Joanna Phoenix-based singer-songwriter Annie Moscow is set to release her sixth studio album, Land of Dreams, independently on February 2, 2024. Her first solely acoustic project, Land of Dreams showcases a voice that is strong and unique, both in sound and perspective. On her barest recording 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 her 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.
“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.”
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, Suzanne Lansford on violin, Thano Sahnas on bouzouki, Felix Sainz on bass, and Rachael Nicole Gold (co-writer and piano on the title track, “Land of Dreams”).
Moscow plans three singles in advance of the album release. The first, “Open Dream,” was released on October 13th, and the song and its accompanying video premiered earlier that week at V13, who dubbed the album “one of Moscow’s most forthright musical showings yet… confessional… A true singer-songwriter record, Moscow delivers her most personal and strong-willed collection of songs yet.” Single two, “Gypsy Dancer,” was released on November 10th, and the song and video premiered a few days prior at Americana Highways, who wrote of the song, “Some people are just born inspirational, and count Annie Moscow among them… There are lots of occasions where this song would be a great asset… listen, enjoy, and save it for your future celebratory playlist.” The third single, the title track, “Land of Dreams,” is set for release on January 12th and will premiere at Adobe & Teardrops two days before that.
The songs of Land of Dreams were incubated and inspired in part by the covid years, and an observational tone sets the stage for the tracks on the album — songs as culminations of a lifetime of observations, impressions, and epiphanies that have nudged Moscow forward to clarity and eventual empowerment. 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.”
“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.”
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.
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. Fans eager to see her live should follow Moscow on social media and check her website for confirmed tour dates.
https://anniemoscow.com/
