Birdsongs

By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY

When actors become singers, the results can be as painful to experience as a dental appointment with a meat packer who moonlights as an orthodontist. Actress Rebecca Pidgeon (who starred in the plays Speed-the-Plow and Oleanna off-Broadway) has released her first U.S. album, The Raven. Her husband David Mamet (who is the author of the plays Speed-the-Plow and Oleanna) wrote or co- wrote lyrics to five of the CD's songs with her. All of this suggests an unlistenable vanity project.

Not even close. The Raven is a slight album, but the material has a consistent sweetness. Pidgeon's voice is light and agile -- it couldn't fill up a concert hall, but she never overtaxes herself and instead achieves an understated, coffee-bar intimacy. She wrote or co-wrote almost all the album's music. She is accompanied by the soft, unhurried, breezy sounds of a piano, acoustic guitars and strings.

Pidgeon's songs contain echoes of the myths and legends of old Europe. "There was an old witch/ Used to live in this house," goes The Witch. "Now I'm making it mine." Pidgeon was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, raised in Scotland and educated in England, and her music reflects her background. Perhaps because she and her husband have roots on different continents, several of the CD's songs deal with flying and separation. "It takes a long time to get over there," she sings on Seven Hours, co-written with Mamet. "Nearly seven hours in the air ... From the brave hills of Scotland to the land of the free." From Scotland to America, from actress to singer, The Raven proves Pidgeon handles transitions well.