Kate MacKenzie
Kate MacKenzie is a singer and pianist. She studied classical piano until she was 12. Her early influences included Hazel & Alice, Ola Belle Reed, Doc Watson, Jean Ritchie, Patsy Cline, and the Stanley Brothers. She sang lead for fifteen years with the upper Midwest bluegrass band Stoney Lonesome, which recorded six albums, toured Japan and North America, and appeared on the PBS series Showcase. She first appeared on A Prairie Home Companion with Stoney Lonesome in 1981 and became a regular guest, both as a soloist and as a member of the Hopeful Gospel Quartet with Garrison Keillor and Robin and Linda Williams. The quartet recorded a live album at Carnegie Hall and appeared on Austin City Limits, and she produced its album Climbing Up on the Rough Side. With Prairie Home Companion, she toured and appeared on Disney Channel broadcasts and the 1993 Book of Guys tour. Her solo album Age of Innocence (1996) was nominated for a Grammy Award, and Let Them Talk spent ten months on the national bluegrass charts. She describes her mix of bluegrass with blues and honky-tonk as "swamp grass." She stopped touring in 2000 and moved to Oregon. In 2021 she returned to recording with MacKenzie Adkins.