Christine Lavin

Vance Gilbert

Tickets $30.00 ~ Showtime 8:00 pm
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Christine Lavin is a singer/songwriter/guitarist/recording artist/author/videographer who has been working as a musician based in New York City since 1984. She is currently producing her 23rd solo album, scheduled for release in the fall of 2017. Her 22nd album, CHRISTINE LAVIN & FRIENDS LIVE AT McCABE’S GUITAR SHOP was produced by Hillary Rollins, and includes five stellar LA performers (Gary Stockdale, Pat Whiteman, Cynthia Carle, David Lucky, and MaryJo Mundy), and the revered British singer/songwriter, Daniel Cainer. Christine sings seven songs on this album.

She has produced ten compilation CDs, JUST ONE ANGEL 2.0 being the latest, which have showcased the songs of dozens of singer/songwriters whose work she admires. The food-themed compilation ONE MEAT BALL, includes a 96-page cookbook that Christine edited.

For four years she hosted “Slipped Disks” on XM satellite radio, playing CDs slipped to her backstage by compatriots, and she is now the occasional guest host for the City Folk Sunday Supper on WFUV-FM at Fordham University. She also writes freelance for various publications (including The Washington Post, Huffington Post, The St. Petersburg Times, The Performing Songwriter, The Finger Lakes Times, and Delta “Sky” Magazine).

The book THE PLUTO FILES: THE RISE AND FALL OF AMERICA’S FAVORITE PLANET, written by Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium in NYC, includes the complete lyrics to Christine’s song “Planet X,” which details Pluto’s history and planetary status debate. The book is published by W.W. Norton — and Christine got a “D” in Astronomy in college (see kids? You CAN make up for the mistakes of your youth).

She has appeared in concert with Neil deGrasse Tyson as part of his “Astronomers & Comedians” tour, and is fairly certain she is the first Astronomy D student to ever do so.

Christine founded the group, “Four Bitchin’ Babes” in 1990, toured with them for eight years, and the group has continued successfully to this day, performing concerts all over the US.

Ms. Lavin’s song “Amoeba Hop” was turned into a science/music book by illustrator Betsy Franco Feeney (Puddle Jump Press), received the stamp of approval from The International Society of Protistologists, and a “Best Book Award” from The American Association for The Advancement of Science.

Betsy and Christine have collaborated again on HOLE IN THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, a children’s book with CD that tells the story of an oil spill with an emphasis on clean, alternative energy. More than 50 singers from around the world are included on the CD. That book was crowdfunded by Kickstarter and is currently looking for a publisher.

Christine performs concerts all over the US, Canada, and points beyond (Australia, Germany, Israel), and hosts knitting circles backstage prior to each show. Songs of hers have been performed by artists as diverse as Broadway stars Betty Buckley, Sutton Foster, and David Burnham, cabaret divas Andrea Marcovicci, Barbara Brussell, and Colleen McHugh, the college a cappella Dartmouth Decibelles, and The Accidentals, winners of the National Harmony Sweepstakes championship.

Christine has recently added intermission tutorial activities to her concert — teaching audience members how to fold cloth napkins in the fancy “Downton Abbey” style. Even she can’t believe how popular this halftime activity has become. “It’s almost like they come for the napkin folding, then stay for the music,” she says quizzically.

Her award-winning book, COLD PIZZA FOR BREAKFAST: A MEM-WHA?? is available in paperback, kindle, iPad, and audio book formats. In 2011 it won the 43rd Annual ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for Excellence In Non-Fiction Writing About Pop Music. Just One Angel, her first holiday compilation project, (22 artists, 22 Christmas/Hanukah/Solstice/New Year’s songs) became a four-artist west coast tour that hit the road in December of 2011, 2012, and 2013.

For eight years (2012-2016) Christine performed co-bill concerts with Boston comedian Don White all over the US and Canada.

OTHER AWARDS: In 2012 she won a NYC Nightlife Award given annually to the best concert and cabaret performers in New York City. Christine has also won five ASCAP composer awards, the Backstage Bistro Award for Best NYC Singer/Songwriter Of The Year, The Kate Wolf Memorial Award, and her album Good Thing He Can’t Read My Mind won Album Of The Year from the National Association Of Independent Record Distributors.

