July 12, 2011. Anna Atkinson Mooniture, Available from CD Baby.
Excitement is contagious. You can catch it from a quotation, like this one I pulled off Anna Atkinson’s Facebook page: “stuff, peel, stick, stuff, peel, stick. heading to the post office with envelopes full of Mooniture.”
Mooniture-–Anna Atkinson’s debut album. She wrote the 10 songs that float foot-loose over their melodies in a free-verse word-ramble. Anna’s pure, clear voice delivers the quirky spurts of her stories in the talky style of early Joni Mitchell and Mary Margaret O’Hara.
The title tune has multi-instrumental Anna singing over a mimi-banjo. “Old Man Song” opens with strings (Anna plays violin, viola with Andrew Downing on cello & bass) skirling and skittering over her accordion, as she sings (btw–excellent diction) a kind of Lewis Carroll lunatic ballad with a strong ostinato refrain.
“Only a Fiddle” is introduced by her muted mini-banjo. Waltz-time tune conjures 20’s Weimar cellar cabaret scene, with an overdubbed chorus of ‘Anna-ettes’ helping out the funky jug-band sound. Very interesting.
“E Minor Waltz”, accordion and trumpet( not Anna but producer, engineer Brent Bodrug) references Tom Waits’ carny music. “Lucybelle” is another good cabaret song, and say! Anna does look a bit like Liza Minnelli.
Anna can tell a good, ragtime tale:””Little birds don’t often talk to strangers, but…” Some real poetry comes out of her: “Magic came by for a visit, and we invited her to stay.”
Anna projects a singer/songwriter waif image: “I’m the kind of one who sits calmly by the highway, my bags all packed just waiting for a ride.”
Give Anna Atkinson a lift, and yourself. Mooniture, Available from CD Baby
Comments, please, to StanleyFefferman@OpusOneReview.com