Quick Q and A with Christine Lavin
 by Kathy S-B  ·  27 October 2012

Christine Lavin is one of the most remarkable people in the music scene. Not only is she a clever and compelling songwriter; she’s also an extreme entertainer who brings a whole lot of sunshine into people’s lives. Christine was one of the leading figures of the “Fast Folk” movement in the 1990s and is a treasured member of the folk community. She has mentored and encouraged musicians from all over the country. She has bonded with audiences with her interactive stage shows, pre-show knitting circles or nail painting adventures. Her sense of humor has prevailed and fans know that they will be thoroughly entertained whenever she’s on stage.

I asked Don White if he could describe you in three words and he couldn’t. Can you describe Don in three words?

blue collar genius

You’ve performed in countless concerts but is there one that stands out as perhaps the most memorable experience ever?

Hmmmm. In 1985 i saw actress Barbara Barrie on a subway car. She played Goldie Hawn’s mom in “Private Benjamin,” and the mother of the boy with blonde hair in “Breaking Away,” that wonderful bicycle movie. I always love her work — she is as thoughtful and intelligent an actor as u will ever find. That encounter inspired me to write “The Moment Slipped Away,” which I recorded in 1986, and performed many, many times.

27 years later — this year, 2012 — my songwriting friend Julie Gold threw me a 60th birthday party, and guess what? She invited Barbara Barrie, too. I brought my guitar and midway thru the party we passed it around. Sally Fingerett of the Four Bitchin’ Babes was there, Neal Shulman of Aztec Two Step — it was so much fun.

When the guitar landed in my hands I stood up and told the story of seeing her on the subway that day, how it inspired a song, and then I sang it to her in Julie Gold’s living room.

I will never forget that moment. Barbara was beaming. It took 27 years, but i finally got to sing it to her.

I made a video for that song, using photos of Barbara, Paul Dooley (her husband in “Breaking Away,”) and others. I can’t remember if it’s on youtube or vimeo, and it’s the long version, which includes a 9/11 story. If u google “The Moment Slipped Away” u should be able to find it.

What’s your favorite song these days?

My favorite song right now is “Same Old Lang Syne” by Dan Fogelberg. This summer I got stuck in an airport (I’m in one right now but not stuck, changing planes) — that day this summer it was a hundred degrees, I was sleep deprived and cranky. For whatever reason that song started playing in my head.

I have always loved it and now it wouldn’t leave me alone. Because I had time to kill, I looked up online the lyrics and the chords, took out my guitar and started noodling around.

The original key didn’t work for me, so I experimented til I found a key that worked in an unusual way — the verses sung high, but the chorus sung low, the opposite of what Dan did. He played piano on it, I play guitar so I thought ‘what if i change the pronouns and sing this from the woman’s point of view?’

It meant making only a few word changes and I was very careful to make sure I got all the rest of the lyrics exactly right. People LOVE this song, and I was changing it but i better be careful not to make any sloppy mistakes (like on the scratch vocal I sang ‘and as I turned to find my way back home’ when it should have been ‘and as I turned to make my way back home.’ So I fixed that.

I worked on this song all during the month of august — i like songs that start right away, so I cut the opening instrumental, but added one later in the song where i felt the listener needed a space to absorb the story. I started thinking about who i could envision playing on the song and called violinist Robin Batteau and asked him to be part of it. I also called Brian Bauers, a producer who also sings and plays. I asked him to produce and to sing, and i called bassist Steve Doyle to anchor the song. I had this whole arrangement in my head, but had no idea if it would actually work.

We went into the recording studio in early September to lay down basic tracks. It’s not an easy song for me to sing so i had three different sessions just to record my parts. Robin was a breeze, Steve Doyle nailed it quickly, and I did my guitar parts.

The night before our third or fourth session on this song I went to bed and woke up with a start. I had played part of the guitar part wrong. I immediately went back and listened to Dan’s original, and sure enough, my guitar chart was wrong. Somehow it came to me in a dream!

I had to redo my guitar, then redo the bass, redo Robin, redo Brian’s vocals. Ka ching. This is now a very expensive project.

