06/11 - Friday :: Rebecca Martin & Larry Grenadier

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Rebecca Martin has a warm, unguarded voice, an instrument of modesty and forbearance. Her interior style can feel almost too spare for standards, though she has recorded good albums full of them, most recently with the jazz drummer Paul Motian. With her own songs, she manifests a deeper, more easeful authority. She can make the same phrase seem philosophical and conversational, and about as natural as sighing.

"The Growing Season," Ms. Martin's first solo effort since 2004, consists entirely of her songs. The album was partly inspired by motherhood, with all that it entails: physical changes, heightened responsibilities, state-of-the-world ruminations. She croons about home on the aptly titled "Lullaby." But on another song she sings: "What feels like home/Is a hole to sink down into." This is meant to feel reassuring, as are several other lyrics that urge resignation on the subject of death.

Ms. Martin accompanies herself capably on acoustic guitar, but she also enlists top-flight musicians here, including her husband, the bassist Larry Grenadier; the guitarist Kurt Rosenwinkel, who doubles on keyboards; and the drummer Brian Blade, whose playing is unfailingly subtle. Rebecca has been a big part of the evolution of the Falcon performance series and it is always an honor to have her in the house.

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One Step West formed in February 2009 after meeting on different occasions at The Red Rooster Cafe in Gardiner, NY. Lucas Patsch and Tim Porco meet at The Red Rooster sometime in October 2008 while watching Vito Petroccitto play. Luc and Tim began playing some duo gig's together when one night at The Red Rooster Jimmy Reber was in the audience. Jimmy sat in on harmonica for a few songs and not long after the band was formed. A live show of theirs consists of original material as well as some hand picked covers. It's hard to pin them to one genre, it's sometimes pretty mellow, sometimes kind of country, at other times more rocking.