No Act for Winningham: She Can Sing

Art imitated the movies imitating life Thursday at LunaPark. Actress Mare Winningham, fresh from her Oscar-nominated role as an accomplished folk-country singer in the film “Georgia,” took to the stage in the club’s intimate downstairs room and treated a small, very appreciative crowd to a warm, winning set of her own sparkling folk-pop.

Winningham’s songwriting and recording pursuits have been a sidelight to her film and TV career, but it was clear from her first line of vocals that she’s no musical dabbler. Her pure, open voice--reminiscent of Judy Collins and Mary Travers--is capable of both elegant phrasing and powerful belting, and she invested her simply chorded country-tinged songs with a great deal of emotional nuance.

The singer’s friendly, down-to-earth manner and playful sense of humor added to the straightforward charms of her music. She dedicated “Tower of Love” to the amply tressed Rapunzel, remarking, “She was a woman of resources. She had the hair. She got the job done.” Admitting her worry that, as a mother of five, she’d contributed to overpopulation, Winningham offered “Big Dirt Bed,” which conveyed some witty words of encouragement to the planet. “If I Wanted,” a self-penned tune the actress sang in “Georgia,” was especially affecting in its poignant, subdued version.

Winningham played acoustic guitar and was given some exceptionally tasteful, understated support from a trio of backup players. The group had some particular fun with cover versions, picking up the pace with a bubbly take of Badfinger’s “No Matter What” and heading off into heartbreak with Ian & Sylvia’s plaintive tale of a rodeo-bound lover, “Some Day Soon.” Winningham closed out her set with a remarkably sultry version of the Rolling Stones’ “Last Time.”