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Now on YouTube

Mon, 30 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

hi everyone, I didn't have a live recording of the song handy, but this topic is in the news, so I put up "The First Five Minutes of Life" with still photos and all the lyrics. Hope you enjoy it, and thanks for urging me to do this. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZ-xdmn_7L0

The First Five Minutes of Life - or is it Three Months?

Sun, 29 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

I have another song whose topic is in the news this week. Some will remember my song, "The First Five Minutes of Life," on my 3rd album, now rereleased on my double CD Equality Road. It's about a couple that decided not to learn the gender of their baby for the first five minutes. This is a true story, and I was moved to write the song when I heard it from my friends who did this innovative thing. I recorded the song live a couple of years later and have sung it at concerts many times since then.

Over the years many people have told me they decided to do the same thing when their baby was born ~ to just have a few moments in which they celebrate the baby's existence ~ "No need to choose the pink or blue." Just a few moments to enjoy the "baby child!"

Well, now the infant child "Storm" is in the news, and these parents have let the ambiguity continue for a much longer time. Many people have written me and said I should contact the parents or the media with my song, and many others (well, 6) have bought downloads of the song on ITunes and elsewhere.

It's kind of cool to be a couple decades ahead of the issues (again :~>). I wish the family well. Things have a way of working out just fine.

If interested in hearing it, find the song on my website and download - I think you'll enjoy it!

Cuyahoga River honorable mention

Fri, 13 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

I'm pleased to say my song, Cuyahoga River, was awarded an Honorable Mention in the Great Lakes Songwriting Contest this year. Although the Cuyahoga is a great river rather than a great lake, it seemed a fitting contest to commemorate the event of 1970 which captured the conscience of the world. I hope the Chicago River will be cleaned up to the extent of the Cuyahoga, so we can swim in it someday. Anyway, hope you check ou the song!

fife and drum

Wed, 11 May 2011 00:00:00 -0700

This weekend I'll play the flute on a couple of songs, and Margaret Nelson, with whom I'm doing the performance, will play the bodhran, which she pronounces boron. With all the strings I strum or hammer, it is fun to play a wind instrument every so often. I hope you'll be able to drop by to this gig or another in the near future!

Kristin's song "The Living Wage" is Song of the Month!

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:00 -0800

Enjoy hearing Kristin's humorous song about making ends meet through going in debt....at Labor Notes' ezine. Here is the link to the song and graphics: http://www.labornotes.org/2009/12/living-wage

Norlins

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New songs inspired by volunteer visit to New Orleans! I'll try to record them and get them up here somehow....

Short Article in Pioneer Press

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700

hi People - looking forward to the free Mother's Day family concert at Niles Public Library this Sunday. Here is a brief article about it in the Pioneer Press:
http://www.pioneerlocal.com/parkridge/entertainment/934184,dc-famfriendly-050808-s1.article

I got a myspace page!

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 00:00:00 -0800

Here's the address: http://www.myspace.com/kristinlems

OK everybody, slouching toward the millennium here...I was just gently nudged into starting a myspace page! It is quite bare bones right now, but you are welcome to go and leave your footprint there. There are two things myspace does that this site can't do: play songs when you arrive at the site, and make artists able to be found by the entire universe! - I love that. This is still my home base however - I love hostbaby!!

Ladies Night Out - oh What a Night!

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:00 -0800

We really had fun last night in the Wilmette Theatre, in the grand evening called Ladies' Night Out. After hors d'oeuvres and a cash bar, we moved into the classy 150 seat theatre, where Producer "Sam" Samuelson served as the genial MC. I opened the show as a soloist, with guitar and piano, singing my original tunes, with the biggest Powerpoint ever known behind me on the Big Screen. It culminated in the audience singing along on the chorus of "Mammary Glands," which was displayed on the screen (the words, not the glands!) behind me. Most amazingly, the winner of the raffle before my set was MY MOM!! When they asked her her name, she was very reluctant to say it because she was sure it would look like an "inside job," but finally did, and everybody cheered. Poetic justice indeed!

After my set the hilarious, witty and hyperkinetic Boomer Babes did a set to the brilliant keyboarding of George Howe. They did a "time lapse" medley of how two women changed over a 30 year period, all with song bits, funny dialog and a whole lot of props. My favorite was when they sang the theme song from the Patty Duke Show!

Finally Stephanie Rogers and her band brought us to the end of the show, with rockin classics and some originals, and we all came up on stage for "I Will Survive," which was also on the Big Screen. When I say "We all came up on stage," I mean "we ALL came up on stage" - not just the performers, the organizers, and their families and friends, but everyone with even a smidgen of stardom in them - it was delightful!

The whole evening was professional, varied, and high-spirited - just exactly what all of us needed as to combat the winter doldrums. This is a real attempt to revive live performance in a theatre that has been "movies only" for many years, and I hope it makes it. Downtown Wilmette is definitely showing signs of life despite all its competition from mall-ville. It was great to be part of the revival!

Evanston Review Oct. 11, 2007

Thu, 11 Oct 2007 00:00:00 -0700

Here's an article in the latest Evanston Review about the upcoming CD release reception!

http://www.pioneerlocal.com/evanston/entertainment/595170,dn-lems-101107-s1.article