Summer In The Hive with The Beehive Queen

It's high summer, and "The Deep End" has been in release for four months. The review have been pretty overwhelming, from Dave Marsh to Nick Cristiano in the Philadelphia Inquirer, Downbeat, Blues Revue, M Magazine, Hal Horowitz's insightful piece in the All-Music Guide, and so many more. I'm appreciative to everyone who's responded positively to this record, and I'm joined in this gratitude by the members of Rebel Montez--Cliff Goodwin, Michael Colbath and Larry Donahue. Our tour schedule has taken us to venues like the Rochester International Jazz Festival's Abilene Americana stage, where we headlined alongside (on separate nights) Dave Alvin and Amy LaVere. I was so proud to perform at this year's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival to benefit the New Orleans Musicians Clinic ( www.nomc.org ) alongside JoJo Hermann & Widespread Panic, The North Mississippi All Stars, Gov't Mule and others. More than $50,000 was raised.

This new record has such deep meaning for me, and in on-air SIRIUS/XM appearances with both Vin Scelsa and Dave Marsh, Andy York (the record's producer) and I have gotten to explore some of the songs in the radio setting. Our schedule will take us to various points on the East Coast this summer into the fall, and we look forward to seeing all of you on the road. Keep in touch on Facebook at the "Christine Ohlman Beehive Queen" music page, or e-mail me at info@christineohlman.net . Let's all rock on together. --Christine

The Deep End Release Date Set

The Deep End debuted in the digital world in November and has been downloadable on iTunes and Amazon.com since then. Now, the release date has officially been set for March 20, 2010 with pre-order on Amazon.com on January 20. A free download of the title cut, as well as much more information, is available at www.christineohlman.net. Co-produced by Andy York (John Mellencamp), its fourteen songs are of life and love tempered by loss. The members of Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez (Michael Colbath-bass; Larry Donahue-drums; Cliff Goodwin-guitar) are joined by special guests (and my duet partners) Dion, Ian Hunter, and Marshall Crenshaw, plus special guests Levon Helm, Big Al Anderson, G.E. Smith, Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, Catherine Russell, Vic Steffens, Shawn Pelton, the Asbury Juke Horns w/Mark Rivera, Jeff Kazee, Paul Ossola, Mitch Chakour, and, of course, Andy. In all, it's been a labor of love, following a recording hiatus of several years due to the passing of both our long-time producer (and my mate) Doc Cavalier and our guitarist, Eric Fletcher, who is memorialized in a cool radio airshot he and I recorded together in 2005. The advance reviews have all been great. It's all been done for the pleasure of our listeners, and we hope you dig, and enjoy.

Andy York and I will appear January 31 (11 am) with my great friend Dave Marsh on his Sunday morning SIRIUS/XM show "Kick Out The Jams" to chat about the record and perform a few tracks. Tune in and turn on!

In other news, I appeared in a raucous commercial parody on Saturday Night Live called "Carter n' Sons Barbeque" (a/k/a "Swine Fever!") Check it out at NBC's HULU site. As always, I'm the one with the big blonde beehive!

Rock on into Spring.....Christine

Imminent Release of The Deep End

Many of you have asked when The Deep End will be available, so I'm happy to tell you that digital release on iTunes is set for November 1, with availability for downloads on Amazon and other sites on or about November 8; full street-date release on January 19, 2010, with pre-order on Amazon in mid-December. You'll be able to order it at www.christineohlman.net on October 20. We will celebrate at Cafe Nine in New Haven, Connecticut, the favorite original-music hangout of Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez, on November 14.

What a journey of the heart this record has been. I’ve experienced, since the release of my last studio album Strip, the loss of both a mate—Doc Cavalier, who’d been our producer—and a long-time guitarist and collaborator, Eric Fletcher. It’s been tough, and sitting down at the writing table wasn’t always easy. Rosanne Cash and I were talking, and she asked me if I’d written sad songs. It wasn’t until I considered her question that I realized I hadn’t. Ultimately, this is an album about love and the courage to fall into it. The fact is, the loss just informs you; it opens emotional doors that couldn’t possibly have opened before, no matter how much you thought you knew about it. I wrote about love—the newness of it, the glory of it, the loss of it, the constancy of it, the sadness that can come from it, the wonder of it…the sweet bitterness of it, sometimes. It’s my favorite topic, and never have I felt it so deeply and been so deeply affected by it.

The songs came over a period of about 10 months, the last being “The Gone Of You,” co-written with Cliff Goodwin. It turned out to be, along with the title track (with wonderful guitar work by Big Al Anderson), the album’s signature. We’ve included it twice, in a full studio version and then in a genius demo track that Andy York, who produced the record and was its most stalwart contributor, fashioned from voodoo loops and dark guitar. I sang it one late-night-into-early morning, so we dubbed it “The Gone Of You (After Hours).” Yet it’s “The Deep End,” with its theme of jumping off a cliff, that owns my heart.

