Anna Coogan: Press

BBC Radio 2- Scotland

"Absolutely Gorgeous!"

The Sheffield Star

It helps to have friends.

American singer-songwriter Anna Coogan raised the money for her latest album by asking for donations before it was recorded - and how her loyal followers responded.

In return for later goodies like signed copies and person thank you letters, they coughed up in advance and the result, Wasted Ocean, is out now in this country and on iTunes.

Anna, in Sheffield this Sunday for a sold-out private house concert and an appearance on Radio Sheffield, says: "I was bowled over by people's generosity. I couldn't have made the album without them."

The result is a truly beautiful collection of plaintive, langorous songs so evocatively maritime you can practically smell the salt in the air when you listen to them.

Album of the year from a class act. Check it out, me hearties.

Americana UK

Anna Coogan ”The Wasted Ocean”
Independent, 2011
Reviewers Rating

8/10

While Coogan no longer shows traces of her operatic past she will, I am sure unconsciously, draw on the experience as she does on her three years as a fisheries biologist. Relaxed in vocal tone and presentation, Anna combines the beauty and solitude of being out on (and by) the water, observing and soaking up the mystical ambiance of it.
Her music can on occasions be simultaneously eerie and enchanting as images of the ocean are transferred amidst great artistic beauty. The songs were written in February this year at her Seattle home when she took time off the road after a hectic year touring. Something of a busman's holiday.

New England-born, Coogan has multi-picker Evan Brubaker and producer (Rachel Harrington), Colby Sander, Brooks Miner, Eyvind Kang, Daniele Fiaschi, Darrin Watkins, Eric Hastings and Edie Carey supplement her own acoustic, electric and Nashville guitars on the Washington recorded CD. Coogan’s deft presentations coupled with subtle Dobro, guitars, fiddle and viola ensure the listener has much to soak up.

Never more poetic or delicately crafted is the case than on a sweetly performed (plied in Sander’s Dobro playing) “Come Ashore, Love” or understated, “A Little Less Each Day”. Where, other than her whispering tones there is only acoustic guitar featured, and hints of female harmonies as Coogan’s whispery, soothing vocal deliveries take the listener to a heavenly place awash in tranquil beauty. When it comes to singing with tempered passion, then her folk pieces “Life In A Peaceful New World” and the rustic fiddle escorted “Come the Wind, Come the Rain” are of a special quality, the latter of the kind to raise the hairs on the back of your neck. The songs were inspired by a childhood where she was exposed to music traditions of maritime New England, and boy didn’t she learn her lesson well. If only for the two songs above alone I would recommend you go check out this marvellous vocalist.

Best of the rest, I would point you towards “Love Without Strings” that pounds out a rhythm that with additional vocal harmonies, Dobro and banjo it finds her once again speak of the lure of the ocean and a yearning to break free of any ties.

Celtic Heartbeat BBC Radio Wales

Beautiful! I really like the sound of that girls voice! Who could resist the sound of that siren?

The Telegraph UK

Anna Coogan's new CD The Wasted Ocean is not the first sea-based album of 2011. June Tabor released the impressive Ashore but whereas Tabor chose old shanties, well-known classics and modern delights such as Elvis Costello's Shipbuilding, Seattle-based Coogan - once a whitewater kayaker and then a fisheries biologist - has written eight of the 10 songs on her new album.
Her voice is sweet and engaging but has enough salt in it to bring out some of the melancholy and brooding beauty of her lyrics.

Highlights caught in the net include Steamers, Come The Wind, Come The Rain and the affecting Come Ashore Love. There is also a long cover version of Phil Och's complex sea-related song The Crucifixion and the CD ends in fine style with the simple yet haunting A Little Less Each Day

I miss you
I want you
I love you
A little less each day.

By its nature it's perhaps not an album you would play constantly but Coogan has certainly produced one that would repay each listen.

Folker (Deutschland)

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: „The 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 „Come The Wind, Come The Rain“. Traurig, schön.

