Christine Ohlman
Encyclopedia
Christine Ohlman is a singer, songwriter, guitarist, recording artist, music scholar. Her nickname "The Beehive Queen" refers to her distinctive platinum beehive
. She leads the band Christine Ohlman and Rebel Montez consisting of Michael Colbath (bass), Larry Donahue (drums), Cliff Goodwin (guitar), founding member and guitarist (Eric Fletcher) (died in 2006) with whom she has recorded six albums. Additionally, she is the long-running vocalist for the Saturday Night Live Band
.
Mainstream Records owner/producer Bob Shad. Relocating to Connecticut and working out of a studio in Wallingford, Connecticut (initially called Syncron Sound and now known as Trod Nossel),
Ohlman next fronted a group called Fancy with her brother Vic Steffens, releasing an LP "Fancy Meeting You Here" and a 45 "All My Best" on the Poison Ring label. She overdubbed backup
vocals for the Rolling Stones "Metamorphosis" album and developed a lifelong friendship with Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham. She later sang on the Oldham-produced "Essence to
Essence" (by Donovan) and edited the second installment of Oldham's autobiography "2Stoned."
G. E. Smith and Mickey Curry, were noted throughout the Northeast for their incendiary live shows (not to be confused with The 77s-The Savage-Young Scratch Band). She later reunited with
both Smith and fellow Scratch Band member Paul Ossala when she joined the Saturday Night Live (SNL) Band for the 1991-1992 season.
She appeared with Reverend Al Green on the show's 25th anniversary special. Lenny Pickett, music director for Saturday Night Live, said "Ms. Ohlman was, at the time she entered the SNL
Band, responsible for selecting much of the band's vintage rhythm and blues repertoire."
, Charlie Musselwhite
(Grammy nominated "One Night In America"), Kenny Neal
, Ian Hunter
,
Black 47
, and Big Al Anderson. She has appeared on CDs paying tribute to The Rolling Stones ("Exile On Blues Street"), Nick Lowe ("Labour of Love: The Songs of Nick Lowe"), Willie
Dixon ("The Songs Of Willie Dixon"), and the Grammy nominated "A Tribute To Howling Wolf," which includes her duet with Eddie Shaw. The Howling Wolf Tribute and Eddie Kirkland's "Lonely
Street" were both co-produced by Christine's mate of many years, the late Thomas "Doc" Cavalier, who also co-produced Christine's first four CDs and is memorialized in "The Deep End's"
poignant number "The Gone Of You." Dave Marsh noted that listeners will find that, in The Deep End, "there are so many 'wow' moments."
Highlights of Ohlman's live guest appearances include: the 1992 Bob Dylan's 30th anniversary at Madison Square Garden (with George Harrison, Chrissy Hynde, and the O'Jays); the 2003 Central
Park Summerstage Year of the Blues tribute to Janis Joplin, where Christine joined Phoebe Snow, Kate Pearson and others in fronting both Big Brother & The Holding Company and the Kozmic
Blues Band; the 2008's tribute to Bill Withers (with Jim James, Nona Hendryx and the Persuasions); and the 2009 Barack Obama Presidential Inaugural Gala.
Her numerous regular charitable appearances include participation in The Casey Cares Foundation (of Baltimore Maryland) and their Rock 'n Roll Bash (with cohorts Mark Rivera, Bruce Kulick,
Hugh MacDonald, Nils Lofgren, Jeff Carlisi, Steve Conte and Andy York). Her contributions to the post-Katrina catastrophe in New Orleans include her participation in the planned 2010
digital re-release of the compilation "Get You A Healin'" which will feature a track from The Deep End called "The Cradle Did Rock" to benefit the New Orleans Musicians Assistance
Foundation and the New Orleans Musicians Clinic.
She worked on a musical, "Welcome To The Club," with Cy Coleman and A. E. Hotchner.
York, GE Smith, and Shawn Pelton
. The album is dedicated to the memory of its producer, Doc Cavalier, "in whom the renegade heart of rock n'roll burned true."