LATEST PROJECTS: Christine started creating videos for her songs in 2011, and now creates them for other artists (Robyn Landis, John Margolis, Don White, Ray Jessel, Honor Finnegan, Craig Werth, Grammy-winner Julie Gold, David Ippolito). She has many posted at Youtube and Vimeo. This one: http://www.vimeo.com/28256675 won the weekly indy short film contest on WNET in NYC and was broadcast on Channel 13 in NYC.

Christine Lavin was the keynote speaker in November 2016 at the annual North East Regional Folk Alliance Conference (NERFA) held in Stamford, CT. A written expanded edition of her presentation is available upon request — 92 pages of advice she’s gathered over the years that will help new performers find their way is this everchanging world.

“A garrulous comic observer of contemporary manners” ~ NY Times.

“An enchanting stage performer” ~ Cosmopolitan.

“Lavin is the central force in the most visible segment of the contemporary folk music scene. Captivating.” ~ Billboard.

“Christine Lavin puts delightful melodies behind wry, witty and perceptive observations about life.” ~ NY Daily News.

“Lavin can write serious, sensitive songs with the best of them. But it’s her funny material that sticks in the mind.” ~ Providence Bulletin.

“She’s a folkZinger!” ~ Orlando Sentinel.

“A Christine Lavin concert is an experience you will remember with big smiles………” ~ Joyce Sica, Uptown Concerts.

Vance Gilbert’s BaD Dog Buffet… Can something be wry, aching, hysterical, evocative, provocative, fun, beautifully sung, and consummately played all at once? Can it?

That’d be Vance Gilbert and his transcendent latest album “BaD Dog Buffet.”

With the generous assistance from a varied list of super-respected guests — including Celtic harpist/singer Aine Minogue, bluegrass boys Darol Anger and Joe Walsh Jr., jazz sax player Grace Kelly, country rock hero Roy Sludge, and guitar mainstay Kevin Barry — this talented man’s musical truth plays out shamelessly on BaD Dog Buffet.

Fully funded by his fans, the record has so far received raves reviews based solely on the material folks knew would be on it Those who know and love Vance have already enjoyed the life-loving capitulation of “God Bless Everyone,” the seething rocker “Nothing from You,” and the tongue-in-cheek, happy break-up song, “Out the Way We Came In.” “First Ring” is a Vance classic, a banjo love story rooted in folk whimsy, while “Kiss the Bad Boys” sounds like what would happen if Bootsy Collins and Bruce Springsteen were trapped in an elevator and ended up writing a song together. “Unfamiliar Moon,” which some may know as Vance’s signature song — a tune that landed him in the second round of auditions of TV’s “America’s Got Talent” — is revisited here in a pared down version with Anger on fiddle.

Like all great artists, Vance truly happens live. In fact he developed his reputation with his jawdropping, diverse, funny, devastating, and gorgeous live performances. Arlo Guthrie, Anita Baker, the late George Carlin have all requested Vance to be added to their bills.

Vance exploded onto the scene in the early 90’s, with buzz spreading quickly. Who was this multicultural arts teacher knocking them dead at open mics? After opening Shawn Colvin’s 1992 Fat City tour, he took much of America by storm and by surprise. “With the voice of an angel, the wit of a devil, and the guitar playing of a god, it was enough to earn him that rarity: an encore for an opener,” wrote the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in its review of a show from the Colvin tour.

Vance followed with three acclaimed albums for the Rounder/Philo label — Edgewise (1994), Fugitives (1995), and Shaking Off Gravity (1998). Then, Somerville Live (2000), was lionized by the Boston Globe as the disc “young songwriters should study the way law students cram for bar exams,” and New York’s Town and Village called One Thru Fourteen (2002), “lively, eclectic, electrifying and transcending.”

Gilbert then released a duo album with his friend Ellis Paul, entitled Side Of The Road (2003). The Boston Globe described it as “the songwriter’s most compelling work; literate, heartfelt, rippling… emotionally resonant.” The Globe placed the album on its Top 10 list that year.

Gilbert only continued on with three more albums, Angels, Castles, Covers (2006) displaying his vocal virtuosity, with sounds of Motown, the R&B of Al Green, and classic Joni Mitchell. Up On Rockfield (2008) just after a year and a half as support for George Carlin, and Old White Men.

Which brings us full circle to BaD Dog Buffet, the latest in a growing, glowing oeuvre and an evocative catalog created by a cornerstone acoustic artist.

Buy tickets for Christine Lavin and Vance Gilbert at Cellar Stage™ Timonium