All Gigs.co.uk

Seattle songstress Anna Coogan channels her passion for all things aquatic on this blissful slice of contemplative folk. Growing up surrounded by the musical traditions of maritime New England, Coogan followed her idyllic childhood by becoming a whitewater kayaker and then a fisheries biologist. It impregnated her soul with a lifelong love for classical sea shanties and songs of the maritime East Coast, enthralled by their haunting tales of shipwrecks and isolation. After touring her critically acclaimed 2010 debut disc 'The Nocturnal Among Us' Anna returned to Seattle to craft a delicate album weaving together the eternal imagery of the eerie ocean with the secret stories forever sailing on it's seven seas.
Ten years earlier, Coogan quit a career as an opera singer after hearing blue grass legend and Led Zep groupie (possibly...) Alison Krauss. Today, her voice reflects the ethereal beauty of Ms Krauss rather than Montserrat Caballe's melodrama as it swoons lovingly over every lyric, breathing truth into every soulful syllable. Producer Evan Brubaker (Rachel Harrington) helps create a sparse, richly textured backdrop courtesy of Coogan's acoustic, electric and Nashville guitars accompanied by banjos, mandolins, organs and violins. It's always amazing when an album's notes list a boat load of instruments yet the sound remains perfectly uncluttered and tranquil.
'The Sons will join their Fathers' is a minor, mournful opener recalling Laura Marling in ruined reflective mode. 'Come the Wind, Come the Rain' is closest to a traditional celtic ditty with Coogan's solitary voice backed by a lone violin sounding suspiciously like bagpipes! 'Hold Steady, Hold Tight' is a breezy pastoral pop tune delivering a tuneful, upbeat refrain. However, the albums piece de resistance is a cover of 'The Crucifixion', an eight minute opus by Phil Ochs. The only problem is the brilliance of Ochs' parallels between the deaths of JFK and Jesus Christ as he highlights a 'cycle of sacrifice' leaves Anna's own wordplay looking wan by comparison.
Overall, 'Wasted Ocean' is a superb voyage carried by a strong, centred yet fragile vocal performance. If beautiful mermaids emerged from the sea singing their soul's song they'd sound exactly like Anna Coogan.

Whisperin' and Hollerin'

Anna Coogan grew up in New England and, having trained as a marine biologist, it seems only natural that she should turn to the sea for inspiration.

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.

Songs Illinois

I wrote about Anna Coogan’s record The Nocturnal In Us a little more than one year ago (here). At the time I commented on the very hushed sound of that record. The songs were like soothing lullabies. Now don’t expect Metallica, but the songs on the new record are fuller and louder. On the new record The Wasted Ocean Anna added a full band sound. The band consists of Colby Sander (banjo, dobro, mandolin), Brooks Miner (hammond), Eyvind Kang (viola, violin), Edie Carey (backing vocals) and Daniele Fiaschi (electric guitar). So while these are not exactly rollicking sea shanties the band is able to embellish Anna’s folk tunes and make them a little more nautical in nature – matching the themes of many of the songs.

You can hear all the textures Anna coaxes out of the band on the song “The Sons Will Join Their Fathers”. You can also get a feel for the seaworthy nature of the record. It seems the bulk of the songs have a relationship to the sea. The Sheffield Star said it best in their recent review: “The result is a truly beautiful collection of plaintive, langorous songs so evocatively maritime you can practically smell the salt in the air when you listen to them. Album of the year from a class act.” There are already a few reviews popping up here in the states and overseas for this record (here, here, and here); so take my word or theirs and buy the new record here now.

Lonesome Highway

The Wasted Ocean--

This album draws from Coogan's past experience as a fisheries biologist and as a kayaker on the whitewaters of New England. This is evident also in the cover design and from her sleeve note. But what concerns us here is the music which has Coogan soft voice at it's centre along with her songs, some of which pick up on the sea theme. The Sons Will Join Their Fathers and follow them to sea where the salt in their veins is a strong pull. Love Without Strings alludes to distance and belief. Life In A Peaceful World showcases Coogan's distinctive high-register voice and the simple ensemble playing of the band led by producer Evan Brubaker. The music is a mix of folk and indie rock with subtle textures of banjo, mandolin, dobro, viola, violin and Hammond organ. Very much the tools of the roots music trade these days. Water, wind and waves with movement and the parting of people are themes woven into the tapestry of these songs. To the point where in A Little Less Each Day that the subject misses their love in that way. Many of these songs are plaintive and full of longing. Come Ashore, Love feel like an age old song but its timelessness is what makes it special. One of the few outside songs is Phil Ochs' The Crucifixion given an extended pure-voiced reading that makes it sit easily alongside her own songs. The Wasted Ocean is full of the tides that rule many lives and is to be applauded for the way that Coogan has been able to use the overall concept as the heart of these songs and in her individual, fragile voice.

