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Christine Lavin's new CD, "folkZinger," her 17th solo release, continues her lyrical focus on the foibles of contemporary life. Far more than a comedienne with a guitar, Christine creates theatrical vignettes in many of her songs by utilizing hilarious spoken-word anecdotes and mini-skits, occasional sound effects, and an ever-broadening palette of arrangements. Everyday absurdities and indignities remain the backbone (and funnybone) of Christine's repertoire. Whether it's the latest approach to safe sex ("Bad Girl Dreams"), the nightmare of uncancellable e-mail subscriptions ("Chicken Soup"), or a yearning for an imaginary-sounding but real island paradise free of telemarketers, ring- tones, or even the words for "want" or "hurry" ("Moken Spoken Here"), Christine presents these scenarios for our amusement. For contrast, there's also a quiet, thoughtful take on 21st Century midlife crises ("The Bends"), a charming reminiscence of her staid grandfather's moment of athletic glory ("One of the Boys"), a torchy "makeout" version of The Beatles' "All My Lovin'" and a cover of Donovan's cheery "Happiness Runs" that includes Chris's account of her airborne encounter with her future Appleseed label-mate. "FolkZinger" displays several new influences in Christine's creative life. Since August 2004, she has been a regular performer at the weekly "Cast Party" show at the Birdland jazz club in New York, meeting and singing with vocalists and musicians from outside the folk world, some of whom appear on this CD. Her friendship with iconic songwriter Ervin Drake ("Good Morning Heartache," "I Believe," "It Was a Very Good Year") has led to folkZinger's most overtly political songs - the co-written "The Peter Principle At Work," about "a leader who never had a clue," and Drake's humorously defiant "(I'm a) Card-Carrying Bleeding Heart Liberal," recorded "live" by Christine and the members of her songwriting class at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music. The award-winning New York a cappella octet The Accidentals, several of whom appeared on Christine's 2003 holiday CD, "The Runaway Christmas Tree," as did Drake, who cameos on "folkZinger," provide a bonus-track version of Lavin's "Winter in Manhattan," a witty tribute to the Big Apple that also appears here in a Christine-fronted arrangement. Coinciding with her new friendships was a new recording process: starting in February 2004, Christine and producer Brian Bauers, the 20-something leader of the New York rock group The WMDs, met on a monthly basis in a basement recording studio just to capture her latest songs on tape. Prior to this, Brian had never heard Christine's music, nor Christine his, but a year into the project they realized that a CD was emerging from these workshop sessions. Despite the spontaneity of the recording, the outcome is a beautifully crafted fusion of Lavin's alternately wise and frazzled vocals, folkish acoustic guitar, and the fresh musical input of multi-instrumentalist Bauers, "Cast Party" friends, longtime folk performer Robin Batteau (violin), The Accidentals, and even Christine's young nephews (heard on Ervin Drake's brief opening poem, "Armageddon"). About CHRISTINE LAVIN Singer, songwriter, performer, humorist, storyteller, journalist, author, teacher, activist, disc jockey, record producer, baton twirler, knitter, pin-up girl . . . Christine Lavin may exhaust the list of available creative avenues before she runs out of interests and energy. It's hard to believe that someone with that many skills and strengths has already been entertaining us for the last quarter century with no sign of exhaustion, only the continuous unfolding of her many talents and cultural obsessions (which range from Dame Edna to Pluto's planetary status). But you can't argue with a vertical career trajectory that has earned her praise from the New York Times as a "comic observer of contemporary manners," "an enchanting stage performer" (Cosmopolitan), and the laughter and affection of the audiences she faces almost 52 weeks yearly. An upstate New York native, Christine moved to New York City in 1976 to join the folk scene and released her first album in 1981. Sixteen additional solo albums have followed, as has Chris's production of 8 multi-artist singer-songwriter compilations, her recent co-production of the late Dave Van Ronk's Grammy-nominated concert album, ". . . and the tin pan bended and the story ended . . . ," her founding member role in the Four Bitchin' Babes collective of funny female songwriters (with whom she performed and recorded from 1990 to 1997), and a tour schedule that regularly crisscrosses America, Canada and countries abroad. Among the many honors her work has garnered are two New York Music Awards, four ASCAP performer awards, the Kate Wolf Memorial Award and the 2001 Backstage Bistro Award for Outstanding New York Singer/ Song- writer of the Year. In 1998, she was the wonderfully surprised subject of "Big League Babe," a 2-CD tribute containing versions of her songs secretly recorded by dozens of her fellow singer-songwriters. Although Christine has written songs of great poignancy (listen to "The Bends" on folkZinger), it is her hilariously clear-eyed commentaries on personal and societal foibles that have established her musical reputation. "Sensitive New Age Guys," "What Was I Thinking," and other Lavin originals have been featured in Off-Broadway musicals (including Joan Micklin Silver's A . . . My Name is Still Alice) and are the basis for a new musical currently in preparation in Los Angeles. In recent years, Christine was commissioned by Lincoln Center to premiere a song ("folkZinger's" "One of the Boys") and served as emcee for the Center's special "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" event. Christine's own live performances have become multi-faceted family-fun extravaganzas over the years. Her concerts are frequently preceded by a knitting circle, with Chris and like-minded ticket holders trading tips and stitches. And in the shows themselves, Chris literally shines, strapping on a miner's helmet to search for each city's perfect man in the audience and climaxing her sets with an incongruously impressive display of glowing baton-twirling. Along with the visuals, Chris delights her fans with her acute original songs, comic monologues, quizzes, contests, and the frequent use of a Boomerang sampling device that multiplies and delays her voice into harmonies and swirling rounds. With her unique songs and presentation, it's no wonder that Christine has been featured on ABC-TV's "Good Morning America," NBC-TV's "The Today Show," and, on the radio, on NPR, "CBS Sunday Morning" and CNN. Chris also periodically presents folk music shows on "Channel 15, The Village" on XM Satellite Radio. In other creative realms, Christine's writing career moved forward with the 2004 publication of "Knit Lit (Too)" (Random House), a compilation of writings about knitting that includes Chris's account on knitting on the road (and sometimes onstage). Her 2003 collaboration with illustrator Betsy Franco Feeney on the children's book "The Amoeba Hop" (Puddle Jump Press), based on Christine's song of the same title, won the American Association for the Advancement of Science's annual Science Book & Film's "Best Books for Children" Award this year and led to a guest performance for the international Society of Protozoologists. Chris also contributed to "Remember Me When I'm Gone" (Adler Press), in which she and other notables such as Larry King and Oprah Winfrey wrote their own obituaries. Her essays and articles have appeared in the Washington Post, Delta Sky Magazine, Inside Arts, Performing Songwriter and other periodicals. And, yes, she did pose (discreetly) nude as Miss January in Jayne Toohey's Nude Folk 2005 calendar, a project designed to promote folk music in North America, with a portion of the profits going to the North American Folk and Dance Alliance. Check out Christine's website for more details, a cheap peek, and other Lavinesque matters: www.christinelavin.com. Check out the artist's website: http://www.appleseedrec.com Track List: 1. Armageddon 2. Happiness Runs 3. The Bends 4. Winter in Manhattan 5. Moken Spoken Here 6. Chicken Soup 7. Bad Girl Dreams 8. All My Lovin' 9. One of the Boys 10. The Peter Principle At Work 11. (I'm a) Card-Carrying Bleeding Heart 12. Surprise 13. Winter in Manhattan (sung by The Accidentals) Suggested CDs:
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