Barbara Bergin - Blood Red Moon  (click on image to watch video)

 24 March 2020

Barbara Bergin traveled many roads before beginning her music career. Born in the Bronx, she spent time in Kansas City and Houston before settling in Austin, Texas. It was there she began a thriving career as an orthopedic surgeon and raised her family. Now that her kids are grown, she traded in her surgical scrubs for spurs and a guitar. She has just released her debut, “Blood Red Moon.”

The album opens with the title track. Thrush acoustic guitar notes lattice over high lonesome harmonica, electric riffs, and shivery slide guitar. Barbara’s vocals sandwich somewhere between Nanci Griffith’s bespoke grace and Mary Gauthier’s world-weary rasp. The lyrics chart a course of romantic confusion; “Now I want a man who can give me all he can, and I’m following his footsteps in the sand, and when I find him, I’m gonna hold on with both hands.”

Both “My Life’s Good” and “Possum’s In The Corn” speak to the bucolic pleasures of life on the farm. The former is a rollicking shuffle, the latter a banjo-riffic barn-burner. Meanwhile, “She Danced With The Prince Of Whales” and “Captain Of The Robert E. Lee transport the listener to bygone eras.

The best tracks here include the Folk-flavored regret of “Warm Place,” the hard-charging travelogue of “Whistlin’ Train,” the shimmery “Low Water Bridge,” the Gospel Rave-Up of “Let’s Get Up” and the playful “Daughter’s Lament.” The album closes with the rollicking skip-to-my-lou of “Like Father, Like Son.”

To quote the Jayhawks, “slow, steady, wins the race.” Armed with an arsenal of great melodies and a lifetime of experience, Barbara Bergin has created a debut that will continue to resonate for years to come.” 

Eleni P. Austin - I was born into a large, loud Greek family and spent my formative years in the Los Angeles enclaves of Laurel Canyon and Los Feliz. My mother moved us to the Palm Springs area just in time for puberty and Disco.  I have spent over 40 years working in record stores, starting back in High School.

I wrote music reviews for the Desert Sun from 1983 to 1988. I began doing the same for the Coachella Valley Weekly in 2012.

I live in Palm Springs with my wife and our amazing dog, Denver. 

To Read All of Eleni P.'s Reviews, Click Here

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