Christine Ohlman - lead vocals, acoustic and electric rhythm guitars
Michael Colbath - bass
Larry Donahue - drums and percussion
Cliff Goodwin - lead guitar (tracks 3 & 10)
Eric Fletcher - lead electric guitar, acoustic guitar (except track 3 & 10)
Track 1 - "Wicked Time" from Wicked Time released 2000
Track 2 - "A Shot of You" from The Hard Way released 1995
Track 3 - "Dimples" (previously unreleased) 2008
Track 4 - "Sugar Melts" from The Hard Way released 1995
Track 5 - "Turn" from Wicked Time released 2000
Track 6 - "The Hard Way" from The Hard Way released 1995
Track 7 - "When the Summer Goes" (alternate version) from Wicked Time released 2000
Track 8 - "Bound" from Strip" released 2003
Track 9 - "Then God Created Woman" (live recording 2003) from The Hard Way released 1995
Track 10 - "The Storm" from The Strip released 2003
Track 11 - "Circle 'Round the Sun" (alternate version) from Wicked Time released 2000
Track 12 - "Edge of the World" from The Hard Way released 1995
Track 13 - "One More Thrill" from Wicked Time released 2000
Track 14 - "Charmaine" (previously unreleased) 1984
Track 15 - "It Tears Me Up" (previously unreleased live demo) 1991
with Dion DiMucci
, Marshall Crenshaw
, and Ian Hunter
along with guest
appearances by: Andy York (the record's producer), G. E. Smith
, Eric
"Roscoe" Ambel, Levon Helm
, Big Al Anderson, Vic Steffens (Executive
Producer) and Catherine Russell
. The Rebel Montez appear on 9 of the CDs 15 cuts. The CD will be released on HMG Records. It is reported that Ohlman's The Cradle Did Rock will appear as a bonus cut to the digital reissue of "Get You A Healin'", which will benefit the New Orleans Musicians' Clinic.
the UK with 10 tracks total) and "Rescue". She also appeared on a compilations called "Bionic Gold" released in the UK as "Big Sound For A Small Planet" with labelmates Mick Farren and
others. Ohlman's solo recording career began in 1995 with the release of "The Hard Way" on the Deluge label. The title track of this CD later appeared in the 2008n Lifetime Channel original film
"Sex And Lies In Sin City." "Musical treasures like this don't come along very often" wrote author/musician Cub Koda (1995)-3. Charles M. Young pithily observed "The first thing you notice is her tough, rousing, sexy voice" (1995)-4.
Ohlman recorded a live version of "The Hard Way" (with additional cuts) at the studios of WPKN in Bridgeport, Connecticut (titled "Radio Queen").
Beehive (hairstyle)
The Beehive is a woman's hairstyle that resembles a beehive; it is elegant and it is also known as the B-52, for its similarity to the bulbous nose of the B-52 Stratofortress bomber. It originated as one of a variety of elaborately teased and lacquered versions of "big hair" that developed from...
. She leads the band Christine Ohlman and Rebel Montez consisting of Michael Colbath (bass), Larry Donahue (drums), Cliff Goodwin (guitar), founding member and guitarist (Eric Fletcher) (died in 2006) with whom she has recorded six albums. Additionally, she is the long-running vocalist for the Saturday Night Live Band
Saturday Night Live Band
The Saturday Night Live Band is the house band of the NBC television program Saturday Night Live .-Noteworthy members:...
.
Background
Christine's recording career began at age 16 with the New Haven, Connecticut-based band The Wrongh (sic) Black Bag recording a version of the Blues Project's "Wake Me, Shake Me" for theMainstream Records owner/producer Bob Shad. Relocating to Connecticut and working out of a studio in Wallingford, Connecticut (initially called Syncron Sound and now known as Trod Nossel),
Ohlman next fronted a group called Fancy with her brother Vic Steffens, releasing an LP "Fancy Meeting You Here" and a 45 "All My Best" on the Poison Ring label. She overdubbed backup
vocals for the Rolling Stones "Metamorphosis" album and developed a lifelong friendship with Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham. She later sang on the Oldham-produced "Essence to
Essence" (by Donovan) and edited the second installment of Oldham's autobiography "2Stoned."
Associations
Christine was a founding member of The Scratch Band when Fancy evolved into that band's incarnation, a seven-member unit which later pared down to five. The Scratch Band, including membersG. E. Smith and Mickey Curry, were noted throughout the Northeast for their incendiary live shows (not to be confused with The 77s-The Savage-Young Scratch Band). She later reunited with
both Smith and fellow Scratch Band member Paul Ossala when she joined the Saturday Night Live (SNL) Band for the 1991-1992 season.
