SOMETHING TO SING ABOUT
Battling cancer, Carol Harley finds healing power in her music as a member of the bands Misty River and the Misty Mamas
BY JANIE NAFSINGER editor@lifestylesnorthwest.com
LIFESTYLES NORTHWEST NOV 24, 2006
Carol Harley has good and bad days. Sometimes her back pain seems uncontrollable, and the weakness she feels from her cancer treatment comes and goes. but when she needs her strength the most, she finds it in her music, her band mates, her fans and herself.

“Faith and attitude are big. And persistence – I’m a very persistent person,” says Harley, who makes up one-fourth of Misty River, the popular all-women’s acoustic band.

As the senior member of Misty River – which also includes her daughter, Laura Quigley – Harley, 57, thanks her lucky stars that she can continue to play music while battling cancer for the second time in her life.
Nearly three decades ago, she beat melanoma. This time it’s chronic myelogenous leukemia, a bone marrow cancer she was diagnosed with 2-1/2 years ago. The leukemia is now in remission, and Harley – her persistence showing – has started another all-female acoustic band, the Misty Mamas.
Harley – who lives in Vancouver, Wash., and plays the guitar, mandolin, banjo and bass – also handles publicity for both bands, and she’s artistic director of a bluegrass music festival and a new concert series in Ridgefield, Wash.
Her music, she says, “helps heal me. The music is good for me, and I love it and the people and the success we’ve found.
“I’m here for a reason – because God says it’s not time for me to go.”

Her first bands
Harley, who grew up in Bend, was in high school when she started her first band, The Little Women, a folk group of five girls in which she played guitar. But she planned to be a teacher. “I had a wonderful teacher in fifth grade, Mr. Davis,” she says. “It was clear I knew what I wanted to be.”
After graduating from Bend High in 1967, she attended the University of Oregon, earned a teaching degree and later obtained a master’s degree. While at UO, Harley joined a band called Sterling Generation, “a Mamas and Papas kind of band,” she says. Its members included Katherine Nitsch, now one of Harley’s band mates in the Misty Mamas.
Harley married during her last year in college. After Laura’s birth, she became a stay-at-home mom for a few years before starting to teach fifth grade in Eugene.
In 1990, Harley broke her back while skiing on Mount Bachelor. She spent about a year in a removable body cast, and chronic pain forced her to quit teaching.
But she’s able to continue her music thanks to her band mates, who provide her with special chairs and set up her instruments during performances. “They’re my special caretakers,” Harley says.

Getting ‘Misty’
Misty River, founded July 17, 1997, grew out of a pair of open-mic gigs at a Portland pub called Galway. Four or five months earlier, Harley and her daughter had gone there to hear an Irish band and ended up performing a mother-daughter duet.
The two then teamed up with a pair of young women – Dana Abel, who’d taken guitar lessons from Harley in Eugene, and Chris Kokesh, a waitress at Galway – for an open-mic quartet. The pub’s manager “offered to pay us tens and tens of dollars to sing on stage,” Harley says, laughing. “Which he did – it was about $25 a night.”
The foursome became Misty River, winning fans all over the Northwest with its blend of Americana music and vocal harmonies. For the first few years the girls kept their day jobs, but from about 2000 to 2002, Misty River was “full-time,” performing about 150 shows a year, Harley says.
The band began to slow down after Abel gave birth to her first child. Misty River now plays at performing arts center and large folk and bluegrass music festivals all over the United States.
After Abel had her second baby, the other three band members began playing with other groups. Harley started jamming with three other women friends – Katherine Nitsch, April Parker and Eileen Rocci, all in their 50s – and in 2005 they became the Misty Mamas. “We’re all drawn together by a love of bluegrass and gospel music and love of harmony,” Harley says.
They perform about one gig a month – “we’re working on honing our chops,” Harley says – and plan to record a five-song demo as their first CD.

Trumping cancer
Harley has battled cancer twice in her life. In 1977 she was diagnosed with melanoma, a level 4 tumor behind a mole on her face, and was given six months to live. She underwent surgery to remove the tumor, and the result, she says, was a miracle: She’s had no recurrence of melanoma.
The leukemia diagnosis came in March 2004. Misty River was getting ready to leave for Shanghai, where the band had been invited to perform at an international music festival. “The only time I cried at the doctor’s was because I wanted to go to Shanghai,” Harley recalls with a laugh.
And she did go. Misty River spent 13 days in Shanghai in May 2004.
Harley takes two cancer medications – Gleevec, which she calls “the miracle drug,” and Interferon. The drugs have their side effects, including weight gain, muscle cramps and “chemo brain,” but the cancer is in remission. Though health insurance has helped pay her medical bills, Harley’s prescription drugs are costing upwards of $2,000 a month. Her friends and fans have rallied to help by contributing to the Carol Harley Leukemia Treatment Fund, which so far has collected about $40,000.
“My life is filled with art and music and wonderful people,” Harley says. “I feel blessed.”

What’s next
Misty River, following November tours of California and Southern Oregon, will return to the studio in December to record its next CD and gear up for its Christmas concerts.
Harley also is artistic director for a new concert series at the Old Liberty Theater in Ridgefield, Wash., which will start with a Saturday, Dec. 9, performance by Misty River. And she is artistic director for the Wheeler County Bluegrass Festival in Fossil, held every Fourth of July.
Misty River’s big goal now, Harley says, is “to be on ‘Prairie Home Companion.’ That’s been our goal since the beginning. And I would love to tour Europe.”
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To learn more about Misty River, the Misty Mamas and their upcoming gigs, visit www.mistyriverband.com

Lifestyles Online Reader comments
Re: Something to sing about
Thank you for highlighting such a deserving and inspiring individual as Carol Harley! I have known her for years and was thrilled to see the photo of Misty River on the cover of Lifestyles, and then to read the excellent article. Carol is proof that anyone can follow their dreams. . . . sometimes it may take some adaptation, but you can still do it!
"Kathy Boyd"
Mon, Dec 04, 2006 at 02:18 PM
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Re: Something to sing about
We here in Southwest Tennessee (Memphis and surrounding area) salute Carol Harley for her valiant fight! Keep up the good work, Carol! Here's to the success of Misty River and the Misty Mamas. Our local bluegrass musician, Brent Davis (not the same Brent Davis as the author of "The Spelling Bee"), has begun his serious fight with another rather nasty form of leukemia. Brent performs with Sorghum Hill. Please keep Brent and his family in your thoughts as well. Go, Carol! Go, Brent!
"Betty Westmoreland"
Tue, Dec 05, 2006 at 08:32 AM
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No Time To Feel Sorry For Herself
Fantastic story and photo of Carol Harley and Misty River. This hard working woman and band member makes us realize that no matter what life throws at us, it is always best to use our energies for something good than to sit and feel sorry for ourselves. Carol has no time for that, she is an inspiration to anyone who has ever faced a life-changing illness and all of us who have not. Thank you Carol for all that you do and all that you work so hard to achieve. The music she (they) play is as beautiful as I have ever heard and if you attend one workshop they teach you will see the passion and learn more than you have ever learned before. This is definitely a home-grown band that GIVES more than they RECEIVE! Tom and I wish you nothing but good health and happiness in all that you do. Blessings & Sweetness Always!
"Tom & Darlene O'Connor"
Tue, Dec 05, 2006 at 11:11 AM