From "Stepping Up: Covert, Richardson look beyond bars"
Daily Herald  Friday, May 1, 1998

...Three years ago Cathy Richardson stepped inside a bigger venue playing a CD release party at Park West for her second album "Fools on a Tandem".

It's a type of room she hopes to build a career in.

"That's the goal" she said. I would love to play those types of venues all around the country. That would be perfect for me. I don't need to be another Madonna."

With her fourth album, "Snake Camp" (Bloody Nurse), the rock songwriter should broaden her audience based on its crisper, more polished sound thanks to Chicago producer John Ovnik.

Richardson faced stagnation when, while playing 150 shows a year, she was basically playing the same material to the same Midwestern audiences who, she said, "got sick of it."

That should change. The sturdy Heartland rock of "Saturday" and the rootsy sound of a sitar with Eastern rhythms on "Fly" are refreshing progressions.

While Richardson's hard driving live skills have earned easy comparisons to Janis Joplin or Melissa Etheridge, "Snake Camp" proves she's much more diverse. The jazz soul of "Rain," deep blues of "Sinners and Saints" and country twang of "An Old Testament" all have a natural deep-rooted feel...