Robin Holcomb (1990)

Imagine a woman alone with her piano in a barren room, ruminating on life and spinning tales in a dulcet singing voice, as friends drift in and out for musical support. That's the feel of the first album, Robin Holcomb, from Holcomb, a Seattle-based singer-pianist. With its quietly elegant production and Holcomb's homey, mountain-tinged voice, the music could be called art-folk. At its best, it's as haunting as a nighttime drive in the country; at her coyest, Holcomb writes melodies that wander too much for their own good. But on tracks like the delicate ''Nine Lives'' or the fiddle-driven ''Troy,'' her merger of city and country is New Age with a quirky edge. B

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