I still vividly remember the first time I saw Abra Moore.
It was the winter of 1987, and a band of gypsy-like
kids from Hawaii, who were traveling around the
mainland U. S. playing on the street for spare
change, had landed on the steps in front of the stately
tower building, on the University of Texas campus,
slowly but surely attracting an audience of passersby.
There was a wonderful purity to their approach, and
over the next month they brought a breath of fresh air
to the Austin music scene that it dearly needed. Though
Moore was only a supporting singer in that troupe, she
seemed to embody it's soul and spirit.

Calling themselves Poi Dog Pondering,
the group travelled the country under the musical
leadership of Abra's friend and fellow Hawaiin Frank Orrall (releasing two major label albums) before eventually wandering their separate ways. Moore wound up back in Austin. Though her initial compatriots were largely part of the city's rock & roll scene, an alignment with some of Austin's top jazz players turned out to be more important for her musical development. Mitch Watkins, long one of the city's most inventive players, fashioned an instrumental backdrop that provided an ideal setting for Moore's folk/pop songwriting.

The result is Sing, her debut CD on the Bohemia Beat label. Produced by Watkins and featuring a stellar lineup of acoustic accompanists from the Austin scene, it's a mix of buoyant pop and reflective balladry that will strike an immediate chord with fans of Rickie Lee Jones' mellower, moodier side. As Abra says of her freshman
album, "They're just simple songs I had been collecting over the years in my little bag of tunes. The album's lead track "Sweet Chariot" was actually written several years ago while I was with Poi Dog."

Perhaps even more importantly, as Moore's album
enters the Gavin adult radio charts, she's looking ahead
to her next album which in her words will be "mostly
originals, but also some cover tunes,
because I get to please myself."

by Peter Blackstock

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