Quick Q and A with Christine Lavin, Part 1
 by Kathy S-B  ·  7 February 2007

I loved your “Best of 2006” list on your website. I must say, you have a wide array of interests. If it’s not folk music, it’s Broadway, off-Broadway, knitting, cooking, . . . you name it. But, I’m intrigued about your obsession with “The Drowsy Chaperone.” You’ve seen it how many times? What is it that keeps you going back time and time again?

Believe it or not, my ‘best of 2006’ list was inspired by my latest compilation project “One Meat Ball” NOT getting a Grammy nomination. I really thought we had a shot (everyone loves the packaging — and we put it up in the ‘best packaging’ category). Dave Van Ronk’s dream was to win a Grammy, and I was hoping to make that dream come true for him, since his recording is the title track of the project, and he also dreamed of writing “The Hangover Cookbook,” but died before it happened. I was so upset when the Grammy nominations were announced — I looked up the five albums that got nominated in that category, and my plan was to buy those albums if they were weren’t fabulous packages, I was going to make trouble.

Luckily, even though I have a short fuse, I get over things very fast (what a blessing that is). I thought about what Dave would think if he knew I went to so much trouble, and how what I had planned might hurt the feelings of five other artists — so instead I thought, “hey, YOU never dreamed of winning a Grammy. That was Dave’s dream. Get over it. Why not post your own ‘best of’ list — a list not corrupted in any way by the business, and based solely on what you personally witnessed?” Re-directing my anger in a positive way TOTALLY got me over the disappointment, and also put the spotlight on so many others who are doing incredible (and very often ‘unrewarded’) work.

Regarding “The Drowsy Chaperone,” I have now seen it 31 times. And I’ll keep going. It’s going to tour in the fall (and a London production is opening in June, with Elaine Paige, one of Britain’s biggest theater stars, playing the part of the chaperone). It crosses all genres of music — if you think you don’t like musical theater, you’ll be surprised. The songs are great; it has heart, surprises, first rate performers. I try to go once a week — for me, I guess it’s church. I’m going to send you an mp3 of me singing one of the songs from the show — I guess it had to happen. I unintentionally memorized all the songs and figured out how to play one on guitar.

Do you have die-hard fans that have seen you in the double-digits as well? ;-)

Yes. I look at them differently now that I’ve become addicted to someone else’s show. They’re not crazy! They are sane, and have good taste (ha ha).

Have you received “bribes” from those who covet one of the awards or on-stage appearances that you are so famous for? What warm-blooded male wouldn’t want to wear a crown and be sung to by you?

No, I can’t be bought that way, though one time I did arrange for a guy to propose marriage at my concert in Ann Arbor, Michigan — thank God she said yes. It was all done via email in advance — I didn’t even meet him til I brought him onstage. Another marriage proposal was done in New England, and we arranged it to happen just before intermission because the groom-to-be arranged for wedding cake (or maybe we should call it ‘engagement cake’) for the entire audience during intermission. That was so wonderful — everyone there that night felt how special it was that we got to be part of this couple’s beginning their married life together.

Regarding the crown I make for every show — some are more elaborate than others, but all are made out of the newspaper, usually using the weather map or the sports page as the basic crown (you know how most men love maps AND sports). You can tell how busy I am by how elaborate the crown is. If it’s not too decorated, it means I’m having little time between shows. But a heavily decorated one means I had a long night in the hotel the night before. I make sure the date is visible, and I try to remember to put a baseball card (my business card) inside and sign it — that I learned from watching “The Antiques Road Show.” I never know who I’m going to crown — it’s a very intuitive process, but I make sure I DON’T crown a guy who looks petrified when I come near him with that light on my head. I would NEVER intentionally do anything to cause someone to go into therapy. But if a guy smiles, winks, or takes off his glasses and poses — he’s a contender.

So tell us how your cook booklet / CD project, “One Meatball,” came about. I remember emailing you a year ago when I booked this show and you were making trial batches of some of the recipes. I’m impressed that you did so much research in the Christine Lavin Test Kitchen in New York City. Do you have a favorite recipe?

Doesn’t matter what my favorite recipe is (FRENCH TOAST BREAD PUDDING! IT’S THE BEST!!) general consensus (and review so far) is that Jeff Daniels’ “Tomato Pudding” is the favorite. It sounds disgusting, but trust me — it’s good hot, warm or cold (BUT SO IS FRENCH TOAST BREAD PUDDING). I worked on this project for about two years — a year into it someone asked me what test kitchen did I hire and I said, “Test kitchen? What’s that?” I thought with musicians giving me family recipes there was no need to test them — but I found out differently. Since I was the producer I had to stand behind this project, and since there was no money to hire a test kitchen I tested most of them myself at home (many times) and then with the cookbook editor, copy editor, caterer, and cover artist. It was very interesting because one of the recipes (the ever popular “15 Second Chocolate Mousse”) calls for raw eggs — and some people can’t eat them, so I had to come up with an alternative way of making that that cooked the eggs. I was very very popular during this time with the elevator guys in my building, and my neighbors who got to taste the results. Of course, I gained 15 pounds during this and now I’m on cholesterol meds and have cut out 90% of all sweets. But I guess my weight gain is a testimonial to the good recipes.

What’s the most satisfying knitting project you’ve ever done? How did you get into knitting? Did you knit as a young girl?

I’m a new knitter — took one class on October 1, 2002, and was instantly hooked. I hang out at “Knitty City” on West 79th Street when I have a jones to be around other knitters (yesterday they taught me how to run the umbrella swift that turns a skein of yarn into a ball of yarn, so I told them whenever I am there to let me do that for them). I’m still very limited in my skills as a knitter — just recently took a class in how to make hats, so that’s what I’m perfecting now. I just designed what I call a ski ‘headband/gator’ — you wear it around your head, but if the weather gets warm on the mountain, you slide it down, wear it loosely around your neck — it looks good in both positions (and you won’t lose it if it’s still on you) . I naively thought when I first started learning, “Oh I’m going to save so much money knitting my own sweaters and hats!” Well ha ha ha. My headbands are made out of a combination of cashmere, silk, and alpaca. I had NO idea what yarn costs, and I grew up with 8 brothers and sisters, no extra money for anything, so how did I develop a taste for cashmere?? It’s an expensive hobby, but having knitting circles at my show I meet the BEST people. Knitters / crocheters are such a nurturing tribe — always making prayer shawls for sick people, preemie caps for babies. Haven’t met anyone knitting a nuclear reactor cozy. At least not yet.

Do you have one special song that you love performing or do you prefer to give all of your songs equal treatment?

It’s always the newest song. I have one I just finished about hurricane names — it’s actually based on a newspaper article I wrote for The Washington Post a couple years ago when Hurricane Floyd did a lot of damage, and people got injured, and I thought part of the problem was that Floyd is way too nice a name for something as dangerous as a hurricane. I used to write stories about things that I couldn’t make into a song — and now I’m finally turning that idea into a song. My favorite possible hurricane name: Catastrofifi.