The Block

Christine Lavin & Don White

Christine Lavin and Don White
Sunday, October 18th, 4:00 pm

Purchase tickets by calling 231.726.3231

$20

As the song says, “…leave your worries at the doorstep” – but this time, direct your feet to the “Funny side of the street.” On Sunday, October 18th at 4:00 p.m., New York City based Christine Lavin and Boston based Don White will present an afternoon of music and comedy in downtown Muskegon unlike any other – “The Funny Side of the Street: A Night (well, afternoon) of Brighter Laughter.” Lavin & White will appear at West Michigan Symphony’s THE BLOCK, 2nd Floor, 360 W. Western Avenue in Muskegon. The show is the third in a series of several concerts brought to THE BLOCK by Quiet Faith Legacy, the current iteration of Quiet Faith Productions, which produced concerts in West Michigan for nearly 20 years. Tickets are

$20 and are available through THE BLOCK Ticketing Office – 231.726.3231, x223.

Christine Lavin & Don White have brought their unique brand of clean and hilarious musical comedy to audiences across the US since 2008, proving night after night that comedy can be smart, friendly, and breathtakingly funny without being vulgar or derogatory. This is a show for anyone who wants to laugh, whether it’s a group of friends or a family gathering, and feel good on their way out of the venue.

Since emerging from the NYC singer/songwriter scene in the late 1980s, (along with Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, John Gorka, etc), Christine Lavin quickly established herself as an entertaining tour de force. Quick on her feet, witty, insightful, engaging, she remains one of the most popular and respected performers in the genre. Christine has also been at the forefront of finding and promoting extraordinary new talent. She founded a songwriter’s retreat on Martha’s Vineyard, the “On a Winter’s (and Summer’s) Night” tours, The Four Bitchin’ Babes, Laugh Tracks among many other projects, in the process releasing more than 10 compilations CDs, as well as more than 20 of her own. Her co-conspirator, Don White, is the latest artist that Christine has championed. “He’s such an original; I call him sometimes a ‘blue collar intellectual,’” Lavin says. “Don has extremely high standards when it comes to what he does onstage. And he hits a grand slam every time. The first time we worked together he opened for me and it’s the only time in my entire career that I opened with a ballad because he was so funny, the audience was so laughed out.”

A product of the rich Boston Arts Scene of the 90s, Don White developed his songwriter/performer chops in the same Club Passim/ Olde Vienna Kaffehaus scene that produced Dar Williams, Martin Sexton, Lori McKenna and Vance Gilbert. He was also a regular comedian at the legendary Catch a Rising Star in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, honing his comedic skills alongside Jimmy Tingle, David Cross, Wendy Leibman and a host of other cutting edge comics of the time. These experiences along with his immersion in the Boston spoken word scene that produced the National Poetry Slam Championship Team in 1992 all combined to make him one of the few performers who brings a comic’s wit, and a poet’s heart to his songs and stories. “It doesn’t sound like a folk concert, it sounds like a comedy concert,” says White of his laughter-inducing co-bills with Lavin. “We rehearse and we rehearse and then inevitably, she’ll throw something at me that I have no idea about, with a mischievous grin that lets me know she’s been thinking about it all afternoon. Just to see what will happen. And she’s taught me to do the same.” Audiences are looking for something fun, fresh, smart, and intriguing as well as thoughtful: On the Funny Side of the Street does just that.

In the words of Scott Alarik, writer for The Boston Globe, Sing Out, NPR, Author, Deep Community: Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground, As you watch Christine and Don, you tend to feel like you’re making a friend, rather than admiring some distant star. I can assure you that is no illusion. Don and Christine are very much what they appear to be on stage: genuinely goodhearted people who use their abundant talents to show us how much we have in common, as we all bumble and stumble through our own day-to-days. When Christine Lavin and Don White make us laugh, there is always a warm shimmer of community beneath the silliness. Of all the gifts great entertainers can bring to the stage, I think this is perhaps the rarest and most valuable. Many can dazzle us; but only the very, very best can befriend us, and remind us that, in the end, we are all wary acrobats in the great human circus. And really, when have we ever needed laughs like that more?

For information about Christine Lavin and Don White, visit donwhite.net/don-christine. Call 231.670.6177 for further details.