If the writing of the songs had been a joy, the recording process proved to be a total kick, spearheaded by sessions with the core band: Cliff Goodwin, Larry Donahue and Michael Colbath of Rebel Montez, joined by Andy York. Then from Andy’s home studio to Vic Steffens’ cool Connecticut-based Horizon Music Group to Levon Helm’s place in Woodstock to Station West in Nashville, Lily’s Terrace and New Calcutta in NYC, and Sounds Great in Boca Raton, the guest artists had tracks flying, on fire together.

Ian Hunter whipped off his sunglasses in the June heat at Andy’s and dug into “There Ain’t No Cure.” To my delight, he’d also written the lyrics to “The Deep End” on a yellow legal pad and offered to add his voice there, too. Marshall Crenshaw and I romped on one of my all-time favorite “lost” Motown classics, Marvin Gaye & Mary Wells’ “What’s The Matter With You Baby,” over at Levon’s studio, the great man himself on drums, his shoulders famously hunched in that beautiful way of his. Dion and I conferred by phone and, with Cat Russell’s help, crafted our vocal tracks—he in Florida and I in Connecticut— for “Cry Baby Cry,” a treasured southern soul gem out of my vinyl collection originally done by the unsung duo Van & Titus. Dion had loved the track as much as I did when I’d first sent it to him. The guitarists on this record are, truly, an “A Team”—from Rebel Montez’s current (Cliff) and once (Eric, to whose memory the CD is dedicated, appearing with me in a pristine radio air shot of Link Wray’s “Walkin’ Down The Street Called Love”—if ever a title fit the theme, this is it) —to G.E. Smith, Big Al Anderson, Eric “Roscoe” Ambel, and Andy York. I am so deeply grateful to all the musicians whose hearts and souls are stamped on these tracks. They honor me with their presence.

It’s been a long and winding road, and in many respects I felt this was a journey I truly had to make by myself. That I’ve had great artists support me along the way has been a dream, and a gift. As I say in the liner notes, “There are so many who have stepped up with grace and love to help me get through these past years, to rejoice with me, to hold me while I cried, and to lift me up.” I have, indeed, been lifted, and now I look forward to sharing these songs with everyone. Let’s jump into the deep end.

September, 2009/"The Deep End" On The Horizon

Summer in the Beehive was whirlwind....I traveled the country, from Detroit and Chicago to Atlanta, Charlotte and Nashville, performing and conducting master classes for young musicians. Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez kept up a schedule of festival dates that helped us connect with fans far and wide in support of 2008's career retrospective disc Re-Hive, and in advance of the release of our latest work, The Deep End. Mixing and mastering completed, we are awaiting its arrival, with digital availability expected on iTunes and all outlets by November 1. The record will be available at live performances after October 1 and released widely on or about January 1.

What a journey of the heart this record has been. Support and artistry was contributed by so many great friends, from the duet partners (Ian Hunter, Dion, and Marshall Crenshaw), to the musicians (Levon Helm, Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, Big Al Anderson, G.E.Smith, Shawn Pelton, Catherine Russell, The Asbury Juke Horns--Chris Anderson and Neal Pawley--with Mark Rivera, Paul Ossola, Jeff Kazee, Mitch Chakour, Vic Steffens), the production team (my co-producer Andy York, whose musicianship shines on every track, along with Vic Steffens' overseeing and mixing and Jimmy Chapdelaine's mastering), a true photography ace (my dear friend Ric Kallaher) and, of course, the flash cats of Rebel Montez--Cliff Goodwin, Michael Colbath, and Larry Donahue, with a special guest appearance by our late guitarist, Eric Fletcher.

I wrote about love--the falling into it, the newness of it, the loss of it, the sadness that can come from it, the glory of it, the wonder and kick of it. It's my favorite topic, and never have I felt so deeply and been so deeply affected by it. Many of you know that I've suffered loss in these past years, both of a long-time mate and of a close musical collaborator. It's been a long and winding road, and in many respects I felt this was a journey I truly had to make by myself. That I've had so many great artists with me along the way has been a dream, and a gift.

I look forward to the release of these songs and to hearing from listeners what they think of them. That communication feeds all of our souls, and is the lifeblood that makes musical expression precious, always.

"The Deep End" / March, 2009

As fall moved into winter, sessions for The Deep End, my first CD of new material since 2003 (and the first since the passing of my mate and producer Doc Cavalier) were completed in New York City with the Asbury Juke Horns and Mark Rivera joining the other friends--Ian Hunter, Dion DiMucci, Levon Helm, Marshall Crenshaw, GE Smith, Big Al Anderson, Catherine Russell, Paul Ossola, Eric "Roscoe" Ambel, Vic Steffens, Mitch Chakour, and Jeff Kazee--who were already on board with producer and chief contributor Andy York and the members of Rebel Montez: Cliff Goodwin, Michael Colbath, and Larry Donahue.  If the writing of the songs had been a joy, the recording process proved to be a thrill.  From AY's home studio to Vic Steffens' cool Horizon Music to Levon Helm's place in Woodstock to Sounds Great in Boca Raton to Station West in Nashville to Lily's Terrace and New Calcutta in NYC, we had tracks flying all over the place, the groove strong, hearts on fire together. I am deeply grateful, as we complete mixing, for the intensely soulful performances turned in by each and every one.  Watch for The Deep End's release in early summer.

