Cathy McManamon
Drums, Vocals
Cathy’s music career began at age 10 when she first got paid for playing guitar at a wedding. She spent her next several decades as a liturgical musician in Chicago, playing guitar and successfully faking her way through the piano, organ, recorder, flute, bass, percussion, bowed psaltery, voice, and hand chimes while also writing, arranging, and directing. Cathy has worked as a wedding photography sales rep, editor, elementary school music teacher, private guitar teacher, and nanny, but now pursues music pretty much full-time.
Urged by her husband to play in a filk circle several years ago, Cathy met gundo and eventually the rest of Toyboat. Failing to run in the opposite direction fast enough, she sat in playing djembe with the infamous Tomboat variation of the band at WindyCon in 2011. Cathy agreed to join the band as their new drummer in Fall of 2012.
Besides Toyboat, Cathy’s other projects include facilitating monthly drum circles in Chicago, ritual/energy drumming, her folk-rock acoustic duo Tragic Hair Shadow, the Faerie/Celtic music group Merry Meet, and her own solo work. And yes, she still plays for weddings.
