We brought Katie Lee to Chicago to do a concert for our presenting group. (The mid to late 1970s.) We called ourselves "AURAL TRADITION" and it was the first time ever that ORAL TRADITION was spelled as if it were AURAL. She was a polished singer with a real love for cowboy songs and lore.

I first heard Katie in a dark little wannabe night spot/folk bar in Evansville, Indiana about a block from the Ohio River---circa early 1060s.) That place had been named Allez Rouge, I think it was. To find the entrance, one had to go through a rather rancid downtown alley. Few came to see her as I remember the night I went. That club didn't last long at all. It was there before Evansville was ready for it.

Katie Lee wrote a really marvelous book called "Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle". It was full of great songs and the tales behind them. It is truly worth finding this volume used if you are into cowboy stuff told vividly and well!

She was the first person I ever heard sing "Gallo Del Cielo" by Tom Russell. Also, that magical song about the ghost town I've heard Utah Phillips sing to great effect: "OLD DOLORIS" --- and also the song "Maria Consuelo Arroyo" -- a sad one about a woman aging.

Some said her voice was a little too up-town, or country, or Western, or whatever. But her presentation always was right to my taste. (And, in the old days, she was a very sexy lady who seemed to enjoy being macho in the cowboy sense---i.e. the title of her book.

All that said, whenever I saw her with Gail Gardner it seemed they were both a bit too bent out of shape by people who had recorded Mr. Gardner's song called "Tying Knots In The Devil's Tail" or "The Siery Peaks" with less than the "correct" lyrics. ----- I can see their point; folks ought to do their homework. But, hell, that's the folk process! Right? ;-)

Art Thieme