Fatea.com

The Wasted Ocean

To buy an album without having read any reviews requires a certain amount of faith in your chosen artist. To buy an album before a note has been recorded requires real dedication. With "The Wasted Ocean" Anna Coogan joins the growing number of acts that has funded her new album with the support of fans. If past performance is a guide, then this album was a good bet. One time opera singer, turned to Americana, Anna Coogan has a great reputation for songs that are bathed in the emotions delivered by a voice that is trained for feelings as well as words. Faith definitely justified.

Maverick Magazine: ****

Anna Coogan

THE NOCTURNAL AMONG US

Independent

****

Fantastic new music that embraces country and folk with a mix of her own remedy to the tough times...

Firstly from visiting her website, you will notice that Anna Coogan truly understands the times and this is reflected in her music. She understands that right now everyone’s suffering the tough times and that music is something you don’t necessarily have the money to enjoy. So with THE NOCTURNAL AMONG US, her latest recording, Anna is adopting a ‘pay what you can’ system that she first adopted on the road. Basically if you purchase the CD from Coogan’s website you can donate an amount that will get you a copy of the CD. Anything up to 10 dollars will get you a digital copy and anything above 10 dollars, a signed hard copy with a bonus EP plus a personal thank you card from Anna herself. I think this is a marvellous idea and it just shows that you can be inventive about the hard times and still get a chance to enjoy some good new music. And that’s just what this album is—good new music!

Anna Coogan’s music is Americana at its best. As a trained opera singer and field biologist, her music focuses on bringing to the forefront the realisation of beauty all around us, in daily living and the relationships that connect us all. It’s enjoyable sweet music that swirls through the air to your ears, a melodic voice in Dreaming My Life Away as the ensuing Crooked Sea is slightly darker. Embracing country and folk, Anna Coogan’s music is a mix of this and more, with sweet melodies and catchy hooks that instantly have you involved, especially with Take The Sky And Run. This is an impressive collection, a really enjoyable listen that has you chilling but content. Standout tracks include Take The Sky And Run, Halfway Gone and Mockingbird. LB

www.annacoogan.com

WUMB Boston

"An incredible songwriter and performer....I'm a big fan now!"

Haarlem Dagblat- Jan 29, 2011

The Bluegrass Special

Free-Falling? Nothing Is Free.
By David McGee

THE NOCTURNAL AMONG US

A long time ago, when he was discussing the actors in his classic film The Last Picture Show, director Peter Bogdanovich commented as to how Timothy Bottoms had “the saddest eyes I’ve ever seen.” On the back of The Nocturnal Among Us, Anna Coogan is shown staring with a faraway look through a raindrop-speckled window, and hers are the saddest eyes you will ever see. Eternally sad, it appears. Even on the inside sleeve, where the Seattle native is pictured out on the street in winter, she’s almost smiling, but her eyes are this close to tearing up. As you make your way through the compelling songs she’s assembled for The Nocturnal Among Us, you find yourself awaiting light to break through--not for you, but for Anna. It’s almost there, in an instant, in the elevated, soaring, multi-voiced choruses of “Dreaming My Life Away” and its catchy “oh-la-la-la” chants over a jittery, pulsating rhythmic charge. But the song chronicles ennui of an epic magnitude--plans are made, the protagonist awakes and gets ready for the new day…then climbs back in bed, “wished I was dreaming,” and everywhere, it seems, is the recurrent motif, “Look at me dreaming my life away,” sung not with regret, but almost cheerily, as if stasis is triumph. The tender sentiments set amidst an anticipatory mood in the folk-flavored music rising and falling in “Crooked Sea” suggest hope anew--“when we awake we will see/rays of sun on the balcony”--but by the third verse, we find Ms. Coogan singing in the past tense: “when you left you left no warning/a missing suitcase, an empty bed/a closet full of clothes you left/a cupboard full and an empty desk/an aching heart beating in my chest.” After attending a Wreckers/Keith Urban show and being “amazed by the sheer power of a huge country music show,” as she writes on her website, Ms. Coogan was inspired to write a country breakup song. The result, “Take The Sky and Run,” does indeed channel the restless, surging energy of some Wreckers tunes, but it is more bereft than most country breakup songs; in fact, it falls not so much in the category of “breakup” song as it does “kissoff” song, itself an exalted realm and rather more pitiless than a breakup song. In “Take the Sky and Run,” she’s breaking up and cutting loose, staying out late on a Friday, “not gonna think of your face anymore, gonna settle our score,” and finally kisses off her faithless paramour with the final lyric: “I don’t need you in my world, baby.” The jazz-inflected ballad “Mockingbird,” is kind of a prequel to “Take the Sky and Run,” unfolding as a bitter chronicle of a relationship not merely winding down but exploding off its hinges--at least for the female half of the couple, whose plight might be likened to that of the astronaut in Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey cut loose from his pod by the computer HAL and sent free-falling forever into deep space--or, as Ms. Coogan puts it, “everything I do is just free-falling.” Tragedy (the death of a friend with whom Ms. Coogan had “a rocky relationship, we fought a lot, and I was intimidated as hell by him”) is the subject of “So Long, Summertime,” but even here, in looking back, the artist cannot summonwistful memories--“you didn’t know up from down/and you didn’t know right from wrong/and you cannot undo what’s been done”--perhaps because she knows on some fundamental level she’s still connected to him, as she admits in the final verse when she vows to be there, if he ever calls again, which in and of itself is an admission of disturbing codependency.


