Anna Coogan: Press

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

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

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."

WUMB Boston

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

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."

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.

Wildy's World

Seattle’s Anna Coogan has one of those voices that haunt you. There's a lonesome quality there that is entirely compelling, and Coogan know how to place her voice to fullest effect in arrangements that both frame and feature it in the best light. The Seattle singer/songwriter has been delighting audiences since she first started writing in 2002, and has released two albums to date that have won critical praise. On March 2, 2010, Coogan steps fourth with her third album, The Nocturnal Among Us. Written in the depths of two Seattle winters, Coogan waxes poetic on the sort of growing up we start to do once we think we've grown up. Getting married, becoming a responsible adult and the perspective of mortality all come into play. Produced by JD Foster (Calexico, Dwight Yoakam, Patty Griffin, Laura Cantrell), The Nocturnal Among Us is Coogan's best work yet, and will serve to cement her reputation as both a songwriter and performer.

Coogan starts off on the right foot with Back To The World, wrapped in a simplistic arrangement that allow the melody and ambience of the song to pour out in buckets. On Dreaming My Life Away, Coogan sounds like a classic Country crooner working a rock song steeped in melancholy. The vocal harmonies around Coogan are amazing, helping her to commemorate the sort of existential crisis that's a trademark of the human condition.

Coogan documents the cycle of a relationship from happiness to heartache on Crooked Sea, a dreamer's tale of love gone wrong told from the worldly perspective of one who thought it might come out like this all along. It's an amazing piece of songwriting and performed right to the cusp of perfection. Escapism reigns on Take The Sky And Run, a possible epilogue to Crooked Sea that's sharp but perhaps one of the weaker songs on the album. Love Again is a song of renewal; finding the will to get past the pain and live again. It's tuneful and well-written and Coogan wears it like a glove.

The highlight of the album is Holy Ghosts Of Texas. I'm not even going to go to great lengths to describe the song, as I suspect it's more a matter of how the song touches you than anything else, but it's powerful songwriting and Coogan is at her vocal best here. The song itself is an instant classic; the sort that other artists are likely to find and cover over time. So Long Summertime finds Coogan entering the Folk/Pop mélange of Natalie Merchant. It's a great listen that's easy on the ears and will recall Merchant's early days with 10,000 Maniacs. Coins On Your Eyes is something of a morality tale about figuring out what's important in life before it's too late. The song is delivered in a loving tone to someone whom Coogan knows will likely never change, and has a dark beauty that's full of love, a need to do something and the knowledge that nothing will ever be enough. Coogan says goodnight with The Nocturnal Among Us, a sad, pretty closer that serves as a musical mood desert for what's come before.

Coogan floored me from the opening notes of The Nocturnal Among Us. Her voice is truly something special, and Coogan has a talent for phrasing that's somewhat rare in Pop music. Coogan also is able to write and perform music that sounds 100% authentic, honest and from the heart. If she chooses, Coogan's going to be making music the rest of her life. Talent like this screams to be used.

Rating: 4.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Anna Coogan at www.myspace.com/annacoogan. The Nocturnal Among Us drops March 2, 2010.

"Her Music is the Truth"

Portland Oregonian

"So, a Vermont opera singer walks into a Seattle open mic and hooks up with a banjo picker.

No joke. Duo work ensues, and the pair decide they need a rhythm section. A chance meeting at the DMV and an answered ad on Craigslist later, and Anna Coogan and north19 are born.

Opera singer-turned-country-chanteuse Coogan is a 26 year old who is also closing in on a biology degree from the University of Washington. She's cashed in the dramatic formalities or classical music for the crying in your beer twang of country music, with amazing results.

"Sleepwalker", Coogan and companies second album, is a fresh take on heartfelt country; the twist rest with the heavy reliance on Travis Beard's banjo. The music is simple story telling with a delicate unerlayment of bass, drums, and Coogan's guitar and emotive vocals.

Her voice swoops and soars as she wraps herself around each lyric. She wrote or co-wrote all by one song on the projects 11 cuts, and displays solid knowledge of the country form. Each melody is laced with dug-down deep poetry. In "Wish You Well", she writes: "The radio is singing, like some long forgotten lover/All the broken hearted country songs."

Beards banjo lays the right amount of pluck, but he adds a delicious layer of tone to every cut. He shines on the instrumental "Wish You Well (Reprise)", walking an engaging line between joy and melancholy with deft finger rolls and supple melody.

The rhythm section of Kevin Burkett on electric bass and Eric Hastings on drums gives a rock edge, without being overbearing. The album is ably augmented with dobro and lap steel performances by Mike Grigoni, Joe Doria on Hammond organ,fiddle players Jeremy Brown and Lauryn Shapter, and pianist George Hazelrigg. Were music business economics different, the quartet would likely tour with supportive players such as these.

