http://annacoogan.com/news.html Anna Coogan: News Jannis' PHPRss class - http://www.jannis.to/ Sat, 04 Feb 2012 01:09:28 -0800 http://annacoogan.com/news.html#117
Nice review this morning in No Depression:


Anna Coogan
The Wasted Ocean
(independent)

In the liner notes to her latest album Seattle singer/songwriter Anna Coogan said that after spending a summer in Alaska, she spent three weeks last February relearning the traditional songs she listened to in her youth. Inspired by that exercise, she then took a month and wrote some original material based on the sea shanties and traditional tunes she rediscovered these many years later. The result is a breathtakingly beautiful collection that sounds like the songs she intended to emulate, all brittle ballads and tales of lament driven by the inspiration of old wayfarer narratives. Yet even those who know nothing about whaling ships and pitting mind, body and spirit against the ocean’s fury will be able to embrace the sentiment that shines through here. “Blood on the Sails,” “Come the Wind, Come the Rain” and “Come Ashore, Love” ring with a harrowing heartbreak that’s cinematic in style and yet intimate in the finer details. Fans of folk music — particularly as recorded by the likes of Gordon Lightfoot, Stan Rogers and the Clancy Brothers -- will find welcome harbor here.

Thanks to Lee Zimmerman!]]> http://annacoogan.com/news.html#117 Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800 Roots and Urban Americana - Anna Coogan - News http://annacoogan.com/news.html#116
2012 is going to be a fun year, already the calender is filled with travels: Chicago and the midwest in a few weeks, NYC in late January, Memphis for Folk Alliance in February, Seattle and Oregon for March, and in April....ROME! to record a duo album with Daniele Fiaschi.

We are also getting going on the US release of "The Wasted Ocean", including a big radio and press mailout. If you would like a copy for your local station, please let me know.

Lot's of love,

Anna]]> http://annacoogan.com/news.html#116 Thu, 05 Jan 2012 00:00:00 -0800 Roots and Urban Americana - Anna Coogan - News http://annacoogan.com/news.html#115
Happy Holidays! Things are appropriately cold (finally) here in Ithaca, NY—although no snow yet! — and we’ve got the house covered in festive lights to ward off the darkness. We’ve been settling in to our new town—it’s got great coffee (don’t worry Seattle, I still love you best), a super-hip loft office space where I write these emails, and, well, gorges galore.

I want to thank you so much for all your support in 2011—it’s been an amazing year! It started off on the stages of Boston’s Club Passim and the Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow, and took me (and Daniele Fiaschi!) to Ireland, England, Scotland, Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and all over the Lower 48 and Alaska. I’ve shared stages with the Alison Brown Quartet, Carrie Newcomer, Frazey Ford, Alejandro Escovedo, and many others, flown in over 20 airplanes, and driven thousands upon thousands of miles in tiny rental cars. I also got the pleasure of teaching a very talented bunch of teens about vocal performance and many tourists a little bit about playing rock-n-roll at Seattle’s EMP. (I also taught 80 six year olds about the legend of Jimi Hendrix—but that is another story!)

“The Wasted Ocean”, my 2011 record that you guys funded, debuted at #4 on the Euro-Americana Charts and was described as “album of the year” by the Sheffield Star (UK). “Come Ashore, Love”, my duet with Edie Carey, got extensive airplay on RTE 1 (Irish National Radio). Hooray for Irish roots! A huge, huge thank you to all who were involved.

I will be releasing “Wasted” across the US all through 2012, tour dates listed below! I'll be adding lots of dates in the next few months, so keep touch!

I wish you all the snow, dessert, light, love, and festive beverages in the world for this holiday season!

Big love,

Anna C.
http://www.annacoogan.com

Current Tour Dates (many more TBA!):


Jan 19- Café Paradiso- Fairfield, IA
Jan 20- Uncommon Ground Devon-Chicago, IL
Jan 21- House Concert- Milwaukee, WI
Jan 22- House Concert- Minneapolis, MN
Jan 27- Petes Candy Store- Brooklyn, NY
Feb 3- House Concert- Washington, DC
Feb 10- House Concert- Rochester, NY
Feb 12- Felicia’s- Ithaca, NY
Feb 23- Folk Alliance International Official Performance Alley Showcase- Memphis, TN
Feb 24-Feb 26 Folk Alliance International Unofficial Showcase TBA- Memphis, TN
March 1- Cambridge Drive Concert Series- Santa Barbara, CA
March 2- Fox and Goose- Sacremento, CA
March 3- House Concert, Sacremento, CA
March 4-March 10: Washington, Oregon, dates TBA.

Seeking House Concerts:

March 4-March 10 WA, OR, CA
March 15-April 30- New England, PA, NY, DC
May- Southwest]]> http://annacoogan.com/news.html#115 Thu, 08 Dec 2011 00:00:00 -0800 Roots and Urban Americana - Anna Coogan - News http://annacoogan.com/news.html#114
Get any one of Anna's CD's for only 10 dollars each! Each CD will be signed with a personal message and will include a festive holiday card from Anna. Please specify name and if you would like it gift wrapped! Excellent gifts!!