After finally all the parts were done, we started mixing. We actually went through 27 different mixes! Halfway thru mixing i got an idea for an additional harmony part, so back into the studio I went.

I think we finally finished six weeks after we started. I will send it to you so can make it available as a free download. It’s going on this year’ Hudson Harding Holiday Sampler Vol 7. As my friend Megon McDonough says, “the Irish are only happy when they’re sad.” This (hopefully) will make a lot of people happy. And I’m working on a video for the song that contains a surprise at the end that should make Dan Fogelberg fans smile.

Quick Q and A with Don White
 by Kathy S-B  ·  27 October 2012

Don White is something else. He writes some of the most poignant songs you’ll ever have the privilege to hear and he also tells some of the most hysterically, rib-splitting stories you’ll hear in your entire life. He has given so very much to the music community over the years. He’s played countless shows in large auditoriums and small coffeehouses. He’s allowed his audiences to forget their troubles and be thoroughly entertained by his memorable stories of his own everyday life. His authenticity is what ingratiates him to his audience. They all love him because he is an Everyman, someone we can all identify with. However, Don is an Extraordinary Everyman. To see him live is a treat. Highly recommended.

Tell us about your latest CD, Winning Streak. In your own words, it’s been a while since you released a CD but you have released a DVD and a book in the interim.

It took a while for me to get back into songwriting after I finished writing my book. Songs seemed kind of small and confined after having years of being able to take as long as I wanted to express an idea in prose without rhyme, meter etc. Eventually I was able to get back into the process of distilling an idea down to its essence again and that’s when the songs on Winning Streak began coming to life.

One of the songs you sing on this CD, “Good Morning Beautiful” was written by Hayley Reardon when she was twelve. What is it about this particular song that resonated with you?

I have been Hayley’s performance coach since she was 12 years old. Her songwriting gift is extraordinary but in getting to know her I am most impressed with her humanity and her natural ability to gracefully navigate all the challenges that come when the world realizes that your gifts are worth money. I hope that someday she will write a book so that other talented young people can learn how to develop their natural abilities without compromising their integrity.

“Good Morning Beautiful” kept rolling around in my mind while my Dad was in an intensive care unit for five weeks before he died. He was in an induced coma and I would just sit there and think about waking him up and taking him away from there.

This, of course, had nothing to do with what Ms. Reardon was thinking about when she wrote the song but as her coach I have advised her against explaining and demystifying one’s lyrics and to let the listener take from the song anything they want.

Good morning Beautiful
Are you ready to go?
Good morning Beautiful
I can feel it you know

The sun is shining
Let’s run away
Everybody’s got something to say
I just want to laugh with you today
You’re the only one who ever knows what to say.

One of the bits on the CD My Wife Hates Baseball is a popular one. After the horrible season that your beloved Red Sox had this year, are you thinking differently about America’s favorite pastime?

Not real happy with my team this year but I still dearly love the game.

Your book Memoirs of a C Student demonstrates that you are not just a gifted songwriter and storyteller but you’re a very accomplished writer. A thought just crossed my mind — have you heard from any of your old teachers? Are they aware that their C Student is a published author now?

Funny you should ask. I had an English Teacher in the 10th grade: Mr. Tomashefsky. The class was creative writing and when the class ended he gave me an A with a #2 beside the grade which at the time meant that the student needed to put more effort into the work. I thought it was a typo so I asked him about it and he said, “You were born to do this. You could have gotten an A in this class without even showing up.” Then he said that “it was my duty to the world to continue to write.”

A year after I wrote my book I sent him a copy with a letter telling him how much his words had meant to me at a time in my life when I had no idea how my life would unfold or whether I would ever be able to contribute something meaningful to the world. I also told him that this was a wonderful example of how important it is to be a good teacher and how the things that good teachers say and do can have a dramatic effect in the lives of their students decades later.

I never heard back from him but I ran into his landord at a concert and he told me that Mr. Tom showed the letter to everyone who visited him.

Alright, now here’s the part of the story that gets hard to believe but it is absolutely true.

