome) is a rare paraneoplastic syndrome caused by a clone of aberrant plasma cells. The name POEMS is an acronym for some of the disease's ...

Discography

*1964: "New Folks Volume 2" (

Vanguard The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. History The vanguard derives fr ...

) *1965: "I like it this way" (

) *1966: "The Lyman Family with Lisa Kindred: American Avatar Love Comes Rolling Down" (

) *2009: "BBQ Blues - Live from the Majic Lamp" (Jackalope Records) *2012: "Lisa Kindred Band: Steppin' Up in Class" (The Saloon Recordings) *2013: "Blues and Beyond" (Floating Records)

References

External links

Lisa Kindred official website
* ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afU76JJcquI Inside Pop: The Rock Revolutionbr>Lisa Kindred sings with Blues Power at Nitro Tribute at SlimsBlues and Beyond - Keep on Rockin'Get Out Of My Life Lisa Kindred & Friends at Art House gallery, Berkeley, California July 14, 2018
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kindred, Lisa 1940 births 2019 deaths American women singers American blues singers American folk singers Musicians from Buffalo, New York Singers from New York (state) People from Marin County, California People from Mill Valley, California 21st-century American women