New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Annie Moscow is a woman who has clearly found her voice. Her sixth studio album and first solely acoustic project, Land of Dreams (February 2024), showcases this voice, strong and unique, both in sound and perspective. In her barest sound to date, Moscow strips her rich and diverse musical influences down to the essentials, exposing a perceived vulnerability mixed with hard-won wisdom gained through life experience. The new album shines a bright light on
Annie Moscow's singer-songwriter roots, where she has never been one to shy away from deeply personal and profoundly revelatory themes, and this is no exception. Moscow delivers, engages, and disarms, sometimes resolute and sometimes with the wry, subtle humor which resonates and endears her music to so many.
Although no stranger to the recording studio, this is the first time Moscow has sat in the producer's chair, alongside co-producer John Herrera of Clamsville Studios, and the album showcases some of Arizona's top musicians, including Kenny Skaggs (Glen Campbell) on slide guitar and jazz great Dom Moio on percussion. Also featured are the exquisite brother harmonies and cello and guitar pickings of the California folk duo, The Brothers Landau.
The songs of Land of Dreams were incubated and inspired in part by the covid years. The album opens with "Sitting Here in Numbers," where
Annie sings, tongue-in-cheek, of the frustration of being stuck at home watching the world go by. The observational tone sets the stage for all that follows — songs as culminations of a lifetime of observations, impressions, and epiphanies that have nudged
Annie Moscow forward to clarity and eventual empowerment.
"I used to think getting older was about getting wrinkles and a few gray hairs," Moscow says. "But it's so much more than that. So many things you 'know' are going to be forever — well, they're not. People leave. Entire realities change. All we really ever have is ourselves. It took me a long time to figure that one out."
Moscow began her early music career as a pianist and songwriter and shot up the charts as a co-songwriter for film, TV, and a diverse roster of artists including
Sarah Vaughn (1986: "Tears in My Heart"), Kathy Sledge (1992: hit single "All of My Love"), and Mickey Mouse (2007: "They Don't Scare Me"). In 2001, Moscow stepped out as a singer-songwriter with her first solo CD, Wolves at My Door, delving full throttle into (at that time) relatively taboo and untouched topics, including midlife disillusionment and family dysfunction. Critics called Wolves "a sweeping cinematic masterpiece of midlife awakening." Abigail Trafford of the Wall Street Journal wrote, "Annie Moscow is rewriting the rules."
Moscow continued to branch out as an independent artist, further spreading her wings as an actress, playwright, and comedienne. In 2009, she wrote a one-woman show to showcase some of her songs: "The Philosophical Musings of a Suburban Dwelling Free-spirit Ex-Hippie Wannabe with Longings for Connection and Security." After a two-week run at the Herberger Theater in Phoenix, Arizona, she was invited back for the next 12 years, to write, produce, and perform 12 more shows, all featuring her original music, most recently the 2022 musical comedy space odyssey, "Contact… sort of."
As many an audience member has attested, no one leaves an
Annie Moscow show without knowing not only more about Moscow, but more about themselves. With her gift for melody and dramatic, cinematic storytelling, her songs and performances often elicit comparisons to other dynamic pianist/cultural documentarians including Billy Joel,
Laura Nyro, and Carole King.
Moscow's fifth CD, Passing Trains, a watershed project of personal reckoning, was produced by the late John Jennings (Mary Chapin Carpenter, John Gorka) and released in 2017. The album climbed to #20 on the Folk DJ charts in the first month of its release.
In 2020, when the world went into lockdown, Moscow used that quiet time to create and reflect on a lifetime of twists and turns, lost loves, and lessons learned. Her upcoming album includes the bold, dramatic "Girl Behind the Trees" ("You looked me in the eyes and said your love for her was dead and now you're calling her your life saver."), as well as the delicately poignant "Damaged Angel" ("I will deal with my own feelings till they have nothing to do with you. 'Cause they have nothing to do with you."). And in Moscow's pivotal song about the loss of a significant other, "Who Will I Be Good for Now,"
Annie Moscow answers her own question: "Me. This time I'm gonna be good for me."
"This world continues to reveal itself as being as fragile and ephemeral as a Land of Dreams," says Moscow. "I believe we are all great creators, and I'm sure I've stepped in every pothole imaginable, reaped the consequences, and no doubt will continue to step in a few more. But every day I get better at nursing the bruises, dusting myself off, and moving on. Life is an amazing teacher when you pay attention, and it can also be an amazing ride."
Annie Moscow lives in Phoenix, Arizona, where she shares a house with her beautiful grand piano and original artwork by herself and wonderful artist friends that come and go.
https://anniemoscow.com/
