Christine Ohlman Part 2; A Little Deeper

For the past few years, I have had the great pleasure of trading emails with Christine, and have had the opportunity to talk with her on many occasions. Christine is passionate about many things. Her music, New Orleans, and their ongoing struggle to rebuild after Katrina, the plight of many musicians, primarily in New Orleans, and the surrounding Gulf Coast.  I wanted to save the last two questions  to address both her new album, “The Deep End” and New Orleans in general.

When I first started doing “ Musicians Spotlight“, I swore I would never use the term “Tour de Force” in anything I wrote. However I really think that this is the best way for me to describe “The Deep End“. I know that Christine and everyone involved spent so much of time in making this album. For me, “The Gone of You” cuts right to the bone. Everything I have ever experienced in a relationship, happy and sad comes to the surface. I have never been moved by one song as I have by “The Gone of You“. And, yet, this is but one of the many incredible songs on this album. As many of you know, including Christine, my favorite song is “Bring it With You When You Come“. It is one of those songs that just rocks and you can’t help but get on the floor and dance, or just turn the volume up to eleven when you are driving. It has pretty much become my mantra, and it represents exactly what Christine Ohlman and Rebel Montez did when they made this album. Absolutely nothing was left on the table.

“ I know that Cliff was also involved in the writing of “The Gone of You”, but how does one or two people create something like this? What was, and where does the inspiration for a song like this come from?”

“Cliff had a short guitar riff that I’d recorded during a sound check, and it took me almost two years to marry it to the idea for “The Gone Of You.” In fact, I had an entirely different song called “Sin” that was almost completely written before the idea for “The Gone Of You” moved in and kicked it out of bed, as they say.  I began fooling around with sets of words that epitomize the things that are gone when someone leaves…… taste, feel, skin, mind, thought….all those things you miss. And then I realized that the thing you miss most is…..the actual “gone”-ness.  There came the title.”

“The entire writing process was done by me at my writing table, looping Cliff’s riff over and over in my head, and then when I brought it to rehearsal, he helped finish the chord sequence in the bridge and greatly refined the riff itself on guitar. Once I got the idea to use sets of related words, the lyrics fell into place very quickly.”

“Andy York, who co-produced The Deep End, had a completely different, beautifully  organic take on the song and created a loop-driven demo before we even started to work on the album. I loved it so much that I sang it one night at about 1 a.m. while we were at his house. Hence, we called it “The Gone Of You: After Hours.”

“We all have some place that is special for us I know that New Orleans holds special meaning to you. I also know you have spent a lot of time down there since Katrina. Just like all tragedies, once they are no longer on the nightly news, we brush it aside, and go on to the next story. How are they doing down there, and what can we do to help?”

“My pet charities are the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic and its parent, The New Orleans Musicians Assistance Foundation (information can be accessed at www.neworleansmusiciansclinic.organd www.nomaf.org). I continue to work with them on digital-download projects (which benefit the Clinic 100%) such as the great “Get You A Healin’ CD“ (available on Amazon at http://tinyurl.com/4poug2f and “Down On The Bayou II” , a concert taped during the 2010 Jazz and Heritage Festival (available at  http://bit.ly/csLEAg ). The people of New Orleans are the ultimate survivors, but of course the entire recovery process was SO ill-served by the Bush administration, and, to my mind, the Obama administration has done no better. The musicians and artists of New Orleans have been particularly hard-hit. I hope folks will check out the web sites above and consider making a donation, or downloading some of the fine music.

After reading all this, i am hoping that you want a copy of “The Deep End” or even better, go see Christine live. Well I think I can help you on both of those. On Saturday march 5th, Christine Ohlman and Rebel Montez will be joined on stage by “The Sin Sisters” at one of my favorite venues, The Katharine Hepburn Cultural Arts Center in Old Saybrook, For box office info, here’s the link. You can buy all of Christine’s albums at Amazon as well.

http://www.youtube.com/user/ChristineOhlman#p/a/u/0/-GmyQCvBxVc

click here for part one

Photo credit Tom Horan