"The Beehive Queen", Vocalist, Songwriter & Musicologist (long-time vocalist Saturday Night Live Band)
“I’ve come here tonight to set your souls on fire,” she’ll tell an audience. And she will.
Long-time Saturday Night Live Band’s vocalist (since 1992), Christine’s legendary voice and stage presence (known as “The Beehive Queen” for her towering blonde hairdo) have most recently been featured on:
Christine appears on Grammy nominees A Tribute To Howlin’ Wolf (with Taj Mahal and Lucinda Williams) and Charlie Musselwhite’s One Night In America (with Marty Stuart); sings the theme song for NBC’s 30 Rock; worked on a musical with the late Cy Coleman (who compared her sense of timing to Peggy Lee’s); duets live with friends like the aforementioned Miss Spector, Mac Rebennack (two private evening of duets she calls “absolute highlights”), Americana stalwart Paul Thorn, Muscle Shoals mainstays The Decoys (Bonnie Bramlett took the stage with her at the 2011 and 2013 WC Handy Festivals), and New Orleans legends The Subdudes (she joins The ‘Dudes, BB King, Irma Thomas, Richard Thompson and others on Get You A Healin’ to benefit the New Orleans Musicians’ Clinic and has guest-hosted five editions of “Down On The Bayou” during successive Jazz & Heritage Fests with Widespread Panic’s JoJo Hermann, again to benefit The Clinic); worked often with the late blues giants Hubert Sumlin and Eddie Kirkland; collaborated on critically-acclaimed tracks with Marshall Crenshaw (Labour Of Love: The Music of Nick Lowe), Big Al Anderson (Pawn Shop Guitars), and Ian Hunter (When I’m President and Shrunken Heads); edited legendary Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham’s autobiography 2Stoned and appears also on Oldham’s historic 2013 release “Andrew Loog Oldham and Friends Sing The Rolling Stones Songbook Vol. 2”). A musicologist of note, Ohlman is a cover-story-writing contributor to Elmore Magazine, and worked with Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder & others on the Rhythm & Blues Foundation Awards.
Christine tours relentlessly, torching clubs up and down the Eastern Seaboard in support of her recordings (Strip, The Hard Way, Radio Queen, Wicked Time, 2008 career retrospective Re-Hive, the aforementioned The Deep End, 2011 concert DVD Live Hive and 2014’s upcoming “The Grown-Up Thing”) with her band Rebel Montez (Michael Colbath-bass; Cliff Goodwin-guitar; Larry Donahue-drums) and 2015’s upcoming “The Grown-Up Thing”.