RIP Kathi McDonald

Kathi McDonald passed away on October 3rd. Who? you might be asking. Kathi was the Northwest's own link with ROCK in a big, big way, but I doubt if any of the rock mags mentioned her passing.

Kathi was a member of Leon Russell's circus troupe that supported Joe Cocker on his Mad Dogs and Englishmen tour, she sang with the Stones on the "Exile on Main Street" album, she sat in the Janis Joplin chair with Big Brother and the Holding Company on some of their post-Janis albums --- and much, much more, as they say. She continued recording and performing here in the Northwest, still plugging away at it.

I think there's a fascinating story to be told of performers who were part of the earlier rock 'scene' who managed to continue their careers long after their early peak. I remember talking to a rep from a great (at the time) LP distributor in California and realizing "Crap, I was just on the phone with somebody who was in Big Brother!" or their resident Gram Parsons expert who went on to form his own band AND write a biography of Gram. These guys and so many like them managed to continue to work somehow in the industry they loved, certainly not at the same level as in their youth, but still.

So a tip of the hat to Kathi and the many more like her that had their brief shing moment and carried on. Rock and roll never dies, but sometimes it gets paid by the hour.