On another note, I just returned from New Orleans for 2009 Mardi Gras with the Bywater Bone Boys Krew led by my friend Skip Henderson (founder of the Mount Zion Memorial Fund) and our pre-dawn ritual of racing through the Marigny, masked in black, banging on drums and cans, "waking the pre-dead." It's a rite that dates from the City's founding, and it was a deep and moving experience. I continue to urge everyone to think of  the good people of New Orleans and the help they still need, and to check out the websites for the New Orleans Musicians' Assistance Foundation/Musicians' Clinic at www.neworleansmusiciansclinic.org and Sweet Home New Orleans, the housing relocation organization that works in concert with the Clinic, at www.sweethomeneworleans.org . Laissez les bon temps roulez.....

Christine

Southern Tour 2008 and Fall News

The summer ones were deep ones as I once again hit the Southern Music trail, flying into New Orleans on July 14 (right after the super-swingin' Los Lobos/Rebel Montez double bill that kicked off the Hamden Arts Council 2008 Concert Series--thanks to all who showed up and made a perfect night even more perfect) for an 8-day round of visiting friends. Lunch with legendary producer/arranger Wardell Quezerque ("Mr. Big Stuff", "Groove Me," and so many others); a tour of the New Orleans Musicians Clinic with its co-founder, my dear friend Bethany Bultman; a couple of nights with my great amigo Skip Henderson, founder of the Mt. Zion Memorial Fund and placer of headstones on the graves of Robert Johnson, Skip James, Tommy Johnson, and more; and a hang with Deb Travis, a dedicated nurse whose safe haven program for abused women at Charity Hospital had just opened when Katrina hit (Charity has yet to reopen its doors, like so many other New Orleans institutions). The program lost everything, but Deb persevered and now, at University Hospital, a similar program has blossomed under her leadership.  There is heroism everywhere in the Crescent City these days--tested again in the wake of the late-August storm called Hurrican Gustav--and I honor it.

From New Orleans it was a short hop to Muscle Shoals, Alabama, one of the towns that can truly lay claim to being "Soul Music USA," for a sit-in with Tupelo, Mississippi's native son Paul Thorn and his kickin' band as part of the WC Handy Festival. Many of the great session cats form the Shoals were there (Spooner Oldham, David Hood, NC Thurman, Kelvin Holly to name a few) and soulful Americana was the order of the night. As you know, that's right up the Beehive Queen's alley. Photos can be seen at: http:..www.christineohlman.net  as well as on the MySpace page at www.myspace.com/christineohlmanmusic .

Early August found me on stage at the "Celebrate Brooklyn!" tribute to Bill Withers. Hall Willner and Janine Nichols assembled a truly wonderful and unique cast of singers;  I was proud to join Nona Hendryx, The Persuasions, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, The Swell Season, Corey Glover, Howard Tate, James Blood Ulmer, Eric Mingus, and many more. The legendary guitarist Cornell Dupree backed me as part of a stellar band led by Steve Bernstein and including my SNL cohort Lenny Pickett.

I have been deep at work on "The Deep End," my upcoming CD slated for release in early 2009. Early September found me in Woodstock, New York tracking with the great, great Levon Helm at his beautiful studio in the woods. Marshall Crenshaw joined me in a duet version of the old Marvin Gaye/Mary Wells duet "What's The Matter With You Baby" as Levon formed a rhythm section with Paul Ossola (bass); Andy York (guitars) and Jeff Kazee (keyboards).  Tracking has been going on since June at Horizon Music in West Haven, Connecticut and Andy's home studio in western Connecticut.  The members of Rebel Montez (Cliff Goodwin-guitars, Larry Donahue-drums, and Michael Colbath-bass, with special guest Andy York (guitar) and Mitch Chakour on keys) have tracked the majority of songs with me, and so many friends have graciously signed on for guest appearances. I duet with both Dion DiMucci and Ian Hunter (as well as Mr. Crenshaw), with other guests including guitarists G.E. Smith, Big Al Anderson, and Eric "Roscoe" Ambel. 

In other news, we await the imminent release of "Re-Hive," a CD retrospective of my four CDs with Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez that includes unissued & alternate takes as well as 2 new recordings of Chicago blues classics that feature Cliff Goodwin on guitar.  We felt it was time to look back, a little, as we look forward to the release of "The Deep End."

Rock on, everyone....we'll see you on the dance floor!!     --Christine