www.inlandsocal.com AUDIO FILE: Ange Boxall’s international Americana in Moreno Valley
www.inlandsocal.com
AUDIO FILE: Ange Boxall’s international Americana in Moreno Valley
BY VANESSA FRANKO
STAFF WRITER
vfranko@pe.com
Ange Boxall’s musical path reads like something out of the old computer game “Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?”
The singer/songwriter grew up in Hobart, Tasmania. She’s been living in London and soon she’ll be moving to Melbourne, Australia.
Despite her worldly ways, Boxall’s music is best described as Americana and on Saturday she stops by the Family Music Room in Moreno Valley.
“I grew up listening to country music and I guess female rockers,” Boxall explained in a telephone interview from a tour stop in Nashville.
Boxall’s stunning debut, “Writing Letters,” draws upon the influence of those worlds, including Lucinda Williams and Joni Mitchell. It also features guests Jim Lauderdale and J.D. Souther, whom she met in Nashville in chance meetings.
“I’m always really lucky,” Boxall said.
Lauderdale, a bluegrass legend, happened to be in the same studio and working with the same producer as Boxall when she ended up singing on some of his demos. She met Souther, who is appearing at the 2012 Stagecoach Country Music Festival and has written songs performed by Linda Ronstadt and The Eagles, at an art gallery.
Boxall’s first performance was at a school program where the other students were playing Chopin and Mozart on the piano. Her selection: Bon Jovi’s “Livin’ on a Prayer” on her black electric guitar.
Boxall started pursuing music in college and then moved to London, where she was a substitute teacher, making music on the side. After a few years, she decided that to make it work, she needed to devote her whole time to music.
Her debut album has flashes of folk and bluegrass, rock and country. The song “Writing Letters,” gets its inspiration from letters Boxall would write in her head while she was trying to fall asleep, thanking people for certain things and just dropping a line.
Boxall is working on a new album now, with more up-tempo rock-driven songs, but that still have the core of her songwriting.
“A lot of these songs could be taken down different paths. It’s how you get the drummer to play,” Boxall said, laughing.
On Saturday Boxall is performing with Sara Petite and Brigitte DeMeyer in what Boxall described as a songwriter in the round setting, where the performers will rotate song by song.
“We always have fun,” she said.
