Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer

Music without Boundaries

by Mitchell Tropin

Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer are musicians that color outside the lines in many ways. The duo's adult folk CDs refuse to be confined to a single musical category. Their family CDs show that parents and their offspring can laugh at themselves. Their children's discs reject the notion that kid's music must be fluff to be fun.

Fink and Marxer have a full schedule this fall with a new CD and some special concerts planned-all reflecting the duo's no-boundaries attitude. Their latest disc, Postcards, contains songs that "run from the most serious to the most ridiculous, with something jazzy," according to Fink.

The CD features songs from Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Lou and Peter Berryman, who wrote some of Fink and Marxer's most popular tunes, such as "Orange Cocoa Cake." There's a haunting, lesser-known Hank Williams song, "House of Gold," and a waltz written by gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt.

The disc's songs reflect Fink and Marxer's desire to make an album that "remembers the places we've been," Fink explains. "The songs become musical postcards."

Postcards is only a part of what's happening with the duo. Earlier this year they released the final CD in a trilogy of lullaby albums. The CD, Pockets Full of Stardust, follows Pillow Full of Wishes and Blankets Full of Dreams.

Pillow is unadulterated lullabies, while Blanket is bedtime stories. Pockets is all about the idea that kids do not want to go to sleep.

"There's some even down right anti-sleep songs because we recognize that kids need to shake it out of their system," Fink says.

The two musicians met 22 years ago at a folk festival after growing up in different parts of the country and taking different avenues in their musical careers.

Marxer is from a Detroit suburb, the daughter of a minister who would take her to Civil Rights marches all over the country. Growing up hearing the spiritually-inspired music of the movement, Marxer recalls, "I remember feeling the infectiousness of music and seeing how music motivated. People would get together and while the music played, it gave the group strength and made us believe we could do anything."

Fink comes from Pikesville, Baltimore's historically Jewish suburb. She remembers as a little girl wanting to change the world, but her environment did not nurture political activism. Fink began listening to popular folk, but discovered all types of folk music in the1970s when she moved to Montreal, a city enjoying a boom in the genre.

Hearing performers playing traditional songs and remembering the music's roots, Fink saw how much folk music could offer.

"Someone would play 'Freight Train' and would say, 'this is a Libba Cotton song' I could see that all of the music was connected," she says."The music was an eye opener and a door opener. I was thinking [that] there is all this good music, and I want to eat it and drink it."

Marxer was drawn to traditional music, forming an old-time string band, the Bosom Buddies. The band would get together once a week, playing gigs at festivals and bars. She also worked in a music store, demonstrating many different instruments to customers, giving her the chance to learn how they are played.

Marxer's band received a huge break when one of Canada's greatest folk musicians, Stan Rogers, took Marxer and her colleagues under his wing. It was a turning point when playing music became a career.

"Stan came to see us after one of his concerts and then he started getting bookings for the group in Canada," Marxer said. "You go from listening to a performer's albums and then suddenly you are on stage with him."

Rogers gave tremendous support to Marxer and colleagues.

"He would stand on the stage with me after a performance, patting me on the back, going 'you're doing great,'" Marxer said.

Back in Montreal, Fink's music career started when she got a government grant to spend the summer performing at institutions.

"There were 10 of us. We got the seemingly giant sum of $90 a week," she says.

Fink considered enrolling at McGill University, but decided that folk music "was a lot more fun."

After deciding to begin a full-time music career, Fink realized she needed to understand the financial side of performing. That's when she started her "Earn While You Learn" program for musicians, which she continues today.

"I said to myself, 'I'm going to figure how this business works,"' she says. "I'm always learning how to be better at making a living playing folk music."

Fink's formed her first duo with Duck Donald. The twosome did folk and country with lots of humor. Traveling extensively, they played 250 nights a year. During that time, they moved from Montreal to Winnipeg in Western Canada.

The switch to an isolated town did not work out. Fink remembers one May in Winnipeg "watching snowflakes as big as my fist. I thought, 'Enough already!'"

During her touring, Fink had seen Washington and decided it was a place where she could move without having to start from scratch. She came to town on the eve of the 1979 Takoma Park Folk Festival, starting a solo career that took her to the Toronto Folk Festival in July 1980.

It was musical kismet: Marxer's Bosom Buddies were also appearing at Toronto.

After playing a few workshops, Fink and Marxer saw they connected on a number of different levels. They agreed to help each other by doing booking exchanges: Fink would get the Bosom Buddies gigs in Washington and Marxer would get Fink gigs in Michigan. They also found festivals where they could perform together.

Marxer left the Bosom Buddies and formed a duo with Fink. The change opened the way for Marxer to play more instruments. Her versatility is clear on the new CD-on the opening track, "Fool's Gold," she plays 15 instruments.

Marxer gained something else with Fink: the support that she first found from Stan Rogers.

