Shining Through by Tena Moyer

As a teen, she absorbed the acoustic guitar influences of the seventies, filching licks from the great players—James Taylor, Joni Mitchell, and Leo Kottke. Her parents had an extensive collection of old records, and Tena now concedes that the music on her parents’ 78’s was pretty cool. This began her love affair with jazz. To combine avocation and education, Tena attended Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she studied guitar and composition. She has also studied guitar with Ted Greene (Chord Chemistry), Leon White (Styles for the Studio), and Rick Ruskin. She studied voice with Seth Riggs (“Vocal Coach to the Stars,” including Madonna, Barbra Streisand, Bette Midler). Riggs, impressed with Tena’s vocal skill, offered her an opportunity to teach voice under his tutelage, and recommend Tena for an audition to the musical theater director at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles.

But more about the Renaissance Tena… her talents and interests extend beyond the musical sphere. As an undergraduate she studied biology and art, combining these two disparate fields into a freelance avocation as a medical illustrator. She extended her love of the visual arts into the arena of fiber arts and won awards not only for her paintings but for her embroidery work as well. She also developed needlework designs for both private individuals and large companies. As a prose writer, her essays were published in Discover Magazine and reproduced in college textbooks on writing. Tena’s writings have even been used to help teach English to Kuwaiti medical students. Currently, Tena is a practicing physician specializing in the treatment of trauma and substance abuse.

A musical experience with Tena, either in a live performance or settled in with her Shining Through CD, will take you on a journey of flashy guitar instrumentals, introspective ballads, and clever jazz compositions. Tena Moyer’s music is exciting, intelligent, and dynamic, rightfully earning her the nicknames of not only “Renaissance Woman,” but most importantly, “Guitar Goddess,” and “Chord Queen.”

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from a CD REVIEW: Shining Through — Tena Moyer

by Jane Eamon, Muse's Muse

Sometimes I love this. You hear something and it sends you. You stop thinking about everything but the music. It transcends, it transports, it takes you away. Shining Through, a CD from guitarist Tena Moyer is lovely. With a voice as pure and strong as any other I’ve heard, it is a stunning example of talent at its finest.

Moyer is an incredibly talented guitar player…She reminds me of another great guitar player, Stephen Fearing and that is most certainly a compliment.

There is jazz on this CD, Too Wonderful for Words is very Cole Porter complete with word play and great jazz guitar chords. Love Is Not Enough is a stunning ballad. I was moved by the words and the voice and guitar. Simple and clear, beautiful. It would stop the show in a live performance. Some Other Spring, another great jazzy bit.

Moyer is good. She deserves to be heard. She would be wonderful live.

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"I get a lot of cds every day and listen to as much as I can. Not many catch my ear, but your CD is special. The musicianship and songwriting is out of the ordinary. I can’t wait to share it with my audience."

—Michel Stock, host of Folk & Acoustic Music, WLRN Public Radio, Florida

"My program tends to be Folk and Celtic with a mix of a few other genre, but I only play what I consider the very best, and when I listened to your album I judged it to be in that category."

—Norm Whitman, host of Detours, WYSO Pubic Radio, Yellow Springs, Ohio

"... What a great voice! And her Too Wonderful For Words really is!"

— Eddie O'Strange, Town & Country Radio Show, New Zealand

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