Mixing TV, music is Hall way

Kirk Baird

Friday, Jan. 14, 2005 | 8:58 a.m.

Barbara Hall's first career choice was to be a musician.

Not that the 43-year-old hasn't done well in the path she chose.

As creator and executive producer of CBS' teen angst/quasi-religious drama, "Joan of Arcadia," Hall oversees one of the bigger critical hits on TV.

Before that, Hall wrote scripts for "Family Ties," "Newhart" and "E.R.," and served as producer on such shows as "Moonlighting," "I'll Fly Away," "Chicago Hope" and "Judging Amy."

Regardless of her success on television, Hall discovered she missed playing music. So she started writing songs with a friend several years ago.

Their partnership went well enough that they eventually formed a band, The Enablers, an alt-country act in the same mode as Uncle Tupelo and early Wilco.

Even with Hall serving as the group's bassist and chief vocalist, she doesn't consider being a musician her career.

"It's somewhere between a hobby and an inspiration," she said in a phone interview from her office in Los Angeles. "It started out as a hobby. And, like anything you pursue because you love it, it becomes bigger.

"My one rule for the band and for the whole process is it had to be fun and there couldn't be any pressure. That doesn't mean there's not any work. But I have a job, so this has to be fun."

So Hall keeps the schedule light for the band, which consists of five full-time musicians. The band generally plays two shows a month around the Los Angeles area.

The Enablers play a free concert at 8 p.m. Saturday at the Railhead at Boulder Station.

The country-rock outfit released its second album, "Come Back Soon," in October. The band is also wrapping its third studio effort, which Hall describes as "very Nashville," with heavy emphasis on steel guitar.

"I'm from the South and I'm just rooted in the stuff," Hall, a Virginia native, said. "I also really love the idea of getting people in the room together and turning the microphones on to see what happens."

For the Las Vegas show, Hall said plans are to venture from the band's standard set list and mix it up -- including songs from the upcoming album.

"I'm just a diehard, flat-out rock 'n' roll fan," said the onetime rock critic. "I love to do Bruce Springsteen covers. We're going to throw a lot of that in there just to see what happens."

As for the future of the Enablers, Hall is taking a relaxed attitude.

"I think I'm going to let it get as big as it wants to get," she said. "When it started, we were just playing coffee houses. Then it started getting big. We started getting booked into places we liked.

"Still, I tend to check in with them every now and then and ask, 'Do we want to do this?' "

Meanwhile, Hall hasn't forgotten her first and -- apparently -- only job with "Joan of Arcadia."

"We're just into the second season, which is always a trying season and always challenging -- especially when you have a great first season," she said.

Still, Hall insists she enjoys her dual roles as TV writer-producer and singer-songwriter.

"I put a lot of work ... into my career and getting to where I am now," she said. "If this isn't fun, then I don't know why I did all that."