Actress pursues parallel career as singer-songwriter
Filed Under Kitchen Curtain | Posted on May 25, 2008
Rebecca Pidgeon, who is married to writer David Mamet, has long nurtured two parallel careers: one as an actress, the other as a singer-songwriter. Her seventh album, “Beneath the Velvet Curtain,” is her best work yet; several of the songs appear on the soundtrack of her husband’s new film, “Redbelt,” in which she also acts.
Pidgeon is not simply another actress with a hankering to record. Her interest in music and acting began in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she grew up. Later after studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, she went right into acting but also released her first album with the band Ruby Blue in the mid-’80s.
For the new songs, Pidgeon found herself relying more on personal experiences. Take, for instance, “That’s Life, That’s Hollywood,” a song filled with clever wordplay about the plight of the working person in the movie business.
“That’s a song about what you do after there’s been a betrayal in this business,” Pidgeon says with a knowing laugh. “How you just have to get on with things and not be surprised that somebody stabbed you in the back.”
Pidgeon and Mamet sometimes write songs together. Several on the new album were co-written with him, including the country tune “Baby, Please Come Home.” Working with her husband is like “going into a mind which makes your mind suddenly discipline itself in a different way,” she says. “The way I write lyrics is much more conversational and loose, because I don’t consider myself to be a trained writer. He’s a master of the written word, so I’m always learning from him.”
Pidgeon, a fan of Hank Williams, has learned that writing a good country song is not easy. “The words have to be great and there has to be a twist at the end,” she says. “Hank Williams songs are so deceptive. They seem so simple but they’re not. They’re really great poetry.”
Pidgeon performs with Aimee Mann on June 6 at the House of Blues in Anaheim, Calif., and hopes to take her band on the road to other cities.
Now that her two creative sides are beginning to merge, Pidgeon admits she’s a bit nervous about the whole thing. “I’ve spent most of my life in my music career with nobody really knowing I was an actress and most of my career in acting with nobody knowing I was a musician. But I worry that people aren’t comfortable with the idea that someone can do two things successfully.”
Tags: acts, anaheim calif, baby please come home, country tune, creative sides, curta, curtain, edinburgh scotland, hank williams, hank williams songs, hankering, house of blues in anaheim, mid 80s, parallel careers, personal experiences, rebecca pidgeon, royal academy of dramatic arts, ruby blue, velvet curtain, working person, writer david mametRelated posts
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