It's 2:45 on a perfectly fine Thursday afternoon in Colorado, and Christine Lavin has yet to take off her jammies.
"I don't leave unless I have to - unless the fire alarm goes off," she says, then laughs sweetly.
"I just spent the last six days on the road staying with relatives in California and doing shows near them," she explains. " It's just so nice to have a hotel room all to myself."
Then there's the 24-7 room service. Not that she would ever order a cup of French-pressed coffee and a cobb salad at 4 a.m.
"But it's just so nice to know that you can. That's my dream," she said.
She won't have that option when she comes to Tucson for a concert tonight. She's staying in a borrowed condo all by her lonesome.
The show is her first concert here since 2003.
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"It was the first time I played there, and I did this incredibly stupid thing," she recalled. "I was so enthralled with seeing a cactus that I went to touch it. I got those slivery little needles in my fingers. I was like, 'Oh my God, what was I thinking touching a cactus.' "
Ironically, Lavin, the New York-born and honed singer/songwriter/comedian, has been wondering what she was thinking throughout her 25-year music career.
"It's pretty much my mantra," said Lavin, who wrote her first song at age 12. She was 32 when she quit her day job in a hospital to focus her full attention on music.
Her concert, which is equal parts standup, storytelling and singing, will include the early songs that she had put away and forgotten, like "Happy Divorce Day," "Bald Headed Men" and "Prince Charles."
"I forgot how much fun they are to sing," she said. "One of the songs that I'm doing every night is 'The Kind of Love You Never Recover From,' which is my most requested song and most serious song I've ever written. I hear people crying sometimes whenever I sing it."
Lavin might even sneak in cuts off her forthcoming holiday compilation album "Just One Angel," which comes out Oct. 19. There are 22 artists - including Jeff Daniels, Janis Ian, Kate Taylor (getting some harmony help from bro James Taylor) and The Accidentals - singing about Christmas, Hanukkah, solstice and New Year.
"It's 78 1/2 minutes long with no dead air between tracks. I actually programmed it with DJs in mind," she said, explaining that a DJ can put the CD on and slip away for holiday shopping "or if you want to commit a crime you can."
Songs include The Accidentals' "I'm Not Going Home For Christmas"; two little Nashville sisters singing "Is It Hanukkah or Chanukah?"; and Uncle Bonsai's "Doug's Greatest Christmas Ever."
"A lot of the (artists) wrote songs specifically for this," Lavin said, noting that 13 of the 22 songs are brand new. "I wrote a song called 'When You're Single At Christmastime.' ... One of the songs I'm really excited about is Sally Fingerette's song 'Jewish Kid Born On Christmas Day Talkin' Blues.' ... This song is hilarious."
If you go
• What: Christine Lavin's "My 25th Anniversary Concert: What Was I (EVER!) Thinking?"
• Presented by: Rhythm & Roots.
• When: 7 p.m. today.
• Where: Old Town Artisans, 201 N. Court Ave.
• Tickets: $20 advance at Antigone Books and all Bookmans locations, online at www.rhythmandroots.org, or by calling 1-800-594-8499. It's $23 at the door.
• Details: 319-9966.
