Four Bitchin' Babes

Four Bitchin' Babes originated as a stage revue conceived by singer/songwriter Christine Lavin, who earned the nickname “folk music's cheerleader.” After Lavin stepped away in September 1997 the ensemble continued independently. Lavin launched the project in the early 1990s along with several other ventures, most notably On a Winter's Night, which mixed male and female performers; the Babes, by contrast, spotlighted women exclusively. The founding lineup comprised Lavin together with Sally Fingerett, Megon McDonough, and Patty Larkin. Larkin exited after the first release, Buy Me Bring Me Take Me: Don't Mess with My Hair!!!, to focus on solo work, at which point New York singer/songwriter Julie Gold, known for “From a Distance,” joined and appeared on the follow-up, Buy Me Bring Me Take Me: Don't Mess with My Hair!!!, Vol. 2. Washington, D.C. vocalist Debi Smith then succeeded Gold and remained through two further recordings. Lavin relinquished the group's foreground in 1997 and was succeeded by satirical songwriter Camille West of Saratoga Springs, New York; Beyond Bitchin! appeared in 2000.

Outside the quartet each member sustained an active solo path. Fingerett, recipient of the 1990 New Folk Award at the Kerrville Folk Festival, issued three solo albums and numerous commercial jingles. Chicago-born McDonough blended performance with theater, touring Japan in the revue Beehive and performing in Chicago productions of Pump Boys and Dinettes and Quilters; in 1997 she earned praise for the lead in a six-week Chicago run of Always Patsy Cline. Smith recorded both alone and as one half of the Smith Sisters, whose four albums were produced by Doc and Merle Watson; a repeated Wammie winner, she issued her first solo collection, In My Dreams, in the late 1990s. West unveiled her debut album, Mother Tongue, in 1996.