American singer songwriter Lucy Kaplansky moved to New York in the late 1970s. Despite being an active member of the early 1980s folk scene, along with people like Suzanne Vega and Shawn Colvin, she decided to turn down a record deal and instead returned to school to study psychology. Although this was a radical career change, Kaplansky always retained an interest in music and sang harmony vocals on albums with Shawn Colvin, Nancy Griffith, and Suzanne Vega. It was not until 1994 that she released her first solo album, 'Tide', which included cover versions of songs by Sting and Richard Thompson as well as some of her own compositions. Since then Kaplansky has given up psychology to concentrate on her singing full-time and released two albums: 'Flesh and Bone' (1996) and the haunting 'Ten Year Night' (1999).
This week Lucy Kaplansky spoke to Caroline Hennessy about her former job, returning to music and her plans for the future.
