There was a time in America when folk music was relevant, edgy, even dangerous — a tool of personal and political expression, at once raw and beautiful. That spirit lives on in the music of Alastair Moock. Moock sometimes performs with a band or accompanist, but you're most likely to find him alone on a stage, sitting in a low chair, stomping a booted foot, picking his beaten guitar, and growling out some of the most beautifully crafted songs you're ever likely to hear. Those songs have won Moock top honors at many of the country's most prestigious contests, including those at the Falcon Ridge, Sisters, and Great Waters folk festivals. In 2007 he was nominated for a Boston Music Award for Outstanding Singer/Songwriter of the Year. The Boston Globe calls him “one of the town's best and most adventurous songwriters” and The Washington Post says “every song is a gem.” Moock's writing style is often compared to those of John Prine and Woody Guthrie. Like them, he tends to stick to simpler harmonic forms and tight rhyming patterns that emphasize his lyrical dexterity and natural talent for storytelling. His songs have the smooth, clean lines of American classics — a timelessness reinforced by his whiskeyed voice and muscular fingerpicking. But this is not museum music. Moock frequently tackles contemporary subject matters, examining the changing world around him. The songs are observant, heart-wrenching, funny, and defiant — often all at once. As a performer, Alastair engages audiences with a style of humor and insight that Americana Radio chart-topper Slaid Cleaves describes as “masterful.” Not content to simply serve up a laundry list of tunes, he mixes his own songs with spoken word pieces, stories from the road, and even a bit of American history, providing context for the traditional blues and ballads he includes in every show. His ability to connect with audiences has earned Moock the opportunity to open for an impressive roster of national acts over the years, including Arlo Guthrie, Taj Mahal, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Greg Brown, Kasey Chambers, Jay Farrar, Patty Larkin, and Marshall Crenshaw. Moock started performing in 1995, moving from his home outside New York City to the folk haven of Boston, Massachusetts. After honing his skills on Boston's innumerable open mike stages and working his way up through the local coffeehouse and club circuit, he began touring around the U.S. By 2002, he had already traveled extensively throughout the East and Midwest, performing at many of the top listening rooms and outdoor events in the country, including the Newport and Boston Folk Festivals, The Old Town School of Folk Music in Chicago, The Birchmere in Washington D.C., and The Bluebird Café in Nashville. In 2003 he made his first trip to Europe, where he performed at the prestigious Bergen Music Fest in Norway. Since then he has made numerous trips across the pond with appearances in the UK, France, Netherlands, and Scandinavia. In 2005, Alastair signed with international roots label CoraZong Records, which released Let it Go, Moock's fourth CD. The album charted for fourteen consecutive weeks in the Roots Music Report Folk Chart's Top 10 and cracked the Americana Music Chart's Top 40 in February, 2006. Worcester Magazine calls it “one of the best roots music records to come out of New England in recent memory” and Daniel Gewertz of The Boston Herald included it in his Top 10 list for the year, saying “Moock has become simply one of the top songwriters in the region.” This spring CoraZong will release Fortune Street, Moock's latest effort. The album, which includes nine new original tunes and one traditional cover, is Moock's most intimate and mature to date. Two of the tracks were recorded solo; the other eight feature the stripped down roots ensemble of David Goodrich, Lou Ulrich, and Mike Piehl (all former members of the seminal Boston rock band Groovasaurus), joined by guests Kris Delmhorst, Michael Dinallo (The Mercy Brothers), and Sean Staples (The Resophonics). It seems no young musicians want to be labeled “folk” anymore. Everyone's passing through on their way to somewhere else — alt-rock, alt-pop, alt-country. Alastair Moock plays folk music. Old-school, powerful, intimate folk music. You may be surprised to hear what it sounds like.
Selected Openings and Shared Bills
|
© 2007 Alastair Moock. All rights reserved.