Tammy Faye Starlite's fanaticism brought Carlene Carter to Joe's Pub

Artists generally get booked into performance venues by agents or the venues themselves, but in the case of last week's gig by Carlene Carter at Joe's Pub, the catalyst was none other than opening act Tammy Faye Starlite, the infamous born-again Christian country music evangelist, whose Triple-X, virulently anti-Semitic shtick can leave audiences sore from laughing, so long as their taste for outrage is without limit.

Except that Starlite is really one Tammy Lang, a nice Jewish girl from New York who loves Carter so much she has done Carter tribute shows in which she performed Carter's albums Musical Shapes and Blue Nun in their entirety.

"I've loved her since I Fell In Love [Carter's 1990 album, which yielded the country hit title track single], and a couple years ago I thought it would be so much fun to do a tribute to her in Nashville," says Lang. "So I got a bunch of musician friends together and booked a club -- and it got the attention of Carlene's fan club president, who told Carlene."

Carter, continues Lang, was surprised that anyone would do a tribute to her -- but gave it her blessing.

"I was so excited, and stayed in touch with the fan club president," adds Lang, who reprised the concept in 2009 at the Rodeo Bar in Manhattan. "It was me as Tammy Faye Starlite, but I did Musical Shapes and Blue Nun -- the albums that [Carter's former husband] Nick Lowe produced. The fan club president put it up on Carlene's website, and then a few months ago contacted me to say that she'd be playing upstate and in Canada, and could I get her into Joe's Pub?"

This was around the time that Lang was doing her second performance there of Chelsea Mädchen, her acclaimed tribute to legendary German rock chanteuse Nico. Lang went ahead and secured a Carter date, then called Carter's agent -- who made it official.

"I was so happy!" she says. "I got to open for Carlene Carter!"

Lang's short Tammy Faye Starlite opening set ("only three songs -- since I talk a lot!") was typically outrageous.

"Since it wasn't my crowd, I didn't do my usual second song 'If You're Comin' Down, Sweet Jesus,' since I didn't want to be too weird and off-putting right off the bat!" she says.

But she did close with her classic, naughty parody of Deana Carter's "Did I Shave My Legs For This?" Afterwards, she sat up front, singing along to every song Carter sang.

"That was really the best part," says Lang. "She's such an incredible, inspirational performer. I've seen her before at Joe's Pub and at B.B. King's, and she did the Kraft Country Tour in 1996 with Lorrie Morgan and Pam Tillis at Central Park SummerStage. I was dancing like crazy to her songs at SummerStage and she said, 'I want you all to dance with that girl in pigtails!' I felt special being singled out."

Lang also loved Carter's outfits in her 1993 "Every Little Thing" video.

"She's so beautiful -- which I worship! -- but I love her voice," Lang says. "It's so real and deep, with truth to it. And her lyrics are phenomenal, clever and rich -- in that Loretta Lynn mode of lyricists. And also, she just rocks!"

Country and rock, Lang adds, "my two favorite forms of music and synthesized in a way that got me going. And her ballad delivery is so emotional and touching. But there's always joy in everything she sings, and a sense of hope. She's overcome a lot, and I find that incredibly inspiring. And I love the way she plays guitar! So fierce and fearless, and like a beautiful tornado."

Meanwhile, Lang is trying to book more Nico shows, while looking ahead to similar theatrical tributes to Marianne Faithfull and Liza Minnelli. She's set to appear later this month at the Studio Theatre in Tennessee Wiliams' Small Craft Warnings, directed by Austin Pendleton.

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