MISTRESS MARY - HOUSEWIFE Vinyl LP

Songwriter and multi-careerist Mary Afton recorded exactly one album of music in late 1968 at Darrel Cotton’s Ion Studio in the Hacienda Heights area. The session was led by Cotton and steel guitarist Carl Walden and several players sat in over the course of the 5 days it took to record including Walden, Clarence White & early rockabilly artist Johnny Redd. The group worked out most songs on the fly with Mary strumming out the songs on guitar and the band riffing off her.

Brilliantly packaged with lush glamour girl photo front and bored housewife pics back (and with hand-penned liners introducing herself as a “Wife – Mother – Civic Leader – etc. – Artiste”), 500 copies of the album were cut as a demo and maybe 50 of those were sent out as promos to industry folks (she saw to it that one of these copies made its way to Elvis Presley). Walden & Cotton thought the world of Mary and encouraged her efforts but after a year or two of little response she moved onto one of her many other careers (these include stints as an auto mechanics instructor for women, running a class on female self-defense, belly dance instruction and a lucrative multi-year gig as a disco dance instructor).

With her earnings Mary bought a beautiful ranch style home in Southern California where she lives to this day alongside four generations of daughters, granddaughters and great granddaughters. When she’s not attending to the needs of her grandchildren and great grandchildren she’s throwing huge 500+ people pool parties in her backyard with a view.