CD Options

The Wasted Ocean (2011) The Nocturnal Among Us (2010) Sleepwalker (2007) Glory (2005)

]]> http://annacoogan.com/news.html#114 Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800 Roots and Urban Americana - Anna Coogan - News http://annacoogan.com/news.html#113
http://www.johnnysgarden.nl/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=924&Itemid=127

And a nice pic from our acoustic session at this festival, one of my favorite shows of the tour:

]]> http://annacoogan.com/news.html#113 Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800 Roots and Urban Americana - Anna Coogan - News http://annacoogan.com/news.html#112
She initially studied opera but couldn't relate to this music and may have abandoned singing altogether had she not been entranced by Alison Krauss; "Hearing old time country changed the course of my life", she says.

This is her second solo album, after 2010's The Nocturnal Among Us.

The original songs for The Wasted Ocean were written in a living room in Seattle and "inspired by haunted tales of shipwrecks and isolation"..

Aside from eight original compositions, there is also a cover of Dick Swain's Blood On The Sails (with words by Phil and June Cloclough) .

The record was produced by Evan Brubaker at Forgiveness, Tacoma, Washington and on it Coogan is backed by a skilled group of musicians on dobro, mandolin, banjo and violin.

The one song without a nautical theme is dedicated to her father; an 8 minute version of Phil Och's The Crucifixion. Fine though this is, in the context of this album it sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb and would have been better held back for another record.

You'll find no drunken sea shanties here. What she calls "the weary ocean" in Streamers is portrayed as a desolate and unforgiving beast that takes away lovers and claims lives.

In its vastness, victims of shipwrecks are "condemned to live forever in that desperate corridor of blue and green" (The Sons Will Join Their Fathers). In Come The Wind, Come The Rain, the reflections become almost hymnal as she refers to the "heavenly seas".

While the prevailing mood of the record is melancholy, its lyrical grace and the pitch perfect arrangements give the songs a desolate beauty.

***

]]> http://annacoogan.com/news.html#112 Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800 Roots and Urban Americana - Anna Coogan - News http://annacoogan.com/news.html#111
Von einer, die mit 19 Jahren ihre Heimat Neuengland verlässt, nach Salzburg zieht, um am Mozarteum Opernsängerin zu werden, nach Nordamerika zurückgeht, diesmal aber an die Westküste, um in Seattle Biologie zu studieren und anschließend den nördlichen Pazifik als Limnologin zu erkunden — von einer solchen Frau muss man wohl auch erwarten, dass sie irgendwann anfängt, Songs zu schreiben und Gitarre zu spielen. Die Musik von Alison Krauss lenkte Anna Coogan auf diesen Weg, was im Opener ihres zweiten Albums auch durchscheint: ”žThe Sons Will Join Their Fathers“ klingt in seiner Ruhe und mit den eingeflochtenen Dobrolinien ähnlich. Allerdings wirkt die Stimme Coogans weniger ätherisch als die ihres Vorbilds, erinnert eher an die Schwestern McGarrigle, und von Bluegrass ist auch kaum etwas zu finden. Lediglich das Instrumentarium könnte auch zu einer Band aus Nashville passen — musikalisch wirkt die Music City jedoch weit entfernt. An der rauen Küste gehen die Uhren anders, Anna Coogan erzählt, wie. Immer wieder taucht der Wasted Ocean als Thema in den Songs auf, dazu die Weite, die Einsamkeit und Verlorenheit, etwa im Fiddle-Lament ”žCome The Wind, Come The Rain“. Traurig, schön.

Translation soon to follow....]]> http://annacoogan.com/news.html#111 Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800 Roots and Urban Americana - Anna Coogan - News http://annacoogan.com/news.html#110
http://www.obitoftheday.com/post/12609380113/edmundfitzgerald

and purchase it at

CDbaby The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Today is also veterans day. If you are a veteran or active duty soldier and would like a copy of "The Wasted Ocean" or "The Nocturnal Among Us", please email at anna@annacoogan.com. Thank You!]]> http://annacoogan.com/news.html#110 Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800 Roots and Urban Americana - Anna Coogan - News http://annacoogan.com/news.html#109

]]> http://annacoogan.com/news.html#109 Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800 Roots and Urban Americana - Anna Coogan - News http://annacoogan.com/news.html#108
I'm setting up the front bed room to be a music room, and it gets November sunlight streaming through the windows all day. I've got a big wide library desk (currently covered in mortgage papers, but soon to be a hotbed of songwriting inspiration, maybe), a closet full of CD's, a bunch of guitars, one languishing ukelele, and a nice bed to nap in. All in all, a wonderful thing to come home to. (The husband and dog aren't too bad, either). Probably my most taxing to-do in the next 2 months will be to find proper Christmas lights, because I am going to decorate the living s**t out of this house.

Prepared to celebrate Christmas for 2 months straight,

Anna]]> http://annacoogan.com/news.html#108 Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:00:00 -0800 Roots and Urban Americana - Anna Coogan - News