Anna Coogan grew up in New England and, having trained as a marine biologist, it seems only natural that she should turn to the sea for inspiration.
She initially studied opera but couldn't relate to this music and may have abandoned singing altogether had she not been entranced by Alison Krauss; "Hearing old time country changed the course of my life", she says.
This is her second solo album, after 2010's The Nocturnal Among Us.
The original songs for The Wasted Ocean were written in a living room in Seattle and "inspired by haunted tales of shipwrecks and isolation"..
Aside from eight original compositions, there is also a cover of Dick Swain's Blood On The Sails (with words by Phil and June Cloclough) .
The record was produced by Evan Brubaker at Forgiveness, Tacoma, Washington and on it Coogan is backed by a skilled group of musicians on dobro, mandolin, banjo and violin.
The one song without a nautical theme is dedicated to her father; an 8 minute version of Phil Och's The Crucifixion. Fine though this is, in the context of this album it sticks out like the proverbial sore thumb and would have been better held back for another record.
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You'll find no drunken sea shanties here. What she calls "the weary ocean" in Streamers is portrayed as a desolate and unforgiving beast that takes away lovers and claims lives.
In its vastness, victims of shipwrecks are "condemned to live forever in that desperate corridor of blue and green" (The Sons Will Join Their Fathers). In Come The Wind, Come The Rain, the reflections become almost hymnal as she refers to the "heavenly seas".
While the prevailing mood of the record is melancholy, its lyrical grace and the pitch perfect arrangements give the songs a desolate beauty.
Anna Coogan's Website
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