A look at 7 year-old-quartet and its dreamy music

By JEROME L. LANGSTON
Correspondent

SALLY ELLYSON has mastered the often delicate balance of attending to baby while responding to a journalist's questions.

The lead singer of contemporary- folk outfit Hem, Ellyson is quietly rocking her napping 4-month-old son, Henry, while softly responding to questions about new motherhood and its effect on Hem's touring schedule.

"I've sort of taken a break for the most part, for six months after he's been born," she says, almost as a contented sigh. She clearly relishes being able to fully attend to her first born at the Brooklyn home she shares with her husband of two years, Kurt. The thirty-something singer even refuses to employ a nanny, though she could afford one. "They couldn't possibly care as much as you do," she says.

Yet Ellyson readily admits it is not easy to balance the demands of motherhood with a successful music career, which includes a performance Saturday at the Attucks Theatre in Norfolk.

"I think of it as if I'm in an obstacle course," she acknowledges with a slight laugh. So tending to little Henry is thus a broad family affair that extends to Hem's other core members; songwriter and pianist Dan Messe, guitarists Gary Maurer and Steve Curtis as well as several other musicians who make up "Hem proper."

"They are aware that things have changed and support it," Ellyson says, referring to her fellow band members' embrace of her new role as mother.

"We're definitely still going to be doing shows, and we're already in the process of recording our next album."

That album will be the follow-up to last year's well-received "Funnel Cloud," a CD recently named one of the best albums of 2006 by Paste magazine. Recorded in the aftermath of both personal losses and gains experienced by Messe, the group's primary songwriter, the album features contributions from the 18-piece Gowanus Radio Orchestra and guest vocalist Amy Helm.

Released on the Nettwerk label, the CD follows the group's previous releases "No Word From Tom," a sly covers disc; "Eveningland," the group's critically acclaimed sophomore release, and, of course, "Rabbit Songs," the debut that launched the group's recording career in 2001.

"Funnel Cloud" will provide much of the content for the band's stop here at the Attucks Theatre. Fans can anticipate an eight-piece-or-so-size band, encompassing upright bass, pedal steel guitar, drums, mandolin and piano - all of which helps to create the sonic landscape that some group members have dubbed "alt-country, pop-rock orchestral lullabies for adults."

Ellyson and family intend to drive down here early Friday, to introduce Kurt to some of Hampton Roads' beaches, which she hasn't experienced since summers spent visiting Virginia Beach as a teenager.

Traveling with an infant entails certain requirements.

"Basically I bring everything but the kitchen sink with me,... so we load up the car as if we're packing for a month's vacation," she says, only half kidding.

After the concert date here, the band will resume recording the next CD. There are also talks of an appearance on public radio's "A Prairie Home Companion" and upcoming song placements in television commercials and film soundtracks.

Regardless, Ellyson's ambitions are decidedly simpler these days now that she has her son to care for.

"When you've succeeded in figuring out how to make sure he's getting the sleep he needs and the food he needs, and I'm getting to get the work I need to get done done,... you feel like you've really just achieved this huge thing."