Madcat & Kane

Madcat & Kane are Peter "Madcat" Ruth (harmonica) and Shari Kane (guitar, vocals) , a folk-blues duo based in Ann Arbor, MI.  Ruth's multi-note style appears on tracks with the Southern rock group Blackfoot among others while Kane's slide work is a descendant of her mentor and leading inspiration, the legendary Johnny Shines. 

Peter Madcat Ruth and Shari Kane joined forces in 1990 to form the duo Madcat & Kane. Having been good friends since 1978, they knew they shared a love for blues that crossed the lines between electric and acoustic, delta and Chicago, jump blues, folk blues, and jazz.

In 1992 Madcat & Kane was voted one of six finalists in the Long Beach Blues Festival National Talent Search Contest.  In December 1992 they released their first CD, "Key to the Highway", on the Schoolkids' Records label. The following year it was nominated for best blues album of the year by the Motor City Music Awards Foundation in Detroit, and named one of the "Ten Best Blues CDs of 1993" by WDCU-FM in Washington, DC, and the Baltimore Blues Society.

In 1994 and again in 1995 Madcat & Kane was featured on the National Public Radio program Blues Stage which was broadcast on over 200 radio stations nationwide.

Since 1990, Madcat & Kane has toured extensively throughout the United States. They have also performed in Brazil, Canada, Poland, Spain, and the Cayman Islands.

In 1999 Madcat & Kane released their second CD, "Up Against The Wall", on the Hit Record label. It includes special guests Ann Rabson, Claudia Schmidt, and Kevin Maul. Both Madcat & Kane CDs continue to get radio play throughout the United States.

Shari Kane started playing guitar at the age of five. By the early 1970's she had become a devoted blues fan, and learned how to play fingerstyle blues on the acoustic guitar. When she was sixteen, she began teaching guitar. She continues to teach, offering workshops in many of the cities where Madcat & Kane perform.

Shari's many years spent studying the work of the Delta Blues masters can be heard nightly as she picks up her acoustic guitar. Throwing herself into a stinging Robert Johnson interpretation, a jumping Robert Junior Lockwood shuffle, or the intricate finger stylings of Reverend Gary Davis and Mississippi John Hurt, Shari's mastery of the acoustic tradition is apparent.

More recently, Shari has become an avid fan of electric guitar, learning much from the old Chicago blues masters. An accomplished slide player, she appears in Rory Block's 1992 release, "Ain't I A Woman".  As a guitarist with considerable versatility, Shari is emerging as one of the country's finest Blueswomen.

(Madcat & Kane at 3rd Annual Poconos Blues Festival 1994)