"If I want to stretch creatively as far as I can, Cathy encourages me to step even further," Marxer says.

A special part of Fink and Marxer's career has been their relationship with Tom Paxton, one of America's great folksingers. Fink met him just after her performance at the 1978 Philadelphia Folk Festival. As she walked offstage, standing there was Paxton, who extended a hand and said he wanted her to meet his wife and two children.

"I'm totally delighted that 24 years later, we are very good friends and do a lot of work together," Fink says. "We do as many shows together as we can."

Fink and Marxer produced Paxton's latest CD for kids, Your Shoes, My Shoes.

Last summer, Fink attended a folk music camp in Asheville, N.C., where Paxton was teaching a songwriting workshop.

"He discussed the importance of rewriting-not just finishing-the song," Fink said.

That piece of advice gave her the help she needed with a song she had been working on for some time-"Survivors of the Storm," one of the gems from Postcards.

"Tom worked with me on rewriting the song using e-mails-a process that worked beautifully," Fink said.

With Paxton writing the lyrics and supporting her, Fink focused on reworking the melody.

"Survivors" has important meaning to Fink. The song was written about a project close to her heart, the Metropolitan Center for Abused Children (M-CAP).

Fink is a co-founder of the center, along with Joanne Levin. M-CAP strives to improve the quality of children's lives by reducing their vulnerability to assault and victimization through prevention education. Founded in 1994, M-CAP last year reached more than 20,000 children and their families in the greater Washington area. Fink said she has become so emotionally attached that she needed to write a song for the center.

Another facet of Fink and Marxer's career is their children's music, which contains equal helpings of fun and learning. Maintaining this balance is an important aspect of their work.

"We looked at the kids' albums that were out there and we decided that if we were going to continue recording for kids, there needed to be a reason to do it, other than put more stuff out there," Fink said.

Each kids' CD has a theme. Fink and Marxer have addressed building self-confidence ("Help Yourself"), diversity ("Nobody Else But Me"), and media-savvy kids ("Changing Channels"). The last one looks at how kids can bring conflict resolution skills to a world filled with violent media.

Although the songs have a purpose, the duo makes sure their kids' CDs entertain.

"It's gotta be fun or it ain't gonna hang," Fink says. "But just because it's fun, doesn't mean it doesn't have 'nutrition,'" she says.

Halfway between the adult folk and kids' CDs, Fink and Marxer have their family albums. The most recent one, A Parents' Home Companion, combines real life with humor and features songs about the contrary behavior of the daughters of feminists, a father's unquestioning pride in his son, and not using inappropriate language in front of one's mother. Songs such as "Are We There Yet?" are from both the parent's viewpoint and the child's viewpoint.

"Older kids love the songs about how they torture their parents," Fink says.

Many of Fink and Marxer's CDs, including Postcards, are available on their own Takoma Park-based label, Community Music, Inc.

And if that wasn't enough, Marxer exercises her creative muscles by composing and performing music for National Geographic documentaries.

"The producers just call and say, 'we need Japan and India,'" she says.

From there, she will craft world-beat music, performing on a wide variety of instruments, such as flutes, hand drums, steel drums, and string instruments.

Fink and Marxer have some special concert dates this fall and winter. They will be appearing at this month's Takoma Park Folk Festival, where they are a mainstay attraction. They are also having a CD release party for Postcards on Oct. 14, being presented by the Institute of Musical Traditions at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Silver Spring.

They will hold their annual family holiday concert on Dec. 7, at the NOAA Auditorium in Silver Spring. Special guest Ella Jenkins, "the first lady of children's song," will make a return visit. The truly legendary Jenkins is one of the first performers to play music for young children everywhere, Fink says.

"It is an honor to share a concert with her again."

At the end of December, Fink and Marxer continue a relatively new tradition for them: their Hank Williams tribute concerts. They held the first six years ago, intending it as a fun way to make music with friends.

Since then the concert has grown so big that one night is not enough.

The concerts will be held Dec. 28 at The Ram's Head in Annapolis, Dec. 29 at the Birchmere in Alexandria, and Dec. 30 at the Court Square Theater in Harrisonburg, Va. Also performing is Bill Kirchen, formerly of Commander Cody; Robin & Linda Williams; and Lynn Morris and her terrific bluegrass band.

With various CD projects, workshops, festivals, and concerts, Fink and Marxer always seem on the move.

"The preparation is constant and the business part is relentless, but the payoff is there," Fink says. "Folk music allows you to do positive things in your community."

Recalling her childhood desire to make a difference, she says, "perhaps I am changing the world, one song at a time."

For Marxer, "the music gives me the chance to stand up in front of 500 kids in a room full of ecstatic joy. When there is a community of people enjoying the music, I can't imagine anything that's better."

Visit Fink & Marxer's website (www.cathymarcy.com) to see some postcards from their extensive travels. For more information on M-CAP, visit www.mcap.org