Moon Glow performs Torchlit throughout the Kootenays this summer. The duo has been performing together for five years, with Shauna Clapp on vocals and Eric Moon on guitar.
They perform classic and original arrangements of torch and jazz standards — and some more recent heartbreaks — with tingling soul.
Clapp channels the torch singers from the seedy speakeasies of New York and Chicago, where the path of love never did run true, and Moon’s guitar gives voice to the heights of love and the depths of loss.
Moon is a mild mannered teacher of computers and other technology but his first love is music. His mom sat him down in front of a piano at age five where he learned the basics. Then it was on to violin for six years, three years of clarinet and sax in high school band, then a million years of guitar and voice. He also took a couple years of music in college.
His musical influences are many and varied. Growing up in a very musical family, Moon had parents that listened to classical, big band and pop, and siblings that listened to opera, folk and rock. Early influences include Rush, Loverboy and Rick Springfield, and later, the Police, Sting and Dave Matthews Band. Guitar heros include Jimi Hendrix, Alex Lifeson, Eddie Van Halen, Steve Vai, Eric Johnson, Joe Satriani, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Vernon Reid.
Moon has played in musicals including Grease (guitar), The Wizard of Oz (bass) and Guys and Dolls (Casio DH-100 horn), and was musical director for a production of Fiddler on the Roof.
Clapp has been singing since she was asked to drop out of piano lessons after taking four years to learn middle C. She began voice training under Helen Negrave and has continued throughout her life, and was voted the best unsigned vocalist in South Mirror Lake.
Shauna began performing a few years ago, and hopes to have a vibrant carreer in song underway before she hits 70. She grew up with some of the music she now sings, as her grandmother was both a soloist and a lifelong musician. Her mother and daughter continue the tradition with piano. She has appeared locally at Starbelly Jam and Kaslo Jazz Festival as well as numerous local eateries.
