Award winning singer/songwriter from Melbourne, Australia.Her style could be described as folk country blues and her voice raw and earthy. Think Grace Slick meets Sandy Denny. Her songs appeal to an eclectic mix of sounds ranging from wistful, bluesy ditties to thought provoking songs of social conscience.
Moira enjoys a relaxed café style performance with lots of banter, warm melodious songs that evoke generous responses from her audiences.
Her influences are based in her earthy celtic roots with a fusion of modern alt-country elements such as Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash, Joni Mitchell and Kasey Chambers. She plays guitar, fiddle, keyboard and accordion and writes to include most of this instrumentation on her songs.
Moira has been involved in the local music scene around the northern suburbs of Melbourne for the last 10 years. In that time she has established herself from a relative newcomer in her 40s, to producing her debut album One Step forward in 2006, convening the Darebin Songwriter's Guild alongside Wendy Ealey and performing regularly around acoustic venues. In 2007 she became part of Unsung, a 3 part acoustic ensemble featuring Wendy Ealey, Neil Robertson and Leticia Maher. This unique collaboration has commanded a versatile and totally entertaining mix of styles and ranges of original music in the Melbourne scene. In much demand currently, Unsung are busy recording their own debt album whilst featuring at many of Melbourne's highly respected acoustic venues and music festivals.
On a more personal level Moira has been writing a theme concept for the last 2 years and launched Unsung Heroes of Australian History -- coincidental name by the way -- in September 2008 on the Darebin Music Feast opening night at the Northcote Town Hall. This project is a totally new and innovative concept that will hopefully be featured at upcoming music festivals. Essentially, it is a musical chronology of Australian history using original songs, characters and anecdotes. With a skilful mix of narration and visual imagery this entertaining piece works well as a collaborative effort using other local singers and songwriters to tell some remarkable stories.
Moira has also working with Brendan Guerin (Guerin Group) and has produced an advertising jingle for NRI (National Rural Industries Aust) which is currently screening in Western Australia; soon to be in Victoria.
