Press

Manda Mosher's EP Release "City Of Clowns" set for July 2010
Manda Mosher and Red Parlor Records are pleased to announce plans for an upcoming release; Manda Mosher's EP entitled CITY OF CLOWNS due out in July of 2010. This will be Manda's second release on Red Parlor Records, a follow up to her debut album entitled EVERYTHING YOU NEED which garnered both national and international radio play on traditional Triple A radio formats, Americana radio, and internet radio. For an advance copy of CITY OF CLOWNS, please send your radio request to Pam Parker: wildflowersgirl@gmail.com

All Music Guide Album Review
If you just listen to this disc's brief opening track "Intro" and closing tune "Thank You," you'd get the idea that Manda Mosher is one of those lo-fi neo-folkies trying to re-create the old-timey music of yesterday. But the disc's bookending tunes don't give a very accurate impression of this album as a whole. Better yet, start with the knockout second track, "Lay Me Down." On this potent rootsy rocker, the willowy L.A. blonde lays out her musical game plan for her dynamic debut. It's a marvelous mix of Sheryl Crow-style rock balanced by Mosher's husky, Aimee Mann-ish alto. The Mann effect is more present in the following tune, "Keeps on Turning"; however, Mosher offers a more optimistic world view ("the world keeps on turning" despite bad times) than Mann typically does. The song also boasts an engaging earthier sound courtesy of Jamie Muhoberac's organ and Ido Sasson's searing guitar work. Throughout this album, Mosher reveals a nice knack for penning love songs that avoid sappiness. The spare "Everything You Need" exposes an inner strength within its simple (although far from simplest) emotions. A lovely, stripped-down rendition of Pete Townshend's "Blue, Red, and Grey" delivers more joys about the simple things in life. The more uptempo, harmonica-powered rocker "One True Love" is a catchy ode to survival that reveals her affect for Tom Petty's music. "Wash It All Away" is another strong track with Mosher's vocals soaring over a melodic but urgent rock foundation. The disc's smart mix of rootsy rock and quieter, acoustic-based moments brings to mind Crow's Tuesday Night Music Club debut. While it might not contain that album's chart-toppers, Everything You Need contains everything Americana rock fans need -- it is an impressively confident and compelling disc that bodes well for Mosher's future. - Michael Berick for All Music Guide

American Songwriter Magazine Album Review
Songs of timeless appeal that shine with the spirit of authentic Americana. Beautiful, compelling melodies with poignant lyrics sung with a sensual, sultry authority that hovers somewhere between Aimee Mann and Chrissie Hynde. Manda's songs reflect a woman's perception of love and life, but it's an empowered vision that shimmers in the tilt of the words and the zen vigor of the vocals. Almost all of the songs are co-written with an assembly of gifted tunesmiths (including Cody LePow and Guy Erez, the producer) but are united by a tender compassion and singular focus. The title song is slinky and arch; it's funny and mysterious, catchy but not cloying. Manda knows her way around a catchy hook, but does so with genuine heart and no scarcity of soul. Erez's production and musicianship throughout is solid and ideal - propulsive tapestry drum rhythms underscore rich, real textures of guitars, keys and harmonica. An absolutely stunning cover of Pete Townshend's "Blue, Red And Grey" is a delightful surprise, a brew of desire, grace and whimsy from an artist whose time has come. This is good, this is now. - Paul Zollo for American Songwriter Magazine


Performing Songwriter Album Review
Singer-songwriter Manda Mosher is a sixth-generation Los Angeleno, and maybe the city has something to do with the grit and weathered resonance of her voice. Or, it’s possible that growing up in the City of Angels attests to Mosher’s stylistic reflections of Americana-rock luminaries (and fellow residents) Tom Petty and Lucinda Williams. Perhaps the sprawl has also afforded a wise worldliness to her songs. Whatever its effect on Mosher, it’s quite apparent the city loves her, too – she’s an L.A. Music Awards darling with numerous wins and nominations over the past few years. All that aside, her music speaks across geographical confines, and her new album, Everything You Need (Red Parlor), is a must-hear. Check out the track “Lay Me Down” for Mosher at her best. – Jessica Draper for Performing Songwriter


The Charleston Gazette, West Virginia Album Review
The debut from this comely Los Angelino starts out with a short, low-fi acoustic teaser, but it doesn't take long to realize there's nothing low-fi about Mosher. More inspired by the rock side of pop, Mosher seems more informed by smart pop gals like Marti Jones than by the bumper crop of sensitive Americana darlings. Even when she's breathy and cooing on "It Can't Be Wrong" and singing with nothing but an acoustic guitar on the intro to the title track, she has an attitude and an unmistakable undercurrent of fire.

The lone cover is a version of Pete Townsend's gorgeous "Blue, Red and Grey," which she performed at a Townshend tribute at Austin's South By Southwest. It that starts out true to the original with guitar instead of ukulele and gradually adds full instrumentation.

