Even her adlibbed asides establish that she's deepinside the feeling of a song, a knack that makes her covers (of Jimmy Cliff's "Many Rivers to Cross" or the Hollies' "He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother") particularly stirring.
The spaces offer room for perhaps two people comfortably but are said to be best visited alone. (The room at the Phillips, a former storage closet, is 6 feet wide by 7 feet deep and 10 feet high.) "There's a feeling you get inside the space that can't really described, " says Mr. Laib, a diminutive, almost fragile-looking man with a voice barely above a whisper.