Ladies Chain

Heather McLaughlin on clarinet & Tom McCurry's Orchids
Northampton, MA
Heather clarinet & Tom's orchids

September 26, 2010

Mary Lea • Heather McLaughlin • Barbara Stack • Karen Simon • Donna Grossman
June 13, 2009, Northampton, photo by Tom McCurry

Mary Lea • Bonnie Blair O’Connor • Heather McLaughlin • Barbara Stack • Karen Simon • Donna Grossman
June 1978

Summer, 1977: Cape Breton, Nova Scotia: Heather McLaughlin and Donna Grossman. Barbara Stack photo.

December 8, 1978: Near the beginning there was the Threshold Benefit. Heather's copy.

9/8/1977, Daily Hampshire Gazette, These Ladies have a Chain of their own..., by Laura Barr

Just nine months ago. each woman was making music individually while pursuing her own non-music career; only two of them knew one another.

It was at a contradance sponsored by the Valley Women's Union in Northampton that the seven came together for the first time last February. "The people affiliated with the union wanted an event," recalls Ms. Lea. "They brainstormed and called musicians that they knew."

The seven met, practiced, and then played for the union 's women-only contradance. Subsequently. they were invited to join together again. this time to play at a benefit for Pat Sackrey. an area resident who was going to China as a delegate for the U.S.-China People's Friendship Association.

Members of the group cannot remember exactly when they decided to organize formally as a band. but sometime in between the first two engagements they became an entity.