"One True Love" and "Wash it All Away" are melodic, jangle rockers with plenty of Dylanesque harp on the former. While Mosher's recipe is soaring pop-rockers that always stay within the lines, the back porch-sounding bookends on the disc indicate that she's got some soul and perhaps even a few rough edges. - Michael Lipton for The Charleston Gazette

Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange Album Review
A scratchy old tape recording composing the Intro belies the fully engineered recordings that follow, each one delivered in vocals as smooth and sweet as honey but with a knowing of the world…Lay Me Down being exactly what you might hope and imagine and a rocker finding some good leadwork in Ido Sasson. Monda Mosher's purry pipes are a perennially slinky seduction into her brand of lush soft rock that amps up in various songs building and layering.

There's a lot of Aimee Mann and bit of Martha Bates in her writing. In aspect, the blond-tressed singer-guitarist-songwriter looks like she could be the daughter of Lynn Carey, 70s singer and namesake of Mama Lion, a beauty who was a Neil Merryweather protege and posed for Penthouse, making a small scandal at the time. Carey was a blueser who could shout when she had a mind to, but Mosher never resorts to that, preferring the melodious, sultry, moody, and mellifluous. She was, not long ago, chosen to tributize Neil Young and Pete Townshend in respective CDs, and a Townshend cut appears here, his Blue, Red, and Grey.

Everything You Need is a breezy CD, not a burner or a depressoid set of opuses for a dark fall afternoon. The disc is more a summertime outing, driving up Pacific Coast Highway, heading for Zuma Beach and points beyond, cares well behind with prospects of life and love ahead. There's a goodly share of wistfulness to shade the collection, and any number of cuts could easily find their way onto the charts. Manda Mosher has everything going for her: the looks, the sonorities, the chart sound, and any number of winning aspects no matter how you approach her work. - Mark S. Tucker for Folk & Acoustic Music Exchange

Official iTunes Album Review
Much in the spirit of other strong alt-country singer-songwriters like Kathleen Edwards and Sara Cox, Manda Mosher skirts the genre with enough mainstream pop appeal to avoid being so easily classifiable. She plays a dobro and blows a harmonica (“Thank You”) where she hears fit. Her smooth delivery on Pete Townshend’s “Blue, Red and Grey” and her own “Don’t You Know” owe more to Karen Carpenter than, say, Lucinda Williams, while the whirling, whimsical flourishes of “One True Love” flash moments of Nashville under its pop tent as the organ gently purrs behind Mosher’s honeyed vocals – the sudden “oohs” taking things to another level. “Wash It All Away” and the title track work similarly, relying on the tightknit groove of mildly distorted guitars, emerging Hammond organs, and Mosher’s unpretentious delivery to build the songs to dramatic heights without ever threatening the sound barrier. It’s soft rock with a sturdy backbone and unashamed pop hooks.

Album Review from Sweden's Magnifik Musik
Manda Mosher:
Everything You Need
2009
CD
Red Parlor RP0914


Out of Los Angeles, California, comes Manda Mosher who is another one in a long row of new female singer/songwriters that have emerged the last decade or so. And since many of these have turned out to be really good as well, it certainly isn’t an easy task to stand out and make yourself heard among all these talented artists.

But it soon becomes fairly obvious that Manda Mosher has qualities that make her worth paying extra attention to. Her music is contemporary singer/songwriter that more often than not has influences from easygoing and airy pop music, but she also throws a healthy dose of guitar driven rock into the mix. It really isn’t hard to understand why American press frequently has compared her to Aimee Mann, not least because her somewhat slow and muted voice reminds you quite a bit of Mann’s characteristic, slightly lazy style of singing.
Mosher has written or co-written all the songs but one, and she often moves in the same musical landscape as Mann, which means fluffy and sensitive, but also somewhat heavier pop than Mann, with effective choruses that she combines with mature lyrics about love and relationships. To help her out with the music she has assembled some excellent musicians, among them the superb keyboardist Jamie Muhoberac (Dylan, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Cocker) who makes sure that playing is impeccable throughout the album.

As it turns out, the songs also maintains a high level of quality throughout, not least the songs that are the most obviously influenced by pop. The title track is a delicate declaration of love, while Wash It All Away is tuneful power pop with a strong hook. Some bitter sweet feelings are served up in the affectionate power ballad Keeps On Turning, while the only cover on the album is a delightfully low key but at the same time also positive rendition of Pete Townsend’s Blue, Red And Grey.

But Mosher can certainly rock as well when she puts her mind to it. We’re given some earthy rootsy rock that has been compared to Lucinda Williams, but personally I feel myself being more reminded of Anne McCue. Just listen to the superb guitar driven rock of Lay Me Down, or the emotionally charged Americana in I Can’t Be Wrong and Don’t You Know, and I at least find the resemblance striking.

So far so good, but what about criticism, are there really none? Well, I suppose you could argue that the songs are lacking a little in variation. And perhaps you could also have hoped that there would be one or two songs that stood out a little bit more from the rest, that one or two of them would have had a little more hit potential to put it bluntly. As the album now stands, I can’t deny that as it draws to a close, there is just a hint of blandness that sort of sneaks up on you as you listen which probably could have been avoided with a somewhat more varied array of songs.

But this criticism really is nitpicking of the worst kind and when it is put in a relevant perspective we also have to conclude that it is just about immaterial. Because the quality of the songs is always firmly above average (and on quite a few occasions way above), and they are performed with considerable power of insight and flawless playing, and that’s what’s really important. With all things considered, this is therefore a really good debut album from an obviously very talented young singer/songwriter that I can heartily recommend. - Roger Persson


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