Cathy Lemons is blues singer, songwriter, short story writer, & recording artist. Originally from Texas she now lives in San Francisco.
She is the co-leader of The Lucky Losers, a national touring band that has released 5 albums in the last 10 years, and about to release a 6th in 2025.
In 2021 The Lucky Losers won 5 Independent Blues Awards:
Best Female Artist – Cathy Lemons
Best R&B Soul CD – Godless Land
Best R&B Soul Song – Godless Land
Best R&B Soul Artist – Cathy Lemons
Best Best R&B Soul Release: Godless Land
2020 WINNER / HONORABLE MENTION / INTERNATIONAL SONGWRITING COMPETITION – Godless Land
“Within her vocals, Lemons possesses a supremely talented and developed instrument, as she can coo, tease, belt ballad, and bellow with supreme confidence and to great effect. She simply owns the songs she sings.”
“Blues Music Magazine, October 2020”
There’s a black crow
He’s maimed but he dropped down to visit me
There’s a black crow
He’s maimed but he drop down to visit me
He circles round and round
Won’t let me go
Won’t set me free
He walk on one toe
Might as well use a cane
He walk on one toe
Might as well use a cane
But when he starts into love me, lord
Drive poor me insane
The Ragged Heart
Written by Cathy Lemons, BMI: Take No Prisoners
The ragged heart
With a razor's edge
Still standing there
On the ledge
Ready to fly out
My final cry
I’m staring down
into a city sky
You get a ragged heart
When you live too long
You get a ragged heart
That goes on beating
And beating
And beating
You would never know
I have such thoughts
My face is calm
Like a soft sea caught
I have lived too long
I have lost my way
Contemplating murder
In a quiet way
You get a ragged heart
When you live too long
You get a ragged heart
That goes on beating
And beating
And beating
No needle now
No flowing tears
No safety pin
To stitch the fear
It’s a chance we take
When we live too long
We get a ragged heart
Just goes along
I got a ragged heart
‘Cause I lived too long
I got a ragged heart
That goes on beating
And beating
And beating
And beating, and beating, just beating, and beating
I’m Hangin’ on
I’m Hangin’ on
I’m Hangin’ on
Just beating
And beating
And beating
I’m beaten
Beaten
Still beating
Beat
GODLESS LAND
On Vizztone
“The soulful power of the songs takes hold on the opening track and doesn’t let up until the last groove of the album. If you close your eyes while you’re listening to the opening track, and others on Godless Land, you’d swear you’re listening to Bonnie Bramlett, or maybe Chi Coltrane, for Lemons knows how to dwell in her songs and inhabit the phrases that grab us in our souls.“
— Living Blues, Issue 270, December 2020
Standin’ Pat
(2022)
“The new album shows that the studio connection Cathy Lemons and Phil Berkowitz make
with producer Kid Andersen is wonderful. They conjure a blues of a different hue, one full of
surprises and elemental forces. The bandleaders have animated musical intelligence in abundance.
”Down in Memphis Town” may be the outstanding song, with ten more originals almost as good. “Standin’ Pat” is definitely a strong contender for “best blues album of the year.”
— Frank John Hadley | Longtime Critic Downbeat| October 25, 2022
Godless Land (2020)
“‘Godless Land’ is a tour de force of blues, Jazz and Americana.””
— Richard Ludmerer, Making A Scene, August 6, 2020
Blind Spot (2018)
“Cathy Lemons sounds genuinely wise, gritty, tender, wounded, and flirtatious, sometimes all at once.”
— DOWNBEAT MAGAZINE | Frank John Hadley | August 2018
In Any Town (2017)
“A lot of singers have had the mantle put on them but Cathy Lemons really sounds like she should/could be Bonnie Raitt’s long lost duet partner she never sang with.“
— CHRIS SPECTOR, Midwest Record, July 1st, 2016
A Winning Hand (2015)
“‘Suicide by Love’” … features her singing along in the unique conversational manner that helps set her apart from other vocalists performing today….Berkowitz blows outstanding harmonica solos throughout.”
— LEE HILDEBRAND, Living Blues: Issue No. 238/Volume 46, #4, August 2015
Black Crow (2014)
“She's lived a hard life, and the singing on her first solo album in many years lends credence to the typically suspect supposition that misfortune is a prerequisite for creating superior blues."
— FRANK-JOHN HADLEY, Downbeat Magazine, July 2014
Lemonsace (2010)
“This CD offers up some of the finest, freshest, hippest grooves I’ve heard in many a moon. If Cathy Lemons and Johnny Ace don’t become Blues ‘Stars’ because of this disc then there ain’t no hope for the future of Mankind (well, almost…). ”
— ANY BLUES BOY GRIGG, Real Blues, 2010
With Tommy Castro, Steve Freund, Rusty Zinn, Johnny Ace, & David Maxwell.
“Dark Road is a burnished, scintillating disc--certainly one of the finest debuts from a contemporary female blues singer this year."
-- Hal horowitz from Blues Revue, Issue Number 52, November 1999
The Saloon Recordings