"Long acclaimed as a “comic observer of contemporary manners” (The New York Times), the hilarious Christine Lavin quite literally shines in live performance as she straps on a miner’s headlamp and twirls her glowing batons. But the real sparkle comes from Lavin’s sung and spoken wit – this singer-songwriter-guitarist-creative firecracker regales and involves her legion of fans with riotously acute original songs, comic monologues, quizzes, contests, and, in this case, her quest to identify and crown Mr. Colorado Springs in the audience at the 2003 benefit concert captured on this CD.

This title is the award-winning Ms. Lavin’s seventeenth album in a recording career that stretches back to 1981 and a touring schedule that encompasses almost 52 weeks a year. She also manages to juggle ever-expanding sidelines in freelance writing, radio program hosting, her serious obsessions with knitting, cooking, and her cultural heroine, Dame Edna, and using the Internet for instant-action song postings reflecting current events.

Some of the ten songs here have appeared on previous Lavin studio and live CDs, but never like this! One of Christine’s signature compositions, What Was I Thinking?, resurfaces with updated topical needling of Martha Stewart, while the gentle, affectionately rueful You Look Pretty Good for Your Age is wrapped around Christine’s search for Mr. Colorado Springs. Five other favorites are captured “live” for the first time, including the tranquil-to-berserk tropical ordeal recounted in Wind Chimes, the introductory “Strangers Talk to Me, and the anthem of the uncoordinated, Ballad of a Ballgame. There are also three new songs presented – Joanne Hammill’s increasing frantic round, A Question of Tempo (When I’m Under Pressure); Christine’s battle with bureaucracy, The Legal Ramifications of a Crackerjack Vendor Who Works in Yankee Stadium”; and the closing title song, with its moral lesson about the consequences of “a permanent reminder of a temporary fad,” be it eyebrow ring or facelift, a controversial modern day topic.

At least half the fun of this CD comes from Christine’s giddy but incisively sarcastic song introductions and a half-dozen comic monologues. What kind of a ridiculous glamour trajectory am I on? conveys the tragicomic outrage of being mistaken for an ex-nun and a lunch lady by her fans; Bernice, Carol, and tonight’s crowd compete for the science prize is a spontaneous quiz that involves such philosophical brain teasers as “How many roads MUST a man walk down before they call him a man?”

Armed only with a guitar, a Boomerang sampling device that multiplies and delays Christine’s vocals into harmonies and swirling rounds, and a wry, mocking self-awareness and boundless insight into contemporary culture, the Christine Lavin experience in concert is just as funny when heard at home, as preserved on Sometimes Mother Really Does Know Best. Lighten up and laugh for almost 75 minutes!"