Christine Lavin

At 12 Noon ET today Gene Weingarten at The Washington Post is debuting a brand new song I wrote about my good friend Mary and her crush on Clint Eastwood. Mary is from Ireland, works as a goldsmith in NYC for a legendary jewelry store (it's so legendary we left that info out of the song). Mary and I met last year when we were both residents at The Webster Apartments -- coincidentally we moved out the same day in January 2019 but have stayed friends. When she confided her perpetual love for Clint Eastwood and how she wants to make him gold cufflinks, I knew there was a song clamoring to be written.

I'm at an artists' colony in upstate New York. I wrote the song my first week here, and planned to record it when I got back to NYC, but then I learned that actor Jeff Daniels' last performance in "To Kill A Mockingbird" is November 3rd. There's a verse about Jeff in the song, and I knew there was no time to waste, so I found a studio up here where I could record, and that studio sent the song files to Brian Bauers, my producer in NYC, who took it from there. Debi Smith of The Four Bitchin' Babes plays bodhran on the song and is also in the video -- she recorded in Virginia and emailed those files to Brian, too. Steve Doyle plays upright bass, and Steve and Brian formed a "dude choir" for the choruses of the song. I think it's a good sign that the studio where they recorded bass and dude choir vocals is on the exact same block, same side of the street as "Say Yes To The Dress." That might mean nothing to you dudes, but dudettes reading this will laugh and think, hmmmm . . . yes, that IS a good sign.

The song was mastered on Monday afternoon by Phil Klum, who always does a first rate job.

So if you are near a computer or smart phone around Noon ET today, you can go to this site:

https://live.washingtonpost.com/gene-weingarten-20190924.html

and watch the first ever airing of this video. Once it is aired at the WaPo site I can then share elsewhere.

This song is not about me, it's all about Mary. Will this video catch Clint's eye? Is it possible it will inspire him to reach out to Mary? Hey, if nothing else, he'll get a great pair of cufflinks -- she's sketched them but hasn't made them yet -- she will if he contacts her. Who knows? This video might find true love for Mary with someone more age appropriate than Clint (she's 44 and he's 89) and less, uh, Republican. She, as you can imagine, is over the moon that the debut of the story of her obsessive love for Clint will make it's debut at the Washington Post website.

If Clint Eastwood and Mary can find common ground across cultures, across the generations, across the political divide, across plates (she's a Vegetarian) -- there may be hope for this country after all.

If by any chance you know Mary's last name, I ask that you keep that confidential and not post it anywhere. We airbrushed her last name out of the newspaper clippings in the video. We don't want her to be approached by nutjobs out there who might stumble across this video and then develop an even bigger crush on Mary than the one she has on Clint.

Jeff Daniels approved the lyrics, but hasn't seen the video -- he'll have to tune in to see what images accompany the lyrics about him. I hope he'll be pleased.

I've never recorded with a bodhran before, never played such an active role in broadcasting someone's crush, and never had Gene debut one of my songs. Gene is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, and has a new nonfiction book coming out on October 22nd. I love his work so much --

Mary is known in many parts of Ireland -- you can bet her family is alerting everyone on that side of the pond to tune in and watch.

Whatever happens, I will let you know!

And if you're reading this after 12 Noon ET, I will start posting on my FB page right after the first broadcast.

I hope I sleep tonight. I'm so excited for Mary, and so glad told me the story of her irrational love. That's the danger when you confide in a songwriter: she never expected a song, but I couldn't help myself.

Ciao!

Christine