Christine Lavin & Don White

Christine Lavin and Don White
Sunday, October 18th, 4:00 pm

Purchase tickets by calling 231.726.3231

$20

About

As the song says, “…leave your worries at the doorstep” – but this time, direct your feet to the “Funny side of the street.” On Sunday, October 18th at 4:00 p.m., New York City based Christine Lavin and Boston based Don White will present an afternoon of music and comedy in downtown Muskegon unlike any other – “The Funny Side of the Street: A Night (well, afternoon) of Brighter Laughter.” Lavin & White will appear at West Michigan Symphony’s THE BLOCK, 2nd Floor, 360 W. Western Avenue in Muskegon. The show is the third in a series of several concerts brought to THE BLOCK by Quiet Faith Legacy, the current iteration of Quiet Faith Productions, which produced concerts in West Michigan for nearly 20 years. Tickets are

$20 and are available through THE BLOCK Ticketing Office – 231.726.3231, x223.

Christine Lavin & Don White have brought their unique brand of clean and hilarious musical comedy to audiences across the US since 2008, proving night after night that comedy can be smart, friendly, and breathtakingly funny without being vulgar or derogatory. This is a show for anyone who wants to laugh, whether it’s a group of friends or a family gathering, and feel good on their way out of the venue.

Since emerging from the NYC singer/songwriter scene in the late 1980s, (along with Suzanne Vega, Shawn Colvin, John Gorka, etc), Christine Lavin quickly established herself as an entertaining tour de force. Quick on her feet, witty, insightful, engaging, she remains one of the most popular and respected performers in the genre. Christine has also been at the forefront of finding and promoting extraordinary new talent. She founded a songwriter’s retreat on Martha’s Vineyard, the “On a Winter’s (and Summer’s) Night” tours, The Four Bitchin’ Babes, Laugh Tracks among many other projects, in the process releasing more than 10 compilations CDs, as well as more than 20 of her own. Her co-conspirator, Don White, is the latest artist that Christine has championed. “He’s such an original; I call him sometimes a ‘blue collar intellectual,’” Lavin says. “Don has extremely high standards when it comes to what he does onstage. And he hits a grand slam every time. The first time we worked together he opened for me and it’s the only time in my entire career that I opened with a ballad because he was so funny, the audience was so laughed out.”

A product of the rich Boston Arts Scene of the 90s, Don White developed his songwriter/performer chops in the same Club Passim/ Olde Vienna Kaffehaus scene that produced Dar Williams, Martin Sexton, Lori McKenna and Vance Gilbert. He was also a regular comedian at the legendary Catch a Rising Star in Harvard Square in Cambridge, MA, honing his comedic skills alongside Jimmy Tingle, David Cross, Wendy Leibman and a host of other cutting edge comics of the time. These experiences along with his immersion in the Boston spoken word scene that produced the National Poetry Slam Championship Team in 1992 all combined to make him one of the few performers who brings a comic’s wit, and a poet’s heart to his songs and stories. “It doesn’t sound like a folk concert, it sounds like a comedy concert,” says White of his laughter-inducing co-bills with Lavin. “We rehearse and we rehearse and then inevitably, she’ll throw something at me that I have no idea about, with a mischievous grin that lets me know she’s been thinking about it all afternoon. Just to see what will happen. And she’s taught me to do the same.” Audiences are looking for something fun, fresh, smart, and intriguing as well as thoughtful: On the Funny Side of the Street does just that.

In the words of Scott Alarik, writer for The Boston Globe, Sing Out, NPR, Author, Deep Community: Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground, As you watch Christine and Don, you tend to feel like you’re making a friend, rather than admiring some distant star. I can assure you that is no illusion. Don and Christine are very much what they appear to be on stage: genuinely goodhearted people who use their abundant talents to show us how much we have in common, as we all bumble and stumble through our own day-to-days. When Christine Lavin and Don White make us laugh, there is always a warm shimmer of community beneath the silliness. Of all the gifts great entertainers can bring to the stage, I think this is perhaps the rarest and most valuable. Many can dazzle us; but only the very, very best can befriend us, and remind us that, in the end, we are all wary acrobats in the great human circus. And really, when have we ever needed laughs like that more?

For information about Christine Lavin and Don White, visit donwhite.net/don-christine. Call 231.670.6177 for further details.