Anna Coogan performs ‘Crooked Sea,’ from The Nocturnal Among Us. Live in Luzern, Switzerland’s 2009 Blue Balls Festival.

For all its revelations of emotional devastation, though, The Nocturnal Among Us is not the downer it might seem from this appraisal. It’s more thought provoking in its ruthless examination of the whys and wherefores of things coming apart, of people disconnecting; and the subtlety of the arrangements and JD Foster’s evocative soundscapes offer a beautiful, compelling backdrop for the various dramas under investigation. Not the least of her music’s attributes is Ms. Coogan’s voice, which has the timbre and affecting catch in the throat of the young Natalie Merchant. It’s something a listener cannot turn away from, a voice that insists on being heard, not by dint of sheer volume--exuberant displays of vocal brio are not part of the program--but by its pronounced, persistent, aching vulnerability. It articulates the vast, inchoate sadness her eyes betray. But in the end, maybe what’s important in the long run is the absence of tears flowing from those orbs; the tears, beyond her gaze, are the tears from Heaven spotting the window pane she stands behind. The distance between the two may be the big story after all.

Blurt! Magazine

Clearly, there's nothing more commonplace these days that dewy-eyed singer/songwriters of a lofty Americana persuasion. Except, of course, for squabbling politicians and recalled drywall from China. So the fact that Anna Coogan operates within that template doesn't exactly set her up for any sort of distinction, at least not at the outset. That said, the fact that she is able to distinguish herself within a realm that's so tried and true attests to both her prowess and performance.



Truth be told, The Nocturnal Among Us doesn't necessarily breach any parameters. As its title implies, it's an album permeated by sadness, despair and a twilight sensibility that ensures that its overcast feeling lingers throughout. In fact, Coogan's preoccupation with death is exceedingly obvious, from the haunting despondency of "Holy Ghosts of Texas" to the pensive sway of "Coins on Your Eyes." Its best songs - "Dreaming My Life Away" and "Halfway Gone" in particular - bear lyrics that succumb to resignation, although Coogan's high lonesome vocals bare both sorrow and strength. So while some may find her downcast demeanor a bit troubling, the beauty in her melodies becomes more engaging with every listen. After three albums and an EP, Coogan clearly isn't the star she ought to be, but even so, she ranks one of the best of her breed.



