There's something familiar and comforting about Rita Wilson the actor. Something wholesome and good. You feel like you know her.
The same applies to Wilson the singer. Her voice is gentle and soothing, wrapping around you like a warm and much-loved blanket.
She has just released her fifth studio album, Rita Wilson Now & Forever: Duets. It's a collection of classic, timeless songs from the 1970s - the songs that made her fall in love with music.
The album was co-produced by Wilson and Grammy Award-winning producer Matt Rollings, and each track has been re-arranged as a duet. Wilson has chosen a who's who of male singers to complement her vocals on each track, and what a line-up it is: Willie Nelson (Slip Slidin' Away), Smokey Robinson (Where is the Love), Elvis Costello (Fire), Jackson Browne (Let It Be Me), Leslie Odom Jr (Massachusetts), Keith Urban (Crazy Love), Tim McGraw (If), Jimmie Allen (I'll Be There), Josh Groban (Songbird) and Vince Gill (Without You).
For Wilson, choosing the songs and then reinterpreting them as duets was a labour of love. You can see the happiness in her face, in her eyes, when she sings.
"Oh I do love it, Lisa, I can't describe it but it just gives me pure joy," she says.
"I was listening to my friend Marty Short's audiobook called I Must Say: My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend and one of the things he said about himself was 'I am the most happy when I'm live performing', and I totally understand that because there is something spontaneous that can happen in the moment.
"The audience is as much a part of the performance as whatever it is that I do on stage because we're in it together.
"I love that connection, I think it's so important."
It's a far cry from her other career. Wilson's first professional acting role was a guest spot on The Brady Bunch at the age of 16. She has since appeared in films including Volunteers, Sleepless in Seattle, Now and Then, That Thing You Do!, Jingle All the Way, The Story of Us, Runaway Bride, It's Complicated and Larry Crowne. She married fellow actor Tom Hanks in 1988, and they have two children together.
The Duets album was a project Wilson had been considering doing for years. When the pandemic all but shut down the world, she reached out to producer Rollings. Surely, with so many musicians forced to spend time off the road, there would be a few longing to make music?
It turns out there were.
For Wilson the album is a tribute to the songs that made her discover music, and the melodies and stories that defined a generation.
"I wanted to honour where I came from with songs from the '70s, and share who I am musically," she says.
"It was about showing enormous appreciation for the songwriting of that period, and how these songs are still relevant even though they're 50 years old.
"I didn't want to reinvent something that was already perfect. I was interested in adding a different interpretation to a song, and in this case, I was looking for those conversations between lovers."
Choosing the songs was one thing. Matching a singer with a song was another challenge altogether.
"We'd go to the artist and say 'This is the song we're thinking of', or we'd give them a choice, and I would say nine times out of 10 the artist chose the one that I wanted them to sing. Sometimes the songs and the people choose each other, you know?"
I mention her duet with Urban and it prompts one of several anecdotes by Wilson that, for celebrities, are nothing special, but for the rest of us can be fascinating.
"Keith is an incredible singer," she says.
"We had met originally ... gosh, I'm trying to think what year it was - Cream had a reunion concert at the Royal Albert Hall in London. That's right. And Keith was there, Sheryl Crow was there. Afterwards there was a party and I had been introduced to Keith, and Sheryl and I are old friends, and we were hanging out and talking to a songwriter friend of mine, Jeff Barry.
"He's written so many songs, and as I was introducing him to Sheryl and Keith I said 'You know, he wrote Chapel of Love' and we all spontaneously started singing that song in harmony.
"It was really fun and that was the first time I got to to sing with Keith."
Wilson says she has a broad taste in music, due partly to the nature of radio when she was growing up.
"We were exposed to everything, from Dolly Parton to The Temptations to Smokey Robinson, The Beatles and the Beach Boys, Johnny Cash ... you name it, we listened to it," she explains.
"I still listen to many genres, even those I am not so well versed in. I think it's important to know what is going on with music. I've always leaned towards singer-songwriter kind of first-person songs, but I love pop music too."
The pop music reference prompts another memory, and an anecdote. Wilson laughs, sounding a little embarrassed, as she tells the tale.
"We were at an Eagles concert and we were all singing and dancing to the songs and there were these two young men behind us and they were singing and they knew all the words," Wilson says.
"At one stage I turned around and said to them 'How do you know all these songs?' and one was Irish and he said 'Oh, you know, if you'd been taken to as many Eagles concerts as my parents took me to, you'd know the words too'.
"And the other kid, who I think was Scottish, said 'We just love the Eagles, we love listening to their music'. So I said to the Scottish guy 'Hi my name's Rita, what's your name?' and he said 'My name's Lewis'.
"And it was Lewis Capaldi.
"I was, like, 'Lewis, hi, I'm so sorry about that'. Then I pointed to the Irish guy and said 'What's your name?' and he goes 'Niall'. It was Niall Horan. And I'm like 'Oh gosh I'm such an idiot'.
"But we were all so into the music that we didn't really have a moment to clock each other. It was just that wonderful, beautiful unifying thing that music does for people. It brings people together."
You can stream Duets online and it will be out on vinyl soon, Wilson says, but she recommends the CD version.
"I still like CDs. The quality of the music is really good on a CD so I'm encouraging people not to give up their CD players just yet. I actually had a CD player put in the glove component of my car not long ago."
As for making the decision to pursue a singing career, and put acting on the backburner, she recalls a conversation with friend Bruce Springsteen that inspired her.
"Years ago I was talking to Bruce and I said to him, 'You've been writing music all your life, so what makes me think that I can start writing now?' and he said 'Because creativity is time independent'," she says.
"That was a license for me to just keep going, that there are no limits - we limit ourselves by our own ways of thinking and by our fears and our failures. It's never too late to pursue your passion and explore whatever creative outlet you might be drawn to. For me it was always music.
"I still think about what Bruce said because who defines when you're supposed to be a creative person? Do you only have a window in your 20s and 30s and then it stops?
"There is no time frame here - there are no rules - so I guess I have just turned off all the clocks."
WHAT DO YOU THINK? We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on the Newcastle Herald website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. Sign up fo
