Description
Singer and guitarist Rebecca Moore is a highly original and imaginative songwriter whose musical style is described as traversing the plains between Led Zeppelin’s Battle of Evermore and Stevie Nicks’ Gold Dust Woman. In March 2011 she released the Closing the Distance EP at the Sydney Opera House supporting UK world music super group the Afro Celt Sound System.
Rebecca has recently returned from Europe, where she released her Closing the Distance EP at folk clubs and festivals. Rebecca was a nominee for the 2012 Musicoz World/Folk Award. In 2010 she was a finalist in the Toyota Star Maker Competition. She was nominated Best Female Vocalist and Top 5 Blues and Roots Award Finalist in the ABC Newcastle Music Awards. Amongst many other award placing/nominations, in 2001 she won the APRA Professional Development Award in the Rock category.
Driven both by her music and a strong social conscience, Rebecca is co-coordinating a series of concerts to generate funds for Burmese children orphaned by the devastating Cyclone Nargis of 2008. These orphans attend the Phaung Daw Oo Orphanage in Mandalay, which supports over 7000 children, and provides one proper meal every day for street kids. In 2010 Rebecca toured Australia towing a caravan 11,000 km on her own. This national tour raised over $7,000 for lost children of Burma. In total, the concert series and the donations from the tour combined, have gathered funds in excess of $15,000. Rebecca is a performer and writer of distinct individuality and an inspiring creative presence.
Some career highlights to date:
Nominated World/Folk Award 2012 Musicoz Awards
Recorded new album with Afro Celt Sound System producer Martin Russell in London 2011/2012
Raising money for Burmese Orphans through the Burmese Orphans Concert Series
Nominated Best Female Vocalist 2008 ABC Newcastle Music Awards
Finalist in the Toyota Starmaker Competition in 2010
Supported the Afro Celt Sound System at the Sydney Opera House 2011
APRA Professional Development Award in the Rock category
Nominated Top 5 Blues and Roots Finalist 2004 ABC Newcastle Music Awards
Grand Finalist Melbourne Songwriting Awards 2009
Winner People’s Choice Awards Good Folk Song Comp Melbourne 2006
Supported the John Butler Trio, Xavier Rudd and Archie Roach
Released The Uluru Concept Album, The Butterfly Catcher EP and the Closing the Distance EP
Played at The Falls Festival, Cygnet Folk Festival, Newcastle Blues Festival, Yackandandah Folk Festival, Cobargo Folk Festival and The Illawarra Folk Festival
Venues played: Notes Newtown, The Corner Hotel, The Basement, The Sydney Opera House
CD review by Don Bannister
The Cover / Holder of Rebecca Moore’s album “Butterfly Catcher” is an instant eye catcher of a beautiful butterfly. However there are too many words, subtitles etc, which confuse things. Also Rebecca’s name is too small.
People will, in the future, be looking for the artist’s name to add more albums to their collection, not album titles.
The inside Cover has the words printed out, I think this is a great advantage to any artist who wants people to sing or play their songs, and who doesn’t want that? Back cover features additional muso’s, art work, sound production and dedications. What it does not include is a mobile phone no or email address. If artists want gigs they need these items.
The Artist – Rebecca has a lovely voice and sings well, though she does make attempts at reinventing English in a James Reyne fashion.
The Songs – The song titles also listed with their times which are a must for airplay. Armica is a song dedicated to Rebecca’s friend Alicia and how important special friends are. Pink Lake gives the image of a dreamlike state of a “want to be” lover which could be taken to a special place, a Pink Lake. Butterfly Catcher is a brilliant song and whilst it talks about butterflies I get the feeling it is about people who try to hold, contain and control anything that is beautiful and Daddy I think, is the epitomy of the butterfly collector and bases his love on conditional love, that love will be given if certain chores are fulfilled. This song also talks of the resentment that captive subjects can hold toward authoritarian controlling figures. In the end the person is free and chooses to live in “real relationships”.
General comments – I find Rebecca’s songs to be quite deep and introverted, which is a rare talent indeed but will not make the charts nor will they be heard sung around the campfires or at parties. But these songs will be very important to anyone who needs to hear this type of song. A very good album but I suspect that the best is yet to come.
CD review by Tony Smith
This EP length album of four tracks runs about 15 minutes.
Rebecca Moore plays Rhodes and Guitars and is the singer.
She is supported by Grant Cummerford on double bass and Sam Barlow on drums.
Moore wrote the songs and did the artwork for the album which was produced and mixed by Moore and Jen Anderson at Subterranean Studios, Melbourne.
Moore dedicated the album to Travelling the Distance to the Centre, the Desert and Joy and individual tracks to Alicia Ellul and Yasmine Child.
The sleeve notes supply all lyrics, although Moore’s voice is clear enough and the arrangements sensitive enough that most listeners would cope without them.
‘Arnica’ is an effective cream for treating bruises and sprains ‘and you’ seem like the wild flowers from which it is made.
In ‘Pink Lake’ a dreamscape reveals a white sail ship.
‘Butterfly Catcher’ asks ‘what about karmic detail? What about holding their pain?’ and suggests that ‘you could just let them play’.
‘Daddy’ is a song about a girl becoming a woman.
It has a sinister note.
Once existing as part of her father’s world, she ‘won’t get down on her knees no more’ as ‘I am my own woman now. I live real relationships with men’.
Rebecca’s website reveals that she has provided backing for some very prominent musicians and won an award in the ‘rock’ category sponsored by the Australian Performing Rights Association.
She has toured extensively around the country and has completed three solo tours of the UK.
The photo on her website shows a strong, independent and handsome woman standing tall alone.
Rebecca clearly has a social conscience, as she raises funds for orphans in Myanmar.
Rebecca’s voice in these songs is very interesting.
It reminds me of the sounds of some very well known Irish singers who sing sean nos (in the old style) without backing.
These four insightful songs will make most listeners want to hear more of Moore.
