About Marcy

Marcy Says

I grew up playing music with my family and friends in Detroit, Michigan.  I started playing the guitar when I was 5 years old.  My Grandmother, Florence Kohnke(1899-1981) was a Barrel House Blues piano player who also played the hits of her generation and anything else anybody wanted to play.  She also played the hammered dulcimer and played for dances given by Henry Ford.  Grandma was in touch with the musical “groove” and personality of Detroit from an early age.   Some of my favorite memories are of my Grandma K. playing the piano slowly while I tried to keep up with her on the guitar.

Her mother, my Great Grandmother, Mary Bennett (1882-1964) was a fiddler who played at parties and dances from the Detroit area to the Chicago area.   I still remember her playing Redwing and Golden Slippers in the kitchen while I danced around in circles wearing a tutu.  Grandma Bennett had other special talents, too.  She kept a special drawer full of homemade cookies.  She was a hero!

How did I start playing for kids and families?

I played the guitar and sang at an assembly for my school when I was 12 years old.  It went well and I knew what I wanted to do with my life.  The songs were “Michael Row the Boat Ashore”, “This Land Is Your Land”, “Swing Low Sweet Chariot” and “Study War No More” from Pete Seeger’s book “American Favorite Ballads” and “The Marvelous Toy” by Tom Paxton.

Playing for kids is still going well and I still love the energy of a concert hall full of kids and parents having fun and connecting through music.

There will always be a special place in our hearts for kids who need any kind of help.  Cathy and I love to play music for special needs kids, kids in hospitals and kids in other special situations.  These kids deserve our attention, respect and understanding.  There is no work that is more rewarding.