Cathryn McGill

This was published in the New Mexico Breeze June 19, 2009

Cathryn McGill

If you attended the Women's Voices concerts presented by the New Mexico Jazz Workshop (NMJW) at the Albuquerque Museum on June 12 and 13, you would have seen and heard Cathryn McGill, with her braided hair, belting out her songs. She was the producer of those concerts and the Women's Voices concerts for the past five years, and has decided that now is the time to pass on the job to someone else. Every year the concert had a different concept, but it was always about creating a chemistry between the musical participants. This year it was especially about creating community. Both the audience and the musicians felt it. This has become a signature event for the NMJW, and attendance exceeded the break-even point, financially.

If you didn't see her at Women's Voices, you might have encountered Cathryn when she was an Albuquerque city government employee. She graduated in 1983 from the University of Southern California with a major in Public Administration, and came to Albuquerque the next year. She worked for the city in the Risk Management Department and Parks and Recreation. At the Convention Center she was in charge of entertainment events.

Later, Cathryn was Development Director (fundraising) at the Albuquerque Rape Crisis Center. She produced another New Mexico Diva concert, the SaVi Fair (Sisters Against Violence Initiative) as a benefit in 2004. A compilation CD featuring the Divas was sold at the concert.

During this time Cathryn was always acting and singing. She was president of the Vortex Theater. Then "actress who sang" became a vocalist—she hasn't done live theater in a while. Recently, she made a decision to quit her "day job," and make music primary in her life.

Cathryn released two CDs this year, performing a multi-media concert on April 10 to celebrate. The CDs, "From the Inside" and "I'm On My Way," were many years in the making, but her mother's death was the impetus for finally getting them out to the public. She wanted to honor her mother's legacy as well as her own art.

Cathryn grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma, the fourth of five children. After her father left the family, her mother returned to school and became a teacher, so she would be able to raise her children as a single mother. During the time that mom was in school, the grandparents stepped in to take care of the kids.

The two influences that inspired Cathryn as she was growing up were the importance of education and spirituality. Her CD, "I'm On My Way," draws on this in order to be inspirational and express her philosophy of life. It's composed of songs that she sings in her appearances around the country at non-denominational New Thought churches, that is, churches that teach that if you change your thinking, you can change your life. She had been raised a Baptist, but found that she couldn't conform to the norms dealing with scripture because her performing often took her to bars and nightclubs. She feels that now she is a better Christian. In the Albuquerque Center for Spiritual Living she an completely be who she is. She traces every good experience back to being part of this church, which is a social group as well as a spiritual center.

"From The Inside" is a collection of songs she wrote about her life experiences, songs about relationships, both good and bad. One specifically honors her mother.

Cathryn has been working closely with guitarist Larry Mitchell, who won a Grammy in 2007 for his producing talents. But still she didn't finish her CDs. Then she met John Rangel, jazz pianist. They understood each other musically. John encouraged her do she could finish her CD. He posed the question about what would she want to do about music? Does she want to be the kind of musician she envisioned? John and Larry co-produced her second CD.

The CD was part of Cathryn's long range plan is to start traveling again with church appearances for her music ministry. She had booked dates for Seattle and Portland, so she needed a new product to go with her performances. That gave her a sense of urgency and a deadline. She goal is to combine music and motivational messages about a sense of personal responsibility. As she explains her philosophy, she readily quotes from John Milton, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the Bible. She hopes to be able to counter the message that we get from mainstream media that everything is horrible with the message that we still have everything we need, and incorporated that thought into a song she wrote with Stu McAskie, pianist.

Before concluding the interview, I asked Cathryn if there was anything special in her home that she'd like to show me. She walked over to the piano and took up a worn LP record album by Harry Belafonte, proudly showing me the inscription and autograph he wrote for her. She had spent an afternoon with him a few years ago, interviewing him for the Perspective. She thinks of him as her ideal man, describing him as sexy, a social activist, spiritual, intelligent, talented, drop-dead gorgeous even in his golden years, and rich, using his money to help others.

I knew that Cathryn has pages on Facebook and MySpace, so I asked her what her thoughts were about these forms of social media. She's very much in favor of them because of the immediacy of communication, speaking of viral marketing and guerilla marketing, that is, a free form of marketing useful for when you don't have a lot of money. It's based on who you know. She uses Facebook to let people know where she's performing. Again quoting the Bible, "Wherever two or three are gathered, I will be in their midst," she said that Facebook is a place where there are six degrees of separation between people.

Cathryn can be seen performing with some of the New Mexico musicians at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-lFMZNWCHc. Another video is at www.youtube.com/watch?v=FhLzAExxCu8. The same videos, plus some song tracks, can be found on her MySpace page, http://www.myspace.com/cathrynmcgill.

Cathryn's New Mexico appearances this summer include Taos Plaza July 2, NMJW's Jazz Under the Stars at the Albuquerque Museum on July 18 (with Larry Mitchell on guitar), the New Mexico Jazz Festival in Old Town on July 24, and Santa Fe Stages on August 3. In September, she'll be singing at the Aid and Comfort Gala to benefit AIDS services. She'll also be performing at private parties. Appearances in Seattle and Los Angeles are also planned this summer.

Joan is a freelance writer as well as a prize-winning photographer, and has a degree in
psychology, with a private psychotherapy practice. Her writing includes professional
publications, memoir, and essays. She has an idea for a novel, that she is just starting. She volunteers with the New Mexico Jazz Workshop, which allows her to see concerts for free.