Lucy Kaplansky

Lucy Kaplansky (born 1960) is a folk musician. Originally from Chicago, at the age of 18 she moved to New York City, where she became involved in the city's Greenwich Village folk music scene. In 1983, she decided to become a psychologist, enrolling in Yeshiva University. She continued playing music while completing her PhD, and began to have some success as part of a duo with Shawn Colvin. However, when they began to attract record company interest, Kaplansky declined, choosing instead to set up a private practice and become a staff psychologist at a New York hospital. For several years, she concentrated largely on her work, and played little in the way of concerts. However, she still did some session work, such as singing backing vocals in the studio for Suzanne Vega. By the early 1990s she found herself increasingly drawn back to music. Colvin, who by this time had experienced some commercial success, offered to produce an album for her. The result, The Tide, a mixture of her own songs and several covers, was released by Red House Records (Greg Brown's label) in 1994. At this time, she decided to give up her psychology practice, and return to music full-time. She released her second album, Flesh and Bone, in 1996. In 1998 Kaplansky joined with Dar Williams and Richard Shindell to form the folk group Cry Cry Cry, which made an album and toured extensively as a result of the success of the original six week tour. 1999's Ten Year Night won rave reviews and boosted her popularity, leading to performances on CBS-TV. She followed that album in 2001 with Every Single Day. The Red Thread, released in early 2004, includes songs about adopting her new daughter Molly, who Lucy and her husband Rick brought home from China in late 2003, and several songs relating to her experiences living in downtown Manhattan during 9-11. In 2007 she released her latest album Over The Hills.