Saturday Night Live
Christine Ohlman became the lead vocalist for the Saturday Night Live Band in 1991She appeared with Reverend Al Green on the show's 25th anniversary special. Lenny Pickett, music director for Saturday Night Live, said "Ms. Ohlman was, at the time she entered the SNL
Band, responsible for selecting much of the band's vintage rhythm and blues repertoire."
Releases
In addition to her own releases, she has contributed to the CDs of Eddie KirklandEddie Kirkland
Eddie Kirkland was an American electric blues guitarist, harmonicist, singer, and songwriter.Kirkland, known as the "Gypsy of the Blues" for his rigorous touring schedules, played and toured with John Lee Hooker from 1949 to 1962...
, Charlie Musselwhite
Charlie Musselwhite
Charlie Musselwhite is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the non-black bluesmen who came to prominence in the early 1960s, along with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield. Though he has often been identified as a "white bluesman", he claims Native American heritage...
(Grammy nominated "One Night In America"), Kenny Neal
Kenny Neal
Kenny Neal , son of Raful Neal, is an american blues guitar player, singer and band member. Neal comes from a musical family and has often performed with his brothers in his band.-Career:...
, Ian Hunter
Ian Hunter (singer)
Ian Hunter Patterson is an English singer-songwriter. He was the lead singer of the English rock band Mott the Hoople from its inception in 1969 to its dissolution in 1974, and he again fronted them at the time of their 2009 reunion. Hunter was a musician and songwriter before Mott The Hoople, and...
,
Black 47
Black 47
Black 47 are a New York City based celtic rock band with Irish Republican sympathies, whose music also shows influence from reggae, hip hop, folk and jazz...
, and Big Al Anderson. She has appeared on CDs paying tribute to The Rolling Stones ("Exile On Blues Street"), Nick Lowe ("Labour of Love: The Songs of Nick Lowe"), Willie
Dixon ("The Songs Of Willie Dixon"), and the Grammy nominated "A Tribute To Howling Wolf," which includes her duet with Eddie Shaw. The Howling Wolf Tribute and Eddie Kirkland's "Lonely
Street" were both co-produced by Christine's mate of many years, the late Thomas "Doc" Cavalier, who also co-produced Christine's first four CDs and is memorialized in "The Deep End's"
poignant number "The Gone Of You." Dave Marsh noted that listeners will find that, in The Deep End, "there are so many 'wow' moments."
Highlights of Ohlman's live guest appearances include: the 1992 Bob Dylan's 30th anniversary at Madison Square Garden (with George Harrison, Chrissy Hynde, and the O'Jays); the 2003 Central
Park Summerstage Year of the Blues tribute to Janis Joplin, where Christine joined Phoebe Snow, Kate Pearson and others in fronting both Big Brother & The Holding Company and the Kozmic
Blues Band; the 2008's tribute to Bill Withers (with Jim James, Nona Hendryx and the Persuasions); and the 2009 Barack Obama Presidential Inaugural Gala.
Her numerous regular charitable appearances include participation in The Casey Cares Foundation (of Baltimore Maryland) and their Rock 'n Roll Bash (with cohorts Mark Rivera, Bruce Kulick,
Hugh MacDonald, Nils Lofgren, Jeff Carlisi, Steve Conte and Andy York). Her contributions to the post-Katrina catastrophe in New Orleans include her participation in the planned 2010
digital re-release of the compilation "Get You A Healin'" which will feature a track from The Deep End called "The Cradle Did Rock" to benefit the New Orleans Musicians Assistance
Foundation and the New Orleans Musicians Clinic.
She worked on a musical, "Welcome To The Club," with Cy Coleman and A. E. Hotchner.
"Re-Hive" (2008 Release)
In 2008, Christine Ohlman & Rebel Montez completed their compilation CD, "Re-Hive", containing previously released and unreleased tracks featuring Grammy Award winning performers AndyYork, GE Smith, and Shawn Pelton
Shawn Pelton
Shawn Pelton is a New York City-based studio and session drummer. Pelton has worked with the Backstreet Boys, Sheryl Crow, Shawn Colvin, Bruce Springsteen, Celine Dion and Billy Joel...
. The album is dedicated to the memory of its producer, Doc Cavalier, "in whom the renegade heart of rock n'roll burned true."