A teacher who taught at the same school as Mr. Tom told me this Story. They were having a retirement party for three or four teachers that had just retired, Mr. Tom being one of them. She was going to read my letter as part of his introduction. But he died the day before the party. So, instead of telling people the news about his death she said that he wasn’t able to attend due to health issues and she read my letter to his friends, family and fellow teachers. The audience didn’t know till later that he had already died and that my letter to him was something of a secret memorial.

You offer “tutoring” for aspiring performers — giving them constructive criticism and tips on how to further their careers. Do you find this type of teaching to be a rewarding experience?

Yes. I teach comedy and performance skills and I enjoy it tremendously. I’m a grandfather three times over now. I am in a place in my life where I have what I want as far as my performing career is concerned so the nurturing of other people’s dreams is what excites me now.

You’ve been doing quite a number of shows with Christine Lavin recently. If you had to describe Christine in three words, what would those words be?

I need at least a paragraph to describe Ms. Lavin.

Quick Q and A with Mike Katz (Battlefield Band)
 by Kathy S-B  ·  22 October 2012

The Battlefield Band’s publicity poster is legendary. No doubt about it. Their music has kept traditional Scottish music alive and audiences have enjoyed their tunes for over forty years. The current members of the band include Mike Katz (Highland pipes, small pipes, various whistles, bass guitar, guitar); Alasdair White (fiddle, whistle, bazouki, Highland and small pipes); Sean O’Donnell (vocals, guitar); and Ewen Henderson (fiddle, bagpipes, whistle, piano, vocals). Each of these gentlemen is an extraordinary musician in his own right. They continue to bring the music of the past to the present and are inspiring young musicians to continue to move “forward with Scotland’s past.”

Listening to the Battlefield Band is a musical experience to cherish. Their mixture of traditional and contemporary original material highlights their creative approach to the music.

To learn more about the Battlefield Band, visit their website.

The Battlefield Band has been in existence for over forty years. There have been many lineup changes, but the music continues which is fabulous. How would you describe the Battlefield Band’s music to someone who has never heard you?

Well, you mentioned “fabulous” yourself — I am happy enough to go with that! Seriously: Scottish music of great energy played on a variety of instruments.

Since there have been several changes in the band, how has a sense of continuity taken place? Are there signature songs that have always been on the set list since the band first formed?

All the music is “signature” in that it is the music reflecting the corpus of what has been played in Scotland for hundreds of years: the individual players are merely conduits of this part of national culture. This is akin to the idea that your favourite sports team remains the same entity even though the players change from time to time: one still likes the Boston Celtics, for example, even though Larry Bird no longer plays for them: they are still the Celtics and indeed are still playing basketball.

Everyone is always intrigued by musicians who play the bagpipes. Is it a difficult instrument to master? Is there a lot of encouragement within the schools or other organizations to get young people interested in learning to play them since it is such a iconic representation of Scotland?

In a word, yes. Bagpipes are largely about the instrument: the maintenance and sound thereof. It is a beast of four reeds and numerous slides so attaining the optimum sound is a plumbing problem and a general obsession of most pipers and while the listener may not notice this too much, it might give one an insight into the general mania existent within the souls of the practitioners of this dark and silly art.

Does your repertoire include mostly traditional songs? Do your renditions of the old songs differ from the versions that your elders played?

Our repertoire tends towards a 50/50 blend of traditional material and more recent compositions in the traditional idiom. As far as interpretations of vocal and instrumental pieces go, we are less concerned with reworking things than re-affirming the strength of the music.

Your CD The Road of Tears is a thematic album full of songs about emigration. I was especially interested in seeing that you cover a Woody Guthrie song “Deportee / Plane Wreck at Los Gatos.” Since this is the anniversary of Woody’s birth 100 years ago, have you been getting many requests to do that song during this tour?

Well remembered! We haven’t performed that song for a couple of years — perhaps we should get it up for this tour.

Your latest CD Line-up includes a tongue-in-cheek cover shot of all the band members in a police line-up. Does it have any particular theme?

No theme really. We were just trying to get together the best music we could — having acquired our latest member, Ewen Henderson.

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