How times change.
When singer-songwriter Lucy Kaplansky left high school a couple of decades ago, she moved to New York City and fell in with an immensely talented group of songwriters: Suzanne Vega, John Gorka, Bill Morrissey, Cliff Eberhardt and Shawn Colvin.
| 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Tractor Tavern, 5213 Ballard Ave. NW, Seattle; $14, $16; 866-468-7623. |
“It was my version of being on campus … I had no idea at that point how unusual that was, to have so many major talents in one place,” Kaplansky said.
“I was heavily influenced by the people around me. I learned a lot about being an artist.”
These days, Kaplansky is heavily influenced by her 3-year-old daughter Molly Fuxiang, a Chinese girl adopted by Kaplansky and her husband, Richard Litvin.
Kaplansky performs a solo concert of rock, folk, country and pop music Saturday in Seattle. Her “Every Single Day” work was awarded Best Pop Album of 2002 by the Association for Independent Music.
Although a New York Times critic wrote that it was “easy to predict stardom for her,” Kaplansky traded the stage for the classroom, earning a doctorate in psychology. She worked with chronically ill adults, and started a private practice.
But the love for music didn’t disappear.
She continued to sing on other songwriters’ albums, including Colvin’s Grammy-winning “Steady On,” and earned commercial credits, including “The Heartbeat of America” for Chevrolet.
Singers who request her voice for their albums are attracted to her unusual style of harmonizing.
“I like to make it more interesting. I heard Emmylou Harris say that harmony is really a second melody. I like to think I add a second melody.”
Finally, she walked away from psychology and returned to a full-time music career.
“It feels like music is so essential a part of me, so intrinsic to who I am (that) I don’t think I’ll go back to psychology. My heart was not fully in it. I loved my patients but the work wasn’t my passion. I’m hoping that this is my last career move.”
On the home front, she and her husband adopted Molly and life – including songwriting – changed.
“The main thing is that I’m doing a lot less of it (songwriting). It’s really been much harder to have the time and energy. So much energy is going into being a mom. She’s little so sleep is at a premium for me.
“But the world is a richer place with Molly. I can’t imagine her not affecting me as a writer.”
About halfway through the adoption process, Kaplansky heard of the red thread concept.
“It’s an ancient belief in China that when a baby is born, she’s connected to everyone she’ll ever know by an invisible red thread that stretches or tangles but never breaks.”
When Kaplansky wrote a song about the concept, she was actually writing about her mother (“The Red Thread”).
“Then my daughter showed up in the song and she hadn’t even showed up yet in my life. But my husband and I feel like this little girl was meant to be our daughter.
“It’s inconceivable that she wouldn’t have been our daughter … she’s so much our girl, such a perfect fit with us, that (the red thread concept) must be true.”
Later she realized that her latest album (“The Red Thread”) “was about red threads, about becoming a mom, becoming parents, a little about our connection to other New Yorkers in the wake of 9/11 … about connections.”
Lucy Kaplansky performs Saturday in Seattle.
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