The Beehive Queen Christine Ohlman

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- They call her The Beehive Queen. Christine Ohlman grew up in Cheshire, and rock and rolled her way through the decades.

Once upon a time she started a group called The Scratch Band and brought in a little known musician named G.E. Smith who went on to lead the Saturday Night Live Band of which she is now a part of and has been since 1991.

Ohlman talks about her platinum blonde hair and her music.

"Somebody dubbed me The Beehive Queen, I did not dub myself by any stretch of the imagination. Somebody started calling me that and the next thing I knew they were making posters and they were making t-shirts with this Beehive Queen thing, so I thought it's fine.

"I love it because it lets me put on a persona in order to perform and I've always thought that that's really a gift because I'm able to assume almost another personality, you know when I'm teasing my hair up, it's almost like a ritual, and it's great...."

I asked Christine to describe her music and what she likes to write.

"I use my dear friend Dave March who was one of the founders of Rolling Stone, founding editors of Rolling Stone. Dave calls it contemporary rock R&B and he likened it to people like Johnny Lyons, Bruce Springsteen, who take rhythm and blues and rock and roll a little bit through the lens of rhythm and blues and soul music. I'm a big record collector. My chief area of expertise is southern soul music from the 60's and 70's. (I) play a little of that...."

Christine Ohlman is a delight and debuts all of her music at Cafe Nine in New Haven, you'll see her there.