After three years with the Mustache Band, Mary wanted a change - and warmer weather (always) so in Jan. 1979 she took off to New Orleans where she spent a year tending bar in the French Quarter, listening to and singing with some of the greatest jazz musicians in the U.S., and a few country and cajun bands, too.

JAMMING WITH THE DUKES (OF DIXIELAND) MARDI GRAS, 1979 (i'm the one in jeans, they're the ones in suits)

Mary loved New Orleans, but she missed her friends and family, so she returned to Denver, moved into a haunted house - with haunted musicians - in Capitol Hill, and joined Due West, a country-rock band playing the honky-tonks around town. She also still sat in with the Mustache Band on occasion.

1980 - Due West (Denver, Colorado)
Singing her li'l heart out - country tunes. (I'm the one in the hat above.)