Aging With Grace as a Senior Singing Star

Lu Mitchell Still Reigning Queen of Folk Satire at Age 85

Jun 23, 2009

Lu Mitchell's song book is called Singing for her Sanity. Seniors and Boomers aren't the only ones who find sanity, and a few good laughs, in her songs.

Lu Mitchell and the Catch-23 Band give a performance which spans several generations. Seniors cheer her on as she comments on much of American life in the last few decades. Her bright eyes gaze out at the audience while she sings outrageous lyrics about the economy and how she might decide to be a banker and get a bail-out from the feds! She intersperses serious social commentary with laughable moments as seniors hang on her every word.

Audience Participation in a Lu Mitchell Concert

Sitting in the audience provides an uplifting yet rockingly funny interactive experience for seniors and others alike. At one time she jokes about growing up singing Latin and then moving to Texas and learning gospel!

Soon the crowd joins her in singing This Little Light of Mine. The electricity between her and the audience was palpable. Heads and bobbing and people are joining in the sing-along with boisterous energy and sincere commitment to the good life.

In just moments she was pouring her heart out about hungry children, a song in both English and Spanish. The audience was startlingly quiet and filled with caring. Soon the mood switched and listeners smiled as she sang My Cat to the tune of My Girl. Before anyone knew it, the fans were rocking with laughter when she switched to Back in the Stirrups Again about women going through yearly gynecological exams!

Although she mostly sings songs she authored, Lu Mitchell also belts out old favorites like Mississippi Squirrel Revival and An Irish Blessing.

Octogenarian Singer Songwriter Lu Mitchell's Body of Work

Since Lu Mitchell started writing in her mid-30's she has accumulated over a dozen albums covering a wide variety of topics from teachers, chiggers, and beauty shops, to jogging, mammograms, and cowboys.

When she performed in Ireland, a fan told her he learned one of her songs in Australia. Her travels on the road to perform have inspired lyrics from Italy to her home base in Dallas, Texas, where she performs regularly at the Pocket Sandwich Theatre. Her songs cover a panorama of a rich life filled with some hair-raising experiences.

Her lyrics speak of current political and cultural issues with a huge dose of satire thrown in. She even spoofs plastic surgery while wrapped in bandages declaring "I will not age!" which brings rings of laughter from many active Boomers and seniors. She performs a song she wrote about alphabetizing spices and other oddities declaring "I'm not Martha Stewart!"

Lu Mitchell has an array of CD's, a songbook with her chords and lyrics, and even a Christmas holiday album. But the greatest thrill is to see her in live concert.

Senior Singer Lu Mitchell's Fake Foreign Songs

She found it surprising when she fiddled around with words which have been Americanized from different source languages, and came up with her Fake Foreign Songs. They were such a hit that she made them into an album.

For her Italian one, she chirps out famous Italian foods, operas, even adding Tony Soprano, Pavarotti and ending with Arrivederci! These ridiculous yet somehow connected words and phrases hold any audience spellbound while they are on the edge of their seats trying to process every nuance coming their way.

For the Spanish song she dons a huge sombrero and chortles out a sampling of many Spanish-related words spoken regularly in the States.

How Lu Mitchell's Concerts Touch People's Lives

Many senior audience members feel somehow validated by listening to this senior singer paint a palette of their past and present life's struggles and experiences.

After the show a lady in the crowd came up to Lu and told her how the songs had inspired her when she was so down after the death of her husband. This audience member told of being terribly lonely. Then after hearing Lu sing a few years back, she perked up and before long started seeking out companionship again. Since then she has been an avid fan.

Lu Mitchell is an octogenarian is aging with grace as a senior singing star who still reigns as the undisputed queen of folk satire at age 85. No subject is too touchy for her to address with her feisty lyrics. Her son, who performed with her as a teen bongo player, proudly claims her body of work came from the more than 100 dates per year she played for so long.

She has amassed an impressive body of work including fake foreign songs, but her most amazing accomplishment is the audience participation and the way she touches people's lives with laughter and love. The one thing she still hopes to do someday is perform with Garrison Keillor in Prairie Home Companion, a performance she seems "just born to do!"

Sources: Interview with Lu Mitchell in Houston, Texas, on June 14, 2009 after after attending her concert at Woodlands Millbend Coffee House held in the Northwoods Unitarian Universalist Church on June 13, 2009.

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