Let It Go (+ Bonus Tracks) by Alastair Moock

He has played solo at several of the top listening rooms and outdoor events in the USA and Europe, including the Newport Folk Festival, the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival and the prestigious Bergen Music Fest in Norway. And he has opened for an impressively diverse range of national acts including Arlo Guthrie, Greg Brown, Taj Mahal, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Kasey Chambers, Jay Farrar, Marshall Crenshaw, and even surf-rock king Dick Dale.

Moock spent his early musical years developing his sound in the folk haven of Boston, Massachusetts. Let It Go is his third album and first for CoraZong Records. Produced by Michael Dinallo — founder and guitarist for The Radio Kings (Rounder Records) — and featuring guest band members, The Mercy Brothers, the album is a blend of neo-traditionalist Americana and stripped-down electric roots rock. The songs range in emotion from the mellow "Red Ribbon Waltz" — a duet with Kris Delmhorst — to the percussive and lyrical "Unwanted Guest" to the raucous title track. The European edition includes 3 newly mastered bonus tracks.

"... Moock is an anachronism in the best sense. He's a young man with the wizened sound of someone much older, often sounding a lot like Steve Forbert in both voice and arrangements, and he mixes his rootsy, confident originals with covers of old songs... Moock knows both his history and how to tell a good story."

(Dirty Linen)

"My regular readers here know that I have a weakness for unusual voices, especially the right whiskey-soaked "growl"... As long as it's not just a Tom Waits imitation, there's only one Mr. Waits after all. Alastair Moock, singer-songwriter from Boston and younger than the sound of his cracked voice, definitely does his own thing.

He started performing in 1995, when he moved from the New York suburbs to Boston, a haven for folk singers. "It seems no young musicians want to be labeled "folk" anymore. Everyone's passing through on their way to somewhere else -- alt.rock, alt.pop, alt.country. Alastair Moock plays folk music. Old school, powerful, intimate folk music. There was a time in America when folk music was relevant, edgy, even dangerous -- a tool of personal and political expression, at once raw and beautiful. That spirit lives on in the music of Alastair Moock", his bio states. After playing innumerable open mics, gigs at local coffeehouses and on the clubcircuit, he went touring in 1997, eventually ending up in Norway (2003) and cities like London, Glasgow, Paris and Amsterdam in 2006. "Sometimes he performs with a band or accompanist, most likely you'll find him alone on a stage, sitting in a low chair, stomping a booted foot, picking his beaten guitar and growling out beautifully crafted songs." He won a number of songwriting contests at folk festivals and of course he made records, three independent releases and then "Let It Go" landed in our Alt.Country Cooking hands!

Alastair says: "The title was, first and foremost, a reminder to myself to make the album I wanted to make, not the one I felt I should make." That means the music is still folk mixed with countryblues, but the arrangements shifted to "stripped-down electric roots-rock", thanks to producer Michael Dinallo (founder and former guitarist for The Radio Kings) and the musicians: his fellow Mercy Brothers (bassist Paul Kochanski and drummer Andy Plaisted)! Kevin Barry plays electric and lap steel guitars plus the mandola, Alastair himself has his acoustic guitar of course. Except for a handful overdubbed parts -guitar and the guesting musicians- the album was recorded live in the studio. Another studio than planned... "On the morning of the day we were supposed to start recording, I got a call from drummer Andy Plaisted. He had just arrived at the studio in Boston to start setting up. What he found was a blackened building, debris all over the street, and a notice to contact the fire department. The engineer and owner of the studio arrived a few minutes later... Someone had evidently thrown a cigarette in a trash can the night before and, after everyone went home, the studio caught fire. The fire department came in the middle of the night and pumped hundreds of gallons of water in through the windows. Needless to say, we needed to find a new place to record." Most of the songs were written in 2002 / 2003, the years Moock and his blue-eyed Jane spent in Iowa City. His wife was enrolled in the University of Iowa Writers Workshop, but he claims: "I think the move affected my own writing as much as hers."

The album starts off -very appropriate- with catchy beat-driven uptempo "My Famous Leaving Song". "They'll hear a clap of thunder and see a flash of light / I'm gone." Mark Erelli on harmonica. "When you're on that platform, you've never been so sure / You're leaving when you hear that whistle blow." "Standing At Five Corners" is a song about lost love ("You have your chance and then your chance is gone.") with yet another cool title and with Kris Delmhorst on backing vocals: "I've been out there waiting all my lifetime / The more I wait the more you never call." "Everybody's Wondering", a modern-day version of old-time gospel folk with essential dobro accents by Tim Kelly: "Everybody's wondering how it's gonna be / Honey, when they're called back home" and "Death Don't Have No Mercy", an authentic sounding old blues with great electric guitar solos and cool drumming on the outro, written by Rev. Gary Davis, both address one of Moock's most favorite themes. "Death just never fails to fascinate me. Endings are a critical part of any relationship. I feel the same way about life." Another important theme for Alastair is depression, although the word is never mentioned in "Unwanted Guest": "I like to play the host but I'm done, unholy ghost / No more of you, unwanted guest." Very impressive song, this observation is great too: "The moon is just the sunshine that it holds" and luckily, this guest leaves in the last verse! "Red Ribbon Waltz", "Love Me True", and "Lovely Day" is a trio of love songs. I have to say that I would've put some tracks in another order... Anyway, the slow waltz features Kris Delmhorst again and Alastair tells: "There is something particularly Midwestern about it that will always remind me of our time there. Maybe it's the formality of asking someone to dance or the fact that the girl wears a ribbon in her hair... Anyone with a ribbon in their hair in Boston can count on a beating before the sun sets." "Love Me True", rhythmic & upbeat, backing vocals now done by Mark Erelli, asks: "Our senses of direction / Are in need of some correction / But baby, wil you love me true?" In slow "Lovely Day", with acoustic bass, lapsteel and mandolin, the lovebirds acquired "two kids who look like you and me"; but there's also the outside world, to be addressed in the raucous title track "Let It Go". After Moses and Darwin they come along: "Saddam Hussein took potshots / At the presidential dad / Now the presidential son / Want to drop bombs on Baghdad / That'd be fine if you could drop a bomb / On just a single head / But there's kids down there, you know / Man, you should've let it go." "When The Moon Comes Out Tonight" is my favorite on the album, just a simple & optimistic little song, showcasing Moock's raggedy voice over a lovely lapsteel arrangement. "It could be just illusion / The lure of fractured light / But everything's gonna look better / When that moon comes out tonight."

Many good albums already found their way from radio show Alt.Country Cooking to the Euro Americana Chart and onto Dutch labels and distributors. "Let It Go" was re-released in 2005 on CoraZong Records, digipack, same intriguing cover art, coming with three bonus tracks. Bluesy "I Got A Friend", fast rocking "Home Is Where The Heart Is", apparently an ode to Loretta Lynn gone White Stripes (outtakes?) and last but not least Woody Guthrie's "1913 Massacre", just Alastair Moock and his beaten guitar again, like he started out years ago.

Written by Johanna J. Bodde, May 2007 (INSURGENT COUNTRY - Germany).

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