Standout Tracks: "Dreaming My Life Away," "Halfway Gone" LEE ZIMMERMAN

Alt Country Forum Review

De eerste keer dat ik haar naam las stond ze vermeld als achtergrondzangeres op het album Revelation van A.J. Roach. Nu lees ik dat ze eerder al een drietal albums heeft gemaakt, waarvan Sleepwalker (Dezelfde thematiek?) – uit 2007 – de laatste was. The Nocturnal Among Us heeft alvorens te verschijnen enige tijd gehad om te rijpen. Geen verkeerd gegeven! Zowel de hoes als de titel van haar cd zijn intrigerend te noemen. Wie beklimt daar op een bloedrode achtergrond een barre boom? Is het Anna zelf die op de tast gaat? Staat die boom symbolisch voor levensweg? Wie zijn zij die de voorkeur aan de nacht geven? Allemaal vragen waarmee je kan concluderen dat Anna thuishoort in categorie van singer songwriters die zich bedienen van diepere teksten. Teksten waarbij de artiest zichzelf vragen stelt, en daarbij zoekt voor acceptabele antwoorden. Gevoelsmatig proef ik iets van onzekerheid of teleurstelling, heeft zij het gevoel dat ze overgeleverd is aan de gunst van anderen?

Deze plaat is in opgenomen in Maine, hartje zomer. In tegenstelling tot de winterperiode waarin Anna haar songs schreef. In veel gevallen kwam de muziek voor dit album ’s nachts tot stand of tijdens de vroege ochtendschemering. Beschouwt ze zichzelf als een nachtdier? Iemand die gevoelsmatig zijn weg uitstippelt, en moeite heeft los te laten of keuzes te maken? Ik blijf mezelf voortdurend vragen stellen, en dat maakt dit hele album mede zo mooi. Indirect word je gedwongen je dieper op de teksten te richten, in de hoop iets te ontvouwen van het mysterie dat verscholen ligt onder de rijk aanwezige metaforen. Dat “de dood” haar bezig heeft gehouden blijkt duidelijk uit songs als Halfway Gone, Holy Ghosts of Texas en Coins on Your Eyes. Voor de opnames en productionele samenstelling werd ze bijgestaan door J.D. Foster (Richmond Fontaine, Galexico, Laura Cantrell en Marc Ribot). Foster heeft zijn sporen verdient in het muzikale landschap van de countrymuziek, maar weet desondanks de folk getinte sfeer van Anna uitstekend vorm te geven.



Het voormalig tijdschrift No Depression had in het verleden al eens een vergelijking getroffen met niemand minder dan Kelly Willis en Iris Dement. In principe kun je uren filosoferen over de inhoud of de uitvoering, maar feit blijft dat deze Anna Coogan veel te bieden heeft. The Nocturnal Among Us is een mooi, luisterrijk, doch duister album. Een kwetsvare wereld waar het uitkijken is geblazen. Iets meer inzicht valt te vergaren doordat Anna ons een kijkje gunt in de gedachtewereld van een jonge vrouw. Ze zingt: “I am a Surviver Anyhow!, maar gezien haar blik op de achterzijde van haar hoes lijkt ze daarvan amper overtuigd. Wat wel terdege overtuigd is deze sublieme plaat.

Fred Eaglesmith

"Her Music is the Truth"

Keppenvel.net

Anna Coogan’s development into a folky singer-songwriter was long and winding: the American broke off an opera study in Austrian city Salzburg, where she also sang show tunes during recitals to everyone’s bewilderment and sometimes missed classes because she went skiing. She studied biology after that and only started singing (again) after hearing Alison Krauss. Two CD’s with her band north19 scored nicely, but that band fell apart in 2007.

Coogan wrote the eleven songs for her first solo-outing mostly during sleepless nights, visited by doubt and despair. Even in that one up-tempo rocker with merry ooh-la-la refrain she sings how she would prefer to go back to bed to dream about another life.

In her ten other songs she mixes understatement with feelings, turning herself inside out that way. In impressionistic lyrics she sings about how her relationship ended and how worn out she feels after that. Striking is both the influence of faith and fate. Because her words circle around these themes, they make all the more of an impression. Changing perspective regularly she seems to encourage herself sometimes fruitlessly.

A huge desolation arises from the careful song order, still stressed because Coogan regularly changes effortlessly from a veiled low sound to an emotional high one.

Together with atmospheric musicians like drummer Eric Hastings, keyboardist/husband Brooks Miner and guitarist/producer JD Foster (Patti Griffin, Calexico) she creates an impressive thematic solo debut that way.