Christine Ohlman - lead vocals, acoustic and electric rhythm guitars
Michael Colbath - bass
Larry Donahue - drums and percussion
Cliff Goodwin - lead guitar (tracks 3 & 10)
Eric Fletcher - lead electric guitar, acoustic guitar (except track 3 & 10)
Track 1 - "Wicked Time" from Wicked Time released 2000
Track 2 - "A Shot of You" from The Hard Way released 1995
Track 3 - "Dimples" (previously unreleased) 2008
Track 4 - "Sugar Melts" from The Hard Way released 1995
Track 5 - "Turn" from Wicked Time released 2000
Track 6 - "The Hard Way" from The Hard Way released 1995
Track 7 - "When the Summer Goes" (alternate version) from Wicked Time released 2000
Track 8 - "Bound" from Strip" released 2003
Track 9 - "Then God Created Woman" (live recording 2003) from The Hard Way released 1995
Track 10 - "The Storm" from The Strip released 2003
Track 11 - "Circle 'Round the Sun" (alternate version) from Wicked Time released 2000
Track 12 - "Edge of the World" from The Hard Way released 1995
Track 13 - "One More Thrill" from Wicked Time released 2000
Track 14 - "Charmaine" (previously unreleased) 1984
Track 15 - "It Tears Me Up" (previously unreleased live demo) 1991
"The Deep End" (2010 Release)
Her most recent release is 2009-2010's "The Deep End" which includes duetswith Dion DiMucci
Dion DiMucci
Dion Francis DiMucci , better known as Dion, is an American singer-songwriter whose work has incorporated elements of doo-wop, pop oldies music, rock and R&B styles....
, Marshall Crenshaw
Marshall Crenshaw
Marshall Crenshaw is an American singer, songwriter and guitarist best known for his song "Someday, Someway".-Biography:...
, and Ian Hunter
Ian Hunter (singer)
Ian Hunter Patterson is an English singer-songwriter. He was the lead singer of the English rock band Mott the Hoople from its inception in 1969 to its dissolution in 1974, and he again fronted them at the time of their 2009 reunion. Hunter was a musician and songwriter before Mott The Hoople, and...
along with guest
appearances by: Andy York (the record's producer), G. E. Smith
G. E. Smith
George Edward "G. E." Smith is an American guitarist. He was the lead guitarist in the band Hall & Oates and the musical director of Saturday Night Live. Smith was lead guitarist of Bob Dylan's touring band from June 7, 1988 to October 19, 1990...
, Eric
"Roscoe" Ambel, Levon Helm
Levon Helm
Mark Lavon "Levon" Helm , is an American rock multi-instrumentalist and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and frequent lead and backing vocalist for The Band....
, Big Al Anderson, Vic Steffens (Executive
Producer) and Catherine Russell
Catherine Russell
Catherine Russell is a British stage, television and screen actress.-Personal:Catherine Russell is the daughter of actor Nicholas Smith and his wife Mary. She is married to film producer Richard Holmes and they have two children, Sam and Poppy...
. The Rebel Montez appear on 9 of the CDs 15 cuts. The CD will be released on HMG Records. It is reported that Ohlman's The Cradle Did Rock will appear as a bonus cut to the digital reissue of "Get You A Healin'", which will benefit the New Orleans Musicians' Clinic.
Early work
On Big Sound Records, she appeared on The Scratch Band LPs "The Scratch Band" (a 6-song EP in the States, later released in Germany on KukKuk Records with 2 additional tracks and on EMI inthe UK with 10 tracks total) and "Rescue". She also appeared on a compilations called "Bionic Gold" released in the UK as "Big Sound For A Small Planet" with labelmates Mick Farren and
others. Ohlman's solo recording career began in 1995 with the release of "The Hard Way" on the Deluge label. The title track of this CD later appeared in the 2008n Lifetime Channel original film
"Sex And Lies In Sin City." "Musical treasures like this don't come along very often" wrote author/musician Cub Koda (1995)-3. Charles M. Young pithily observed "The first thing you notice is her tough, rousing, sexy voice" (1995)-4.
Ohlman recorded a live version of "The Hard Way" (with additional cuts) at the studios of WPKN in Bridgeport, Connecticut (titled "Radio Queen").
External links
- Official website)
- A Pop Music Lover Gets to Belt Them Out (The New York Times)
- Ronnie Spector, Christine Ohlman team for Haitian benefit (News Times)
- SNL's Christine Ohlman To Release New Album This Spring (The Insider)
- CD Review: "The Deep End" by Christine Ohlman and Rebel Montez (Hartford Courant)
- With a Rebel yell Christine Ohlman returns (New Haven Register)