By: Bill Bronson

Cathy Richardson Live Photo: Bill Bronson

Cathy Richardson, with guest Anne Harris, played an intimate set Friday night at the venerable Skokie Theater, a great venue to see this very personal set.

Cathy has been making fans with her amazing voice, guitar playing and songwriting in Chicago, and around the world, since the ‘90’s. During that time, Cathy’s career has taken many paths including:

• Writing and performing on 7 self-released CDs.

• Fronting The Cathy Richardson Band.

• Starring as Janis Joplin in the Off Broadway show “Love, Janis”

• Touring with the original members of Big Brother and The Holding Company

• Taking on the Lead Singer role for The Jefferson Starship on recent and upcoming concerts

• Her latest hard rocking musical endeavor The Macrodots

Cathy is talented and hardworking to say the least

Joining Cathy on stage was another Chicago based talented-musician, Anne Harris, a musician with almost as many irons in the fire as Cathy.

Including:

• Writing and performing on five Anne Harris CD’s

• Live Concerts With her band

• Touring with Trance Blues Legend Otis Taylor

• Playing with Cathy as part of The Cathy Richardson Band and The Macrodots

These partial lists of work for Cathy and Anne should give you some idea of the creativity and musicianship one of their concerts delivers.

They delivered Friday night when Cathy’s pure voice and Anne’s soaring violin combined on songs like “Overwhelmed” off of the album Delusions of Grandeur, or my favorite “If I Could” off the Macrodots record The Other Side, you can’t help but be moved.

Cathy’s in-between-songs banter and stories are conversely funny and poignant. One particular story had Cathy waking up in New York on the verge of landing a major label contract on 9/11/2001. Needless to say this twist of fate did not bode well for the contract.

Cathy will usually drop a Janis or Starship-Airplane song into the mix and Friday night it was an a cappella, sing-along version of “Mercedes Benz,” very tasty with full audience participation. Another great live Cathy Richardson show, if you get the chance to see this talented songstress live don’t pass it up, check her out!

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Photo Gallery

Cathy Richardson and Anne Harris Live Photo: Bill Bronson

Anne Harris Live Photo: Bill Bronson

Cathy Richardson Live Photo: Bill Bronson

Anne Harris Live Photo: Bill Bronson

Cathy Richardson Live Photo: Bill Bronson

Anne Harris Live Photo: Bill Bronson