Saturday December 13, 2025

Catie Curtis is one of those people who manages to inhabit two worlds that seem to be mutually exclusive. Not only is she an Ivy League New Englander whose songs have been featured on such mainstream TV shows as Grey’s Anatomy and Dawson’s Creek; who has performed at the White House; and who is married with two kids—but, she is also an out lesbian and a political activist; her spouse happens to be a woman; and her two daughters, Lucy and Celia, are Asian adoptees. Admirably, Curtis has never chosen one world over the other. If anything, she’s got one foot planted in each—yet, somehow, both feet get great traction. When Curtis last released new material—2008’s Sweet Life—George W. Bush was still in office. We were heading into a recession, and gay marriage was still illegal in New York state. At the time, Curtis said that the worse things got in the world, the happier her music was going to be; indeed, one of the best songs on Sweet Life is called “Happy.” So, how does she feel now that Bush is gone? “To be invited to the White House [as] an out lesbian—that speaks really highly of the Obama administration,” she says. “I feel like we’re in a different place than we were when Sweet Life came out. [With my new] record, I didn’t feel a need to lift up everybody’s spirits. As difficult as things are, they’re not quite as bad now.” That new record, which was released at the end of August, is called Stretch Limousine on Fire. Despite the rock-’n’-roll-sounding title, this is singer-songwriter fare: mellow, personal and universal. It’s also concise; the 10 songs run just over half an hour.