Essra Mohawk Dies: Singer-Songwriter Who Performed With Frank Zappa, Jerry Garcia, But Missed Woodstock Was 75

Bruce Haring
·2 min read
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Essra Mohawk, who recorded a dozen albums and saw Cyndi Lauper’s cover of her “Change of Heart” hit No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, died on Dec. 11 at her home in Nashville from cancer. She was 75.

A dreamy singer who described herself as a flower child, Mohawk never quite broke through to stardom. But she carved out a long career nonetheless in a highly fertile music era, performing with Frank Zappa and Jerry Garcia, among others.

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She was scheduled to perform at the original Woodstock festival, but her driver took a wrong turn on the way.

“We got there in time to see the last verse of the last song of the last act of the first night, and then the stage went dark before we got to it from the parking lot,” she recalled in a 2009 video interview.

She recorded more than a dozen albums over the years.

In the 1970s, Ms. Mohawk contributed the songs “Sufferin’ Till Suffrage” and “Interjections!” for the animated shorts of Schoolhouse Rock, a Saturday morning staple.

Her biggest successes came as a vehicle for other artists. Cyndi Lauper covered “Change of Heart” in 1987, seeing it rise to No. 3. Two years later, Tina Turner released a cover of. Mohawk’s “Stronger Than the Wind.”

In a somewhat bizarre note in her career, Mohawk performed on the wacky Chuck Barris game show The Gong Show, performing her song “Appointment With a Dream.” She avoided getting gonged and was actually well-received by the judges.

She released her last album, The One and Only, in 2019.

She is survived by a cousin, Jeff Hurvitz.

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