***1/2

Rootstime

Twee weken geleden viel het album “The Nocturnal Among Us” van de in Seattle, Washington wonende Anna Coogan in onze bus. We hadden eerder al van deze jongedame gehoord toen ze bluegrass & countryplaten als “Glory” (2004) en “Sleepwalker” (2007) uitbracht onder de groepsnaam ‘Anna Coogan And North 19”. Toen die groep er mee ophield trok ze nog een tijdje alleen de wereld rond als voorprogramma van Lambchop, Reamonn en Fred Eaglesmith.

Anna Coogan is een creatieve en hardwerkende singer-songwriter die in haar teksten een zinvolle boodschap probeert mee te geven aan de luisteraars. Voor “The Nocturnal Among Us” selecteerde ze 11 nummers uit haar steeds groeiende songboek die ze samen met producer JD Foster (Calexico, Richmond Fontaine) in de studio ging vereeuwigen voor dit eerste echte soloalbum.

Tekstueel horen we reflecties over het leven, de liefde en de dood; songs die Anna Coogan schreef in de voorbije twee winters waarbij de duistere, regenachtige periode van het jaar een onuitwisbare stempel op de nummers heeft gedrukt. Of ze daarbij autobiografisch schrijft is niet helemaal duidelijk, maar soms klinkt de ‘tristesse’ in de liedjes wel erg geloofwaardig en persoonlijk. Als kersvers gehuwde zou je echter eerder optimistische klanken van deze zangeres mogen verwachten.

Voor ons echter niet gelaten want het levert voortreffelijke songs op en maakt van “The Nocturnal Among Us” een heel aangenaam beluisterbare plaat waarin we soms flarden van Shawn Colvin, Jann Arden en Natalie Merchant lijken terug te horen.

Wij smelten langzaam weg bij “Back To The World”, het uptempo en quasi vrolijk gezongen nummer “Dreaming My Life Away”, het sober gebrachte “Holy Ghost Of Texas”, “Crooked Sea” en ”Take The Sky And Run” (twee schitterende break-up songs), de liedesliedjes “Love Again” en “Coins On Your Eyes”, het aan een veel te jong gestorven vriend opgedragen “So Long Summertime” en de wat droeve titeltrack “The Nocturnal Among Us”.

Steeds opnieuw valt de loepzuivere zangprestatie van Anna Coogan op, naast de maturiteit van de songteksten die tot nadenken aanzetten. Dit is een uitstekende plaat in het genre en zal voor Anna Coogan de start zijn van een langdurige carrière in de wereld van vrouwelijke singer-songwriters.

Northern Sky

By Allan Wilkinson - Posted on 09 March 2010

There's very little on THE NOCTURNAL AMONG US that gives us a clue to Anna Coogan's original plan to work in the field of Opera. After becoming disillusioned with the academic constraints of Salzburg, coupled with equal measures of home sickness and love sickness, the Seattle-based singer-songwriter found inspiration in the singing of Alison Krauss in 2001, returning to music after a short spell away, picking up her guitar once again and almost immediately forming her own band Anna Coogan and north19. Strauss to Krauss you might say.

Two albums down the line, GLORY (2004) and SLEEPWALKER (2007), the band called it a day and after some soul searching, Anna returns with her debut solo album, accompanied by a bunch of fine musicians including JD Foster on guitars (who also produces), Austin Nevins and Scott Hampson also on guitars, Geoff Hazelrigg on bass and guitars, Brooks Miner on keyboards and Eric Hastings on drums. Most of those names also helped out in other areas such as engineering, pre-production and sleeve design.

Recorded in just eight days, the eleven original songs on the album showcase Anna Coogan's unmistakable and assured voice, from the radio friendly Dreaming My Life Away to the brooding Coins on Your Eyes, each accompanied by some fine musicianship and thoughtful arrangements. Back to the World, the album's opener, eases us into Anna's world with an arrangement that augments its dark musical undercurrent with a voice of convincing vulnerability.

Revisiting Holy Ghost of Texas, which previously appeared on GLORY, Anna presents a slightly mellower feel than the original recording, adopting a sparse arrangement reminiscent of some of Cowboy Junkies' most atmospheric work, especially in the occasional guitar flurries. The songs here are deeply personal, especially So Long Summertime which together with all the other songs on the album, almost provides an epitaph for a lost friend.

