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The BiTS Interview: Cathy Ponton King

Cathy Ponton King plays Telecaster guitars, and delivers blues, original music, jazzy
blues, 'Nawlin's music and swing, Rock 'n Roll/rhythm and blues and sweet ballads.

She was born in Washington DC and attended the University of Maryland where she

earned a degree in journalism After college she worked at ABC News before making

the decision to put journalism on the back burner as the call to sing, write and perform

music became overwhelming.

BiTS: Let’s make a start then, shall we? Tell me something about your

upbringing. Was there a lot of music in your house when you were a kid?

CPK: Yes. Quite a bit. Actually, my grandmother emigrated to
Washington DC, and she was from Ireland. As you
know, the Irish are very musical people and when I
was a little girl, she used to have really big house parties
and they had records playing, but they would turn off the

records and then all the guests one by one would take a turn and sing
acapella. From the time I was five years old, I thought that it was
everybody’s turn, so I was singing in front of people since I was five or six
years old, and I guess I got hooked on the applause - it’s affirmation.

BiTS: That’s a wonderful story. Was there a lot of fiddle playing and that
sort of thing as well?

CPK: Actually, my grandfather came from Ireland, as did my

grandmother and there’s this big concert dance pavilion in
Washington DC called Glen Echo and he was playing Irish fiddle in
the band when he met my grandmother in Washington DC, but
unfortunately he passed away before I was born,
but no, there really weren’t a lot

of musicians there, but
when I was ten years old,
nine or ten years old, I was mad to
have a guitar. I begged and pleaded my
parents, so I started playing guitar with all the Irish people
and backing them up when they were all singing and then I got my
first job at a pub when I was 17 and from then on, I played Irish music. A couple of years later, I

was at the University of Maryland and discovered the blues.

BiTS: How did you actually discover the blues, then?

CPK: Well, for some reason, it just had this incredible magnetic attraction. I worked at the campus
radio station doing the news at the University of Maryland and then when my shift was over, I
would go to the record library and make tapes for myself of every blues record I could find. I mean,

I just devoured them. Then I had a boyfriend at the time who got a job as a roadie for a very famous
Washington DC band called The Nighthawks and they introduced me to Muddy Waters at a little