Coogan and North19 is modern country, without the modern country implications of slick productions, over the top anthem, and affected southern accents. There is a lilt to north19's music, like that little breeze in summer that takes an edge off the swelter or that cool corner of the other side of the pillow.

Seattle Sound Magazine

Even through a well-controlled whisper, Anna Coogan's speaking voice bears few traces of the highly trained opera singer turned alt-country-band-leader. Her decade of opera training ended when she left the Mozarteum in Salzburg, Austria- the classical music equivalent of Barbies Dream House--to return to Seattle five years ago when, lacking a familiar musical outlet, Coogan took to writing folk songs and performing them at open mic nights.

"When I set off to start a band" she says "I wanted a traditional bluegrass band. What ended up was something totally different, a hybrid. " The result was north19-- including highly regarded local banjo player Travis Beard, whose roots in the Puget Sound Americana scene ran deep, and bassist and St. Louis native Kevin Burkett, whose tastes and influences tilt towards 60's pop and acoustic rock music-- and their new album, "Sleepwalker".

Building a fusion of Coogan's classical upbringing, Beard's folk roots, and Burkett's rock influence wasn't easy, and the trio turned to Craigslist for a drummer. "Eric Hastings is amazing" she says "Still, he's the best thing I've ever found on craigslist."

With Hastings in tow, the group hit local acoustic venues, from the Tractor Tavern to Folklife and other area festivals.

Coogan's voice-well honed, sharpened tool that it is-slaloms between cues from Rosanne Cash and Alison Krauss, taking fuel from the formers grit and the latter's sweet soul.With haunting songwriting, ably backed by three impeccable players, north19 rises above the throng of local folksingers in Seattle's burgeoning alt-country scene.

Coogan is quick to admit that she and north19 don't represent the scene. "But I definitely feel like a part of it" she whispers. "Theres really a huge audience for roots music in the Pacific Northwest." It's not surprising that she feels this way. After all, Coogan crossed continents before finding her own voice and three musical soul mates who were waiting for her back where she began.

"Coogan's voice brings to mind the sweet but striking approach of Kelly Willis and Iris Dement."-

Seattle PI

"Listening solely to her voice, you may doubt Coogan's country credentials. Unlike many of her peers, she doesn't survive on grit and vinegar. She's a classically trained opera singer, and when fronting her band, North19, hrt voice slides from note to note without ever slipping.

Coogan's style fit's nicely with the new wave of singer/songwriters that blend traditional influences with modern. (Think Shelley Campbell or Tift Merritt). Her debut, "Glory" (Tarnished) incorporates liberal banjo and slide guitar, and the songs roll along with the gentle shifts of a horses walk."

Anna Coogan and north19

What do Led Zeppelin and north19 have in common? Both bands lead singers have recently gone country. Four years ago Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant was a rock star and north19 chanteuse Anna Coogan was an opera singer. Now they are both crooning alongside acoustic roots musicians- Plant is currently recording a duets album with Alison Krauss, and Coogan is boom-chucking her way through the country laced originals backed by banjo, dobro, and pedal steel accompaniments on Glory.

This release from Coogan and her Seattle-based band has the quiet, rainy day feeling of Ryan Adam's "Heartbreaker", but without the moody, brooding...dejection of Adam's opus. Coogan's songs deal eloquently with the wonderings and soggy wanderings that come with a young adulthood spent in the Pacific Northwest, but rather than dwelling in dreariness, Coogan embraces the silver lining offered by these clouds, ultimately making for hopeful songs. And as for delivery, granting Coogan's voice plenty of space to narrate without straining.

"Based on her powerful pipes and the catch in her throat, she could just as easily pass for a native of Nashville..."

"Sweet and clear voiced with a stunning range, Coogan sweeps through the dusty romanticism of her songs, using a variety of folk genres to clear a path"

"Coogan lets loose a paralyzing and smooth voice. Her range is unmatched and her songs are sweet natured illusions of loneliness, redemption and romanticism of old fashioned Americana."

Her name is Anna Coogan, and she piles on sugar whenever she opens her mouth and sings. Hers is a honey-butter voice, touched by twang, drenched in sunshine. She could sing the Missoulians legal notices and still captivate your ear. But instead she opts for the considerably more melodious material of her band, north19. That's a good thing.

"Coogan's folk-country vocals a la Emmy Lou have a lot of charm"

"Coogan sings exactly what needs to be sung, exactly why it needs to be sung, and she can do everything that needs to be done. Every note is heart wrenching."

"Anna has one of those wonderful voices that can sing in several styles and convince you that she was born to do it. The songs are solid and the musicianship is first rate... One of the freshest things in a while for sure."