Christine Ohlman

Christine's recording career began at age 16 with the New Haven, Connecticut-based band The Wrongh (sic) Black Bag recording a version of the Blues Project's "Wake Me, Shake Me" for the Mainstream Records owner/producer Bob Shad. Relocating to Connecticut and working out of a studio in Wallingford, Connecticut (initially called Syncron Sound and now known as Trod Nossel), Ohlman next fronted a group called Fancy with her brother Vic Steffens, releasing an LP "Fancy Meeting You Here" and a 45 "All My Best" on the Poison Ring label. She overdubbed backup vocals for the Rolling Stones "Metamorphosis" album and developed a lifelong friendship with Rolling Stones producer Andrew Loog Oldham. She later sang on the Oldham-produced "Essence to Essence" (by Donovan) and edited the second installment of Oldham's autobiography "2Stoned." Christine was a founding member of The Scratch Band when Fancy evolved into that band's incarnation, a seven-member unit which later pared down to five. The Scratch Band, including members G. E. Smith and Mickey Curry, were noted throughout the Northeast for their incendiary live shows (not to be confused with The 77s-The Savage-Young Scratch Band). She later reunited with both Smith and fellow Scratch Band member Paul Ossola when she joined the Saturday Night Live (SNL) Band for the 1991-1992 season.[2] Christine Ohlman became the lead vocalist for the Saturday Night Live Band in 1991 She appeared with Reverend Al Green on the show's 25th anniversary special. Lenny Pickett, music director for Saturday Night Live, said "Ms. Ohlman was, at the time she entered the SNL Band, responsible for selecting much of the band's vintage rhythm and blues repertoire."On Big Sound Records, she appeared on The Scratch Band LPs "The Scratch Band" (a 6-song EP in the States, later released in Germany on KukKuk Records with 2 additional tracks and on London Records in the UK with 10 tracks total) and "Rescue". She also appeared on a compilation called "Bionic Gold" released in the UK as "Big Sound For A Small World" with labelmates Mick Farren and others. Ohlman's solo recording career began in 1995 with the release of "The Hard Way" on the Deluge label. The title track of this CD later appeared in the 2008n Lifetime Channel original film "Sex And Lies In Sin City." "Musical treasures like this don't come along very often" wrote author/musician Cub Koda (1995)-3. Charles M. Young pithily observed "The first thing you notice is her tough, rousing, sexy voice" (1995)-4. Ohlman recorded a live version of "The Hard Way" (with additional cuts) at the studios of WPKN in Bridgeport, Connecticut (titled "Radio Queen").