Taffy Nivert

Biography[edit]

Mary Catherine Nivert was born 25 October 1944 in Washington, D.C. She received her nickname Taffy from her elder brother who, unable to pronounce her middle name as a young child, would call her Mary Tafferine.^[3] Nivert began singing along with the radio in high school. She was discovered by a bartender in Georgetown after he heard her singing to a jukebox. The bartender asked if she wanted to join a vocal group, and through this, she met her future husband Bill Danoff.^[4]


Nivert began performing with Danoff as Fat City in the late 1960s. Initially a folk duo, the two later married and recorded four albums, the latter two credited to Bill & Taffy.^[5]


In 1970, while traveling along Clopper Road to Nivert's family reunion in Gaithersburg, Maryland, Danoff began writing what would become "Take Me Home, Country Roads".^[6] The couple planned to complete the song and sell it to Johnny Cash. However, when Fat City opened for John Denver at The Cellar Door in December 1970, they decided to show it to him. Denver, who had injured his thumb in a car crash hours before, arrived at Danoff and Nivert's apartment in the early hours of the morning, where the trio finished the song. The next night, they performed the completed song, with Nivert holding the lyric sheet, and it went on to become a hit song for Denver on RCA Victor in early 1971. It was included on his album Poems, Prayers, and Promises along with "I Guess He'd Rather Be in Colorado," also written by Danoff and Nivert. Additionally, Danoff and Nivert sang backup on four of the album's tracks.^[4]


Danoff and Nivert married in 1972.^[3] In 1976, the couple paired with Jon Carroll and Margot Chapman to form the Starland Vocal Band. Signed to John Denver's record label Windsong Records, they were most famous for the hit song "Afternoon Delight".^[7] The group released several albums before breaking up in 1981. Danoff and Nivert later divorced.


Until 2011, Nivert lived in the Washington, D.C. area, where she occasionally performed with Danoff and the rest of the Starland Vocal Band. She later settled in Safety Harbor, Florida.^[8]