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Folk music for classical lovers (or vice versa) The two sides of the Annie Moses Band
By John Benson
There’s a unique sense of duality that surrounds the Annie Moses Band.
Whether it’s the band’s ties to the cotton fields of the Great Depression, the great musical halls of the 21st century (more on that later) or touring as a classical folk/Americana act most of the year only to shift gears every holiday season, this family outfit refuses to be compartmentalized.
“For the Annie Moses Band, there are two identities,” said singer Annie Wolaver Dupre, calling from Cape Cod, Mass. “There’s the instrumental identity, which is very avant-garde and combines classical and jazz and fiddle fusion. But then there’s the vocal identity, and it’s more commercial and kind of a semiclassical folk quality to it that lives somewhere between Joni Mitchell and Julie Andrews.”
While the outfit recently released its new album “American Rhapsody,” the six Wolaver siblings have donned their Santa hats for their annual seasonal tour, which brings them to Northeast Ohio for a Wednesday show at Warren’s Packard Music Hall.
Despite being a touring entity for years, it wasn’t until five years ago that the band garnered mainstream attention from its PBS holiday special. From that point on, the group’s holiday show was in demand.
Since then, they released holiday albums “This Glorious Christmas” and “Christmas Loves Company.” Fans attending the upcoming show can expect to hear the band’s signature interpretations of Christmas classics.
“‘God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen’ is the one we’re probably the most know for,” Dupre said. “It’s a jazz- fusion take. Everyone knows the piece as a very straight, choral hymn but for the Annie Moses Band, it’s a very jazzy rendition. It’s got these cool meter changes. It’s a really awesome take on that.
“There’s also ‘O Holy Night,’ which is one of the magical moments of our program. Our arrangement of that pays homage to kind of the standard, the big ending and the grandeur. And ‘Carol of the Bells’ is as close to classical rock as you get. I think everyone thinks of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra version, which is a very heavy electric-guitar rendition, but ours builds upon the core of what the classic English hymn was and builds to this big blowout ending.”
Even though her first name is Annie, the outfit is named after Dupre’s great-grandmother Annie Moser, who died long before the singer was born.
“She lived a difficult life during the Great Depression,” Dupre said. “A lot of poverty and worked manual labor in cotton fields for a living. It was a hard life, but she invested their meager means into the talent of our Grandma Jane, who had this beautiful voice.
“Jane grew up with this passion for music and passed it onto our mother, Robin, and our parents in turn passed it on to us.”
She added the notion of calling the family group the Annie Moses Band was a no-brainer considering the siblings’ lineage can be traced back to this one woman. Even though Dupre never met Moses, what does she think her great-grandmother would have to say about her legacy being carried on?
“I know she’d be proud,” Dupre said. “I think she would also be blown away by the miracle of it. When you get up every day and live in a little tarpaper shack and you pick cotton, you live in a world in which performances at Carnegie Hall aren’t your reality.
“And yet there’s this miraculous story that happened through the generations that has made that possible. So coming to hear the Annie Moses Band is not only about hearing great music but it’s about seeing a legacy that has taken our family from the cotton patch to the concert hall.”