REBECCA HAVILAND & WHISKEY HEART

Rebecca Haviland is a petite, polite, pixie-haired 20-something singer who, when she opens her mouth, channels a furious, beat-up, fed-up blues diva standing in a snowstorm at a bus station at 4 in the morning two dollars short of a ticket to nowhere. Her songwriting partner/producer/singer/songwriter, Chris Anderson, only stops playing 4-stringed electric and acoustic instruments long enough to eat and listen to Tom Waits, Warren Zevon, Willie Nelson, Randy Newman and David Gray.

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Together, Haviland and Anderson comprise the hotter-than-hell alt-country act Whiskey Heart, who’ve been performing around Manhattan and elsewhere long enough to hone a tight, crisp live show, headlining at Rockwood Music Hall and dozens of other venues where people dig their down-home, all-natural act exploding with heart, soul and guts. The two met at NYC’s Red Lion in 2003 shortly after graduating from Purchase University, where they'd never crossed paths while students.

Their common interests and musical tastes quickly formed the nucleus of an eyeball-to-eyeball song and performance collaboration, though, and Whiskey Heart was born. The band began gigging and Haviland and Anderson soon found themselves headlining wherever they appeared – with fans clamoring ever-more-loudly for a recording. Their debut album, Rebecca Haviland and Whiskey Heart, self-produced and co-written by Haviland and Anderson, was recorded live in the studio with full band, featuring Todd Caldwell on Hammond B3 (Crosby Stills & Nash), Rich Hinman on pedal steel and electric guitar (Rosanne Cash, Ben Kweller), and Kenny Shaw on drums (Abby Payne, Hurrah! A Bolt Of Light).