Rebecca Pidgeon at Rockwood Music Hall

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Rebecca Pidgeon headlined Rockwood Music Hall last night. I admit (sheepishly, after the fact) that I never heard of Rebecca Pidgeon. How we ended up at her set will be revealed after I tell you how fantastic she (and it) was.

Rebecca has a phenomenal voice. She can sing softly (thankfully, the really crowded audience was pin-drop quiet), or deliver more power. Nuance or straight-forward. She writes lovely songs and also delivers interesting takes on the few covers she performed.

She plays the acoustic guitar very nicely.

Rebecca is disarmingly charming. She introduced nearly every song with a short, almost always humorous bit, often in the form of a question to the audience, followed by her take. Extremely natural delivery.

She could have handled the set solo, I have no doubt. She brought along an incredible guitarist to spice up the set.

Tim Young (couldn’t find a good individual link to him) played electric guitar and sang some harmony with Rebecca. He was exceptional on the guitar, throwing in a lot of jazzy/bluesy riffs, dancing in and around Rebecca’s singing and playing. When he sang, he did a wonderful job of harmonizing.

Here is their (wonderful) set list:

On to how we attended this set, and how I’m embarrassed not to have known who Rebecca Pidgeon is.

If you read my previous post, then you know that we almost didn’t make it out last night. After rearranging our schedule, specifically to see Barnaby Bright at 8pm at Rockwood 2, our next committed set was 11pm (Patryk Larney) at Rockwood 1, so we had three choices:

1. Stay and see the group who was on 9pm at Rockwood 2
2. Catch Rebecca Pidgeon at Rockwood 1
3. Go back to the apartment, relax for 90 minutes, and return to Rockwood 1 at 11pm

I listened to both Rebecca Pidgeon (directly on her site, under “Sample Tracks”) and to the group that was on opposite her at Rockwood 2. No contest!

Now to prove to you how little I knew about Rebecca (as in zero). Lois turned to me early in the set and asked me how old I thought Rebecca was. I said “anywhere between 26 and 34”.

It turns out, she’s 46, a mother of two, an accomplished actress (stage, movies and TV), a successful singer/songwriter (multiple CDs out, with a new one coming out in April 2012 on Decca Records) and oh yeah, she’s also married to David Mamet.

OK, take a look at this photo and tell me she looks even close to her age (click on the photo to see it full size):

We’re now officially fans of her voice, music, style and grace on stage. Correct decision made!