Pidgeon, Rebecca

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Rebecca Pidgeon

Singer, actor

In addition to acting as a leading and featured supporting actor in independent and mainstream films, Rebecca Pidgeon has earned positive critical recognition as a singer-songwriter with a series of folk-pop albums with jazz elements. In these she has explored subjects ranging from the love lives of comic-book heroes and her grandmother to covers of pop chest-nuts such as "Spanish Harlem." However, despite the latter fact, Pidgeon has composed most of the material she has recorded. Several of her original compositions were co-written with her husband, noted playwright and film director David Mamet, whom she married in the early 1990s after starring in a London production of his play, Speed the Plow. Pidgeon's wistful and sometimes girlish vocal delivery, combined with acoustic instrumental settings and the distinctly feminine lyric perspective of much of her material, has led some critics to draw comparisons between Pidgeon and such performers as Joni Mitchell, Shawn Colvin, Roseanne Cash, and Rickie Lee Jones.

Pidgeon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the mid-1960s, and moved with her parents to Edinburgh, Scotland, around 1970. She then moved to London, England, to study theatrical arts at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts. In 1987 Pidgeon teamed with guitarist and Edinburgh native Roger Fife to form Ruby Blue. The duo released their debut, Glances Askances, shortly thereafter. The album was described as "an acoustic folk LP with rock/pop leanings" by Sounds journalist Robyn Smyth. Ruby Blue expanded to a quartet after enlisting harmony vocalist and fellow Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts student Erika Spotswood and bass player Anthony Coote. This lineup released a string of singles that earned them a contract with Phonogram's Fontana subsidiary. Pidgeon told Smyth that her commitment to the band was secondary to her dramatic aspirations. "The reason I haven't done any acting for a while… is because nothing's come up that's interested me enough," she said.

Praising Down from Above, Smyth described the effort: "Pidgeon and Spotswood's divine vocal harmonies, supported by slick instrumentation, emulate the emotion and simplicity of early Joni Mitchell and the traditional feel of, say, The Oyster Band." Sounds critic George Berger shared Smyth's enthusiasm for the quartet's Down from Above. "Occasionally a band happens along with sufficient beauty to wipe away your preconceptions—Ruby Blue are such a band," Berger wrote. "Down from Above is an eclectic collection of different styles that move from middle of the road celtic-folk to pseudo Simple Minds territory." Berger continued: "Every style is tacked behind the folk beauty of Rebecca's voice. … the beauty of which easily eclipses most of the style hopping. From the English pentagram folk of ‘Primitive Man’ to the Fleetwood Mac-ismo of ‘Can It Be’ the songs have pleasantly commercial class stamped all over them."

The Ruby Blue song "Primitive Man," featured lyrics by David Mamet, who had met Pidgeon during a production of his play Speed the Plow. Writing in London's Guardian, Bruce Dessau praised the group's rendition: "In the playwright's absence, Rebecca Pidgeon elaborates on the lyrical strands, which accompany the haunting, folkish melody. It might be a different medium, but Mamet is still obsessed by the niggling little things in life—‘You know, the basic themes, murder, lust, marriage, death; the usual little things…the primitiveness of mankind, having to hunt and be hunted.’" Dessau wrote that Ruby Blue's Down from Above "reflects the quartet's growing interest in root music. Very much a traditional band, concentrating on live performance rather than studio work, they've picked up, almost by osmosis, influences from people they've played with over the years." Dessau continued, "It is a record that grows gently on you."

Flying Solo

Despite the glowing reviews for Down from Above, Ruby Blue disbanded concurrent with the rise of Pidgeon's acting career. She starred in many of Mamet's film projects, including Homicide, The Spanish Prisoner, The Winslow Boy, State and Main, and Heist. She returned to the recording studio in 1994 for her solo debut, The Raven. The album was produced by Joel Diamond and David Chesky for the latter's self-named record label, which became known for its devotion to recording perfection. A review on the Musical Discoveries website declared: "As her first solo album, The Raven clearly illustrates the broad range of talent that the stunning Rebecca Pidgeon possesses and serves as a wonderful introduction to this artist's recorded work." The album featured four songs co-written by Mamet, "You Got Me," "Heart and Mind," "Seven Hours," and "The Height of the Land," and features a cover of Phil Spector's "Spanish Harlem," which was originally a hit for Ben E. King.

Pidgeon released her second solo album, The New York Girls' Club, in 1996. On this album she explored several musical genres, including light rock, jazz, folk, and country. Four Marys, released in 1998, was recorded at St. Peter's Church in New York City, and is devoted entirely to traditional Celtic music. For the project, she enlisted Uillean pipes player Jerry O'Sullivan and fiddler and mandolinist Johnnie Cunningham, and performed the album's songs in Gaelic and English. After a relatively long hiatus to focus on acting projects and raise her family, Pidgeon released Tough on Crime in 2005. Contributing to the album were Steely Dan member Walter Becker on guitar, keyboardist Billy Preston, jazz fusion drummer Scott Amendola, and bass player and producer Larry Klein, the former husband of Joni Mitchell. The album's title track concerns the difficulties the song's narrator faces in her affair with a comic-book superhero. While finding the sonic qualities of the album lacking, critic and radio host George D. Graham praised Tough on Crime as "a thoroughly worthwhile and appealing album."

Selected discography

(With Ruby Blue) Glances Askances, Red Flame, 1987.

(With Ruby Blue) Down from Above, Fontana, 1990; reissued on Universal, 1993.

The Raven, Chesky Jazz, 1994.

The New York Girls' Club, Chesky, 1995.

The Four Marys, Chesky, 1998.

Retrospective, Chesky, 2003.

Tough on Crime, The Lab, 2005.

For the Record …

Born on October 25, 1963, in Cambridge, MA (some sources cite 1965); married to David Mamet (playwright, director, screenwriter); children: Clara and Noah. Education: attended Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts, London, England.

Member of Ruby Blue, 1986-94; released debut solo album The Raven, 1994; released The Four Marys, 1998; released Tough on Crime, 2005.

Addresses: Management—International Creative Management, 8942 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, CA 90211.