Artists:Zoe Mulford

On a dark and stormy night, a battered angel appears outside the window...

For songwriter Zoe Mulford, the ordinary is miraculous and the extraordinary happens every day. A city planner recreates a vanished neighborhood. A roadside statue watches over drivers on Interstate 95. Even the family glassware has a story to tell.

Born and raised in the United States, Zoe has covered a lot of ground. She has lived in Belgium and Japan, studied Chinese poetry and East African drumming, and has most recently fetched up in England in the great music city of Manchester.

Landmarks on her musical journey include English and Scottish folk ballads, the songs of Kurt Weil and George Gershwin, an apprenticeship in the Old Time picking circles of North Carolina, and a long-running flirtation with the Blues. Backing her clear vocals with guitar or banjo, she may bring to mind Joni Mitchell, Christine Lavin, and Gillian Welch in the course of a single set.

In 2004, her album "Traveling Moon" joined the catalog of Azalea City Recordings, a cooperative record label based near Washington, DC. Azalea City has garnered both local and national recognition and represents a diverse group of fine traditional folk instrumentalists and roots-influenced singer-songwriters.

Her new release is titled Roadside Saints. The album is produced by John Jennings (Mary Chapin Carpenter, John Gorka) and features Jennings on multiple instruments, as well as fiddler Rosie Shipley (Lisa Moscatiello, Gerry O'Bierne), slide guitarist Pat Wictor, percussionist Cheryl Prashker (Full Frontal Folk) and Toby Mulford on bass. Tracks include Elegy (Crystal Glass), the story of a set of wineglasses passed down through three generations, which received an Outstanding Achievement award from the Great American Song Contest in 2004.

Roadside Saints has been well-received by US folk broadcasters, charting 3rd on the Folk-DJ list in May 2006 and remaining on the charts for several months afterwards. It has been played on Rich Warren’s nationally syndicated “Midnight Special” and on XM radio, with spins in Australia, New Zealand, Germany, and Ireland. The album went to second pressing less than a year after its release.

Her first album on Azalea City Recordings, Traveling Moon, is a favorite on WETA-FM's "Traditions" broadcast and has been played on other folk shows from Miami to Massachussetts.

Zoe counts Washington, DC, Durham, NC, Boston, MA, and Swarthmore, PA among her former hometowns. She has played at house concerts, coffeehouses, and folk venues including WFMT's Folkstage (Chicago, IL), WVBR's Bound for Glory (Ithaca, NY), the Washington Folk Festival (Washington, DC), World Cafe Live (Philadelphia, PA), the Six String Cafe (Raleigh, NC), and the Institute of Musical Traditions (Rockville, MD).

She has shared the stage with local and touring performers including Tom Paxton, Karen Mal, Jonathan Byrd, Joe Hickerson, Pat Wictor, Carla Ulbrich, Nick Annis and Iain Campbell Smith.

In addition to music, Zoe loves farmers' markets, children's books, martial arts movies, and cooking with lots of garlic.

Selected: EMERGING ARTIST SHOWCASE, Falcon Ridge Folk Festival 2007 Nominated: SONG OF THE YEAR (Elegy), ALBUM OF THE YEAR (Roadside Saints), SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR - Washington Area Music Association Awards 2006 FINALIST, Plowshares Songwriting Contest, 2006 Nominated: SONGWRITER OF THE YEAR - Washington Area Music Association Awards 2005 GOLD WINNER, Children's Music, Mid-Atlantic Song Contest 2005 WINNER, Susquehanna Music and Arts Festival Songwriter Contest 2005 WINNER, AvalonFest Rising Star Contest 2005 OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT, Great American Song Contest 2004

“I don't usually like folk music, but that underwear song is pretty good.” —patron, Taliano's Restaurant, Takoma Park, MD

Source: http://zoemulford.com.