Kathy Barwick
Kathryn Ann "Kathy" “Brad” Barwick (died 2025) was a guitarist, banjo player, Dobro player, mandolinist, and bassist from Sacramento, California. She played bluegrass, Irish, and folk music for more than 40 years. She took piano lessons as a child, learned folk guitar at Girl Scout camp, and studied five-string banjo with Allen Hendricks. She graduated from Foothill High School and Sacramento State University and began performing in 1970. In 1989 she was a founding member of the all-woman bluegrass band the All-Girl Boys, with Chris Lewis, Mary Gibbons, Carolyn Cirimele, and Debby Cotter. She also played in Mountain Laurel, the Avocado Brothers, and, from the early 1980s, the Mike Justis Band. She toured one summer with Bill Grant and Delia Bell. She later performed and recorded as a duo with Pete Siegfried, and the two made three albums and toured Ireland three times. Her solo album In My Life features John Reischman, Roland White, Mary Gibbons, and Keith Little. She was a regular columnist for Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, and 53 of her columns were collected in a book. Acoustic Guitar featured her crosspicking technique in January 2012. Her career with the State of California focused on helping industries reduce toxic waste. After retiring, she moved to Grass Valley. She died in 2025 at age 71, and she was survived by her husband, Jon Hartley Fox.
In the newsletter
Wrote
- Classified Ad (No. 2)
- “ESTROGEN JAM” MATERIALIZES AT OWENSBORO 1994 (No. 2)
- Role Models Are Important (No. 21)
- WIBLETS: Thoughts on Flatpicking (No. 22)