As you can imagine, a co-bill featuring Christin­e Lavin and Don White will be a very droll affair. Lavin’s smart and funny songs nail our lives and foibles on the head. With a comedienne’s arsenal of irony and wit, her delightfully skewered songs cover a lot of territory. Don White also mines comic gold. Coming from the world of standup comedy, he is a family man whose concerts can turn what happens at home into an onstage biopic. His funny and touching songs go straight to an audience’s heart.

Christine Lavin is a singer/songwriter/guitar­ist/​recording artist living in New York. She has recorded 20 solo albums. She has also produced nine compilation CDs showcasing the work of dozens of songwriters whose work she loves — one of them, the food-themed One Meat Ball, includes a 96-page cookbook that Christine edited. Her latest book is her very own memoir, Cold Pizza for Breakfast. For four years she hosted “Slipped Disks” on xm satellite radio, playing CDs slipped to her backstage by compatriots, and is the occasional guest host for the City Folk Sunday Breakfast Show on WFUV-FM at Fordham University. She also writes freelance for various publications (including the Washington Post, the St. Petersburg Times, Performing Songwriter, and Delta Sky Magazine). Her song “Amoeba Hop” has been turned into a science/music book, 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. The book The Pluto Files: The Rise and Fall of America’s Favorite Planet by Neil deGrasse Tyson, head 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 in rhyme. Christine performs concerts all over the US, Canada, and points beyond, and hosts knitting circles backstage prior to many show.

Photo of Christine Lavin by Irene Young

. . .

If you laugh and cry within the same ten minutes, you either need a vacation or you are sitting in the audience at a Don White show. This working class family man from Lynn, Massachusetts has emerged as the thoughtful songwriter of the decade whose relevance to our lives is evidenced by the powerful reaction he evokes at every concert. Radio audiences, too, are not safe from the Don White experience. Valerie Adams of WNCS Radio, Vermont said, “I’ve never seen anything like it. Every time I play “I Know What Love Is” the phones light up like a Christmas tree. Stereo Review Magazine called it “. . . a candidate for song of the year.”

In 1974 Don started hitch-hiking around America. “I went to Alaska and Newfoundland. That first trip I was gone eleven months and I only spent $1,100,” he says gleefully. His wife — then girlfriend — Theresa joined him on the road. Since settling down in Lynn, Don has worked on a craft of songwriting and performing. He learned his art in the trenches: often doing nine shows a week at Catch A Rising Star over two and a half years. Studying the masters who passed though that fabled club, he developed his own infectious brand of humor and pathos that rivets the crowd wherever he plays. Don conducts a performance skills workshop at Club Passim, Cambridge’s legendary folk club, where he passes along his experience to aspiring performers.

Don White illuminates the human experience though his writing and performing. Whether he is singing, speaking, or setting up the sneakiest punch line of the night, Don has the hearts of his audience. They know they have his.

Photo of Don White by Craig Harris

• How many musicians have I met over the past 25 years? One thousand? Ten thousand? Do I remem­ber every detail about the first time I met them each? No, except for one — Don White. It was backstage at The Old Vienna in Westboro, Massachusetts before our very first concert together. I remember watching his show that night, astonished at how funny, how skillful, and how heartfelt his songs were. I made a mental note — work with this man again.
• Finally, my dream is not only coming true . . . one of our shows was taped. Now, whenever I’m feeling blue, I just listen to this and all my woes float into space. I’m saving a fortune on therapy. Thank you, Don White. Christine Lavin
• I have been trying to find a way to explain to people just how much fun these co-bills with Christine Lavin are. I have never been involved in anything like it in 20 years in the music business. People are justifiably skeptical when I tell them that, except for a few strategically placed serious songs, the audience is howling for over two hours with the kind of laughter that makes you think that some of them might be peeing themselves just a little. This is a folk show after all.
• People outside the folk community often expect folk funny to be kinda cutesy and not at all like REAL funny. Well, this live recording of the second concert on our 2009 summer tour in front of a full house at The Ark in Ann Arbor, Michigan speaks for itself. The laughter on it is bigger, more frequent and more enthusiastic than on many comedy albums. If you were there that night, this mp3 has captured the memory for you. For everyone else, it is a fantastic example of how much fun you will have at a Lavin/White concert. Enjoy. Don White