Inspired to jumpstart her music by Big Bill Lister, Boerne resident Katherine Dawn leads the all-female Texas Ladybugs. The band will play for their EP release party at Alamo Springs Cafe on Saturday, June 12.
Details:
The Texas Ladybugs EP release party will be at Alamo Springs Cafe on Saturday, June 12 from 7 to 10 p.m. Katherine Dawn appears there the second Saturdays of each month. Information at www.txladybugs.com or www.alamospringscafe.com.
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Katherine Dawn & The Texas Ladybugs
by Phil Houseal
June 9, 2010
She got her artistic roots from the Texas Hill Country; her stage experience from her neighbor; her musical influence from Delbert McClinton, Dolly Parton, Michael Jackson, and Leon Russell.
But the name for her all-girl band came from country music legend Big Bill Lister.
“Bill Lister nicknamed me ‘Ladybug,’” she said. “He said I was his ‘Lucky Ladybug.’”
Not long after her longtime mentor, friend and guide died last December, she had a dream that “changed her life.”
“I dreamed that he and I sat in my living room, playing music and having a conversation. I was wondering what I would call my band. He looked straight at me and said, ‘The Texas Ladybugs.’ I woke up in a cold sweat and said, I’ve got to do this now.”
Katherine Dawn had no idea who would be in the band, or what it would sound like, but she knew it was going to happen. Within 10 days she had run into enough fellow female musicians to call a meeting. Eight showed up, and she ended up with a six-piece all-female group.
Katherine Dawn is true to her roots. She moved to Boerne when “The Quarry” was really a quarry, and could only talk to me on the phone after the horses were fed. She has played and sang since she was 4 years old, when she used to stand in front of the TV playing guitar and pretending she was Dolly Parton. She can’t remember not doing music.
“It took me a while to realize not everybody sings, writes, and plays an instrument. I didn’t know that that is just part of deal down here.”
One of her neighbors was Ginnie Lawrence, an accomplished performer. She made her a big, thick book with every country song written out. At age 13, Katherine Dawn started playing weekends with Lawrence in the Antlers Bar and Restaurant in Boerne, backing her up on vocals and guitar.
“That set me apart at a really young age.” She was probably the only teenager in Texas who had a hardship license that allowed her to drive to the bar and back home.
That other prominent neighbor - Big Bill Lister - took an interest in her career from an early age. Lister was a pioneer in country music. In 1988 he dug out an old acetate that another country singer had given him. It turned out to be There’s a Tear in my Beer sung by Hank Williams. Hank Jr. overdubbed it and released it as a hit record the next year.
It was Lister who inspired Katherine Dawn to embark on her latest musical journey. Back in the 1990s, Katherine Dawn “pulled away” from music and tried to get a “real” job - becoming a hairdresser and opening a salon. She still performed with other musicians, but was not cultivating her own career. She quit one band in the parking lot.
“I was miserable at it. I didn’t really know what I was at that time,” she said. “I would go visit with Bill, have lunch, sit and ponder the whole mess. I had been telling him how lonely I had been playing solo, and I really was done with ‘the boys’ per se. I hated to say it, but I really didn’t have the energy to put a 6-piece band together again.”
That’s when Lister told her the magic words. “He said, you need to do an all female group. He loved the Carter Sisters, and said it had been too long since there has been a really good all-female group.”
That conversation took place not long before he passed away. On what would have been Lister’s next birthday - January 5, 2010 - she had her dream that woke her up to The Texas Ladybugs.
On Saturday, June 12 at Alamo Springs Cafe, the new girls group will hold a release party for their EP “First Rodeo” with five original songs. They play a “Texas gumbo” of styles - blues, gospel, country, roots, bluegrass, and “shake what your mama gave you” music.
“It’s not mainstream country,” she said, “but I can sound like it if you want me to (adding touch of twang to her voice). I’m true-bred Americana.”
Katherine Dawn promises the crowd will hear a little bit of everything at their performance. It’s hard to tell if the band or the audience loves it more.
“We are so giggly... so excited about how much everybody is loving it. We got a bit of everything for everybody, and we do actually play instruments. There are no divas in this group, and we all work well with each other.”
She was so excited, she started singing one of her songs over the phone:
Going to sink or swim
When you jump into that deep water
But we’re gonna rise up
Out of that deep cold water