Mary Lozier

Mary and John Lozier: who both passed away a few years ago, were quite well known as folk performers in the Portsmouth, Ohio region and were good friends with Annadeene.  They were recorded by several other collectors and once performed at the Smithsonian Festival in Washington.  Nonetheless, except for a privately issued cassette of John's harmonica pieces, I believe that these are the first general releases of any of their music, save for a few fiddle tunes on Rdr 0544.  John played a wide variety of material on the harmonica, ranging from old fiddle tunes to Nashville pop.

In personalities, the pair couldn't have been more different, John proving as reliably irascible as Mary was invariably gentle.  In local folk fairs, Mary was usually called upon for her knowledge of traditional crafts such as canning and sewing, but she kept a large notebook in which she had typed out the words to the many songs she knew, most of which had come from her mother.

Part of the booklet notes, written by Mark Wilson, to the Musical Traditions Records 4-CD set Meeting's a Pleasure (MTCD341-4)