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Lucy Kaplansky started out singing in Chicago folk music clubs as a teenager. Then, barely out of high school, she took off for New York City. There she found a fertile community of songwriters and performers—Suzanne Vega, Steve Forbert, The Roches, and others. With a beautiful flair for harmony, Lucy was everyone’s favorite singing partner, but most often she found herself singing as a duo with Shawn Colvin.Convinced that her calling was in another direction, Lucy left the musical fast track to pursue a doctorate in Clinical Psychology. Upon completing her degree, Dr. Kaplansky took a job at a New York hospital working with chronically mentally ill adults, and also started a private practice. Yet she continued to sing. Lucy was often pulled back into the studio by her friends, (who now had contracts with record labels) wanting her to sing on their albums. Then Shawn Colvin—who was itching to produce a record—hooked up with Lucy, her ex-singing partner. They went into the studio, and when Lucy’s solo tapes got into the hands of Bob Feldman, president of Red House Records, he was blown away. Suddenly, Lucy was back in the music business. She signed with Red House Records and started playing gigs.
In 1998, Lucy teamed with Dar Williams and Richard Shindell to form supergroup Cry Cry Cry, and recorded some of their favorite songs written by other artists. The resulting album, Cry Cry Cry, was an astonishing success in stores and on radio.
In 2010, Lucy joined up with acclaimed singer-songwriters John Gorka and Eliza Gilkyson to record an album as part of new folk supergroup, Red Horse. Awash in gorgeous harmonies and stripped down production, the album features the singers performing each other’s songs. Red Horse received rave reviews and was the number one album on Folk Radio for several months in 2010, and the trio were interviewed on NPR’s “Weekend Edition” with Liane Hansen and appeared on NPR’s “Mountain Stage.”
In January 2025, Lucy released her tenth album, The Lucy Story, a collection of mostly unreleased tracks that form a kind of retrospective/history of her musical life, from her bedroom at age 16, all the way to major venues, clubs and recording studios across the U.S. and Europe. The collection of songs on The Lucy Story grew out of Lucy’s life in that world and reflects the combustion of music and energy of those times, as well as showcasing the astonishing breadth of Lucy’s vocal artistry, in songs that range from jazz to bluegrass, from traditional and contemporary folk, to country and pop. The album includes songs by Richard Shindell, Robbie Robertson, Townes Van Zandt, John Lennon, Lyle Lovett and Jack Hardy, and features live recordings with some of Lucy’s favorite collaborators.
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2020 Addison St, Berkeley, CA, United States, California 94704
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