With an impressive forthcoming tour schedule, the songs comprising THE NOCTURNAL AMONG US will no doubt serve Anna well, whether you catch her at a concert hall in San Francisco, a folk club in Falkirk or the smallest house concert in the back of a van. I certainly look forward to catching her at one of those soon.
Allan Wilkinson
Northern Sky

Jersey Beat

ANNA COOGAN – The Nocturnal Among Us: Armed with an extremely sweet, dulcet, and soothing voice, singer/songwriter Anna Coogan immediately wins the listener over with her supremely lovely and arresting pipes alone. Soaring over the high notes with breathtaking skill and agility, hitting a lower register with equal grace and smoothness, this gal’s voice is truly something to hear. Moreover, Coogan is also one hell of a smart and thoughtful songwriter with a strong knack for eloquent lyrics and simple, yet harmonic melodies. Best of all, this remarkably moving and intelligent country-folk album that addresses relevant issues about adulthood in a mature and direct way without ever becoming too sappy or cloying about it. A lovely and touching little jewel. - Joe Wawrzyniak, JerseyBeat.com

Victory Review: Live Concert Review

In front of Anna were two candles burning, and three arched windows behind, reminding us we were in a former place of worship. The tremolo voice of Daniele Fiaschi's lead guitar wept gently behind Anna's clear one, both lifting easily to the high notes. But this was not a melancholy time, but victorious for Anna Coogan, and she and her supporters and fans had a great time

Anna Coogan released her CD with this concert on March 5, 2010 at the Fremont Abbey, after finishing her project, "The Nocturnal Among Us". She recorded her CD for the most part in the backwoods of Maine at the Great North Sound Society in Parsonsfield, Maine. I had to ask "Why Maine?" and Anna replied, "We recorded in Maine for a couple of reasons. We were coming from Europe, so it was 'on the way', and our producer, engineer, and drummer all live on the East Coast. I am from Vermont originally and wanted to spend some time in my home area in the summer, get a break from the city. Most of all, I wanted a relaxed and fun place we could hole-up for a week, and Great North Sound Society was perfect. It is WAY out there, far from anything, so there was nothing to do but make music and shoot bee-bee guns. We did both. GNSS was also where Josh Ritter and Kris Delmhorst's most recent records were made, so I knew it was a studio with a great energy." Good answer.

A performer that gives space to her accompanists sometimes creates a jewel among songs, a song that makes you want to hold your breath so you can listen without interference. Drummer Eric Hastings drummed the mystery into "Holy Ghosts of Texas", a song previously recorded on Anna's album, Glory. This is real good. Go listen.

The holy ghosts of Texas
make their way across the night
chasing their devils till the morning
and all the lonely ghosts watching
as they spread on through the sky
they say lord, I’m gonna join them when I die

annacoogan1mama don’t shed a tear for me
you know I’m gonna make it somehow
and don’t waste your prayers on me
I’m a survivor anyhow

The sound man signaled to Anna, 1 more song, and so it turned out that the concert went out on the "Big Sad", her title song, "The Nocturnal Among Us."
Indeed this is a song both big and sad.

One night you woke up, you could not sleep anymore
you looked at your hands but you did not know what they were for
one night you woke and your eyes were wide open
your mind full on fire and your body was paralyzed
look at the ceiling and wondering why
everything comes to an end at the same time

Right now, Anna and her band are on tour around the country, keeping a blog at: http://www.annacoogan.com/. My favorite entry so far: #10 on her tour list "10) Scariest hotel: The Economy Lodge in Brownfield, TX. No lightbulbs in the lamps. Smelled of doom. No dogs allowed. Juno (her dog) smuggled in in pillow case."

WLUR 91.5 FM

There's something about Anna Coogan's simple and understated delivery that I relish, kind of ironically since it usually takes something a little more distinctive for me to be drawn to a singer songwriter. Written over the course of a couple of winters, in the dark of early mornings, The Nocturnal Among Us wears these circumstances well. Fans of Dawn Landes might enjoy this one. Start with "Crooked Sea" or "So Long Summertime."

KEXP.org

"Anna Coogan has a lovely voice with some affecting breaks that she uses to wring plenty of emotion out of the bands well-crafted songs."