Mary Lou Worster Anderson has had a lifelong love of music, both singing and playing instruments. She studied piano and violin when young, though the piano lessons in eighth grade. Mary Lou always loved to sing, participating in choruses and choirs at every level of her education, singing duets with her mother in church, and singing in a small girls choir.
When she was twelve, her oldest brother, Art, having been to Greenwich Village, the Newport Folk Festival, and other such places, and taught his 12 year old sister and his 16 year old brother, Larry, guitar. Most young people learn guitar on old folk songs. Mary Lou learned on the songs of Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan. While still in 7th grade, she and two close friends formed a folk singing trio, in which they sang for school and community events throughout junior and senior high school. It was also in this same year that she started writing songs.
While a classical music major at Middlebury College in Vermont, Mary Lou's greatest passion was always for playing, singing and songwriting -- traditional folk, contemporary folk of the 60's and 70's (to the present day), and her own compositions. She sang solo at many coffee houses at Middlebury and later teamed up with Guy Kettelhack to form a duo who performed at their home school, in restaurants, and at nearby colleges.
Mary Lou Anderson has been living in and around Rochester, New York since 1974. During this time, she has continued her love of singing with performances at area colleges, community events, city festivals, schools, senior citizen centers, group homes, and schools. She has continued to write music and has picked up the violin once again (at the much slower pace of countermelodies). She has also sung with fellow folk singer, Mike Kennedy.
Mary Lou has written over 70 songs in the past four decades, copyrighting most of them, but only now has begun to record. After illness cut short her work in a different profession, her music has once again become the primary focus of her life. "Ireland's Child" was written out of a passionate concern for the cause of anti-bullying legislation necessary to protect students in schools. Therefore, this is the first song she has chosen to record and release.
Mary Lou Worster Anderson can be reached at mlw.anderson@yahoo.com and at (585) 313-2243. She has two young adult children who have always encouraged her with her music, through good times and through difficult times. -- Thank you, Jesse and Rebecca. I love you both with all my heart.
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