I was just getting caught up on the local papers, and I spotted this article. Maryann Price is making an appearance tonight, not far from here. If I’d known sooner, I would have been interested in seeing her.
Who’s Maryann Price? She sang with Dan Hicks and his Hot Licks, a string-and-vocal group I enjoyed a lot back in high school and college. That’s Maryann on the left, and Naomi Ruth Eisenberg on the right. Together they were called, respectfully and not derisively, the Lickettes.
Rather than try to explain them, just give a listen. In the first song, “I Feel Like Singing,” Maryann does the scat bit heard in the left channel. The second song, “I Scare Myself,” features the spine-tingling violin playing of Sid Page.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JUL07/IFeelLikeSinging.mp3,http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JUL07/IScareMyself.mp3]Next, Maryann sings “I’m An Old Cowhand.” Can you tell I like songs with titles that start with “I”? All tracks were taken from the original vinyl disks I loved listening to 35 years ago.
[audio:http://www.dograt.com/Audio/JUL07/ImAnOldCowhand.mp3]Finally, if you read the article at the link above, you know there are recent home videos of Maryann on YouTube. This one includes a bit of her doing “I’m An Old Cowhand.”