Rebecca Pidgeon - The Raven - Chesky Records SACD329 (1994) | SACD rip via PS3 to iso

Reflective yet contemporary, Rebecca's lovely voice rings with honest, unpretentious confidence and vivid tenderness. While her Celtic melodies set the mood, her lyrics tell stories, full, rich, textured, and open hearted. This amazing talent makes her U.S. debut with The Raven, Chesky Record's most striking, powerful and fully realized vocal record to date.
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Biog:
Rebecca Pidgeon, the acclaimed Scottish actress, has also displayed her gift as a singer/songwriter on her several well-received albums. Taking elements from folk, pop, jazz, & Celtic traditions, Pidgeon crafts lilting, intimate poetry. Her witty & subtle personal voice is the catalyst for Four Marys, a warm & honest collection of irresistible Scottish folk songs.

While a teenager in Scotland, music came as naturally to Pidgeon as breathing. She sang along with the radio & her parents' Beatles & Joni Mitchell records as a light escape from her demanding acting studies. In Edinburgh, a friend asked her to sing on his demo tape. "I didn't know I was a singer at all," she recalls. "At first I felt ridiculous, because I hadn't trained to be a singer, hadn't even planned it. I didn't feel like a genuine singer, & the 1st songs I wrote didn't feel like real songs. It was only when people started saying to me, 'That's a wonderful song' that I finally began believing I was a singer & a songwriter."

Pidgeon has traveled a great distance since those early recording sessions when she & her friend didn't "know how to tune the guitars properly." She made 2 acclaimed British albums with the folk-pop band Ruby Blue, shared the stage with Lyle Lovett & Van Morrison, & played a series of New York gigs with Anthony Coote while she was starring in the New York stage production of Oleanna.

By the age of 23, the actress had found work in theater, film, & on BBC television, starring with the likes of Anthony Hopkins, David Warner, Ian Holm, & Dame Peggy Ashcroft. She had just played a lead in a star-strewn BBC production of Uncle Vanya when she moved to America in 1990 & married playwright David Mamet. "Coming to America was a huge change. I didn't have a plan in my head, & I had to start all over again with both my acting & my music," she says.

Pidgeon's emigration to America was, in fact, a homecoming. She was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1965, while her British physicist father was employed at M.I.T.. At the age of 5, she moved with her parents to Edinburgh, Scotland, where she stayed until enrolling in London's Royal Academy of Dramatic Art at 18, where she studied drama, music, & voice.

After returning to America, Pidgeon happened to hear a Kenny Rankin album that was released on Chesky Records, the New York-based audiophile record label. "It was recorded without overdubbing, & the sound was so beautiful & natural that I knew it was what I wanted. I wished to get away from the over-produced approach I'd known in England." So began Pidgeon's relationship with Chesky Records.

Her 1st Chesky release, The Raven (JD115), featured Pidgeon's stunning version of "Spanish Harlem." The Raven went on to become an audiophile classic, thanks to Pidgeon's crystalline voice & Chesky's high-fidelity recording techniques. Her 2nd album, The New York Girls' Club (JD145), brought her unique singing & songwriting to more music lovers. "Songwriting became a very important form of self-expression for me, a rich part of my life," Pidgeon explains.

While growing up in Scotland, Pidgeon's father knew many Scottish songs in addition to American & British music. "It's a very small country & the music is all over. You hear it walking down Prices Street - there's always a bagpiper. It's soul music, an essential expression of the folk of Scotland. I like that it's not prissy or nice, but very dramatic & incredibly serious. To me, there's nothing like a good Scottish folk song."

Pidgeon shows listeners why on her latest Chesky release, Four Marys (JD165), now available on sumptuous DVD (CHDVD175). Intimately performed and recorded, Four Marys showcases Rebecca's unique interpretations of timeless Celtic folk songs. As much a testament to her musical roots as it is to her tremendous vocal presence, this recording leads both music lovers & audiophiles down an engaging new path.

She now resides in Boston & Vermont with her husband & their daughter. Between album projects, Pidgeon has starred in the Mamet plays Oleanna, Speed the Plow, The Old Neighborhood, & the motion pictures The Spanish Prisoner & The Winslow Boy.

"Rebecca Pidgeon is a singer whose clear, crystalline voice is an instrument of impeccable beauty." 
- CD Review

"Alternating the glassy clarity of early Joni Mitchell or Judy Collins with the wry swing of Rickie Lee Jones, Pidgeon delivers delicate art songs & Celtic derived folk, her arrangements achieving a cool jazz-meets-chamber-music elegance." 
- Rolling Stone

"A totally refreshing new voice. The 1st day I listened to The Raven, I put everything else aside & spent the entire day listening to her record over & over again." 
- Vin Scelsa, WXRK (KRock Radio, New York)

"...She uses her acting experience to bring revealing touches of setting & character to story songs...the playing, especially the guitars, is relaxed & slinky at the same time..." 
- Dirty Linen, May 1997

"Rebecca Pidgeon's New York Girl's Club also brought a smile to my lips, so realistic was the sound of her voice, so clearly outlined against the steady pitter-patter of percussion, the ring of piano & the metallic sting of the sax." 
- Hi-Fi News & Record Review, March 1997

"...beautifully performed & recorded...instead of feeling as if she had just entered the room, I felt as if I had been taken to where she was. Closing my eyes made it easy to forget I was anywhere else." 
- Stereophile, January 1997

Available here (but is it just a CD?):
http://www.amazon.com/The-Raven-Rebecca-Pidgeon/dp/B000003GGE
or here:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Raven-Rebecca-Pidgeon/dp/B000058B7U/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1359693698&sr=8-2-fkmr1
and here:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/REBECCA-PIDGEON-RAVEN-CHESKY-SACD-/251178903440?pt=Music_CDs&hash=item3a7b6de790

         Tracks:

   01. Kalerka 
   02. The Witch 
   03. The Raven 
   04. You Need Me There 
   05. Grandmother 
   06. You Got Me 
   07. Heart and Mind 
   08. Her Man Leaves Town 
   09. Seven Hours 
   10. Wendy's Style Shop 
   11. The Height of Land 
   12. Spanish Harlem 
   13. Remember Me

Rebecca Pidgeon - Vocals, Guitar & Vocal Arrangements

Musicians:

Joel Diamond - Arranger, Musical Director & Piano
Anthony Coote - Guitar & Background Vocals
George Naha - Guitar
Mitch Margold - Synthesizer
David Finck - Bass Gary Burke - Percussion
Coco Kallis & Paul Miller - Backup Vocals
Stephanie Smothers & Elise Morris - Backup Vocals (5 & 13)
Juliet Haffner - Viola Erik Friedlander - Cello
Laura Seaton & Robert Chausow - Violins
David D'Arcy - Piano Tuner & Intonationist

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Checksum for iso:
3d74784708c9e8db86165e652b7aafcd *Rebecca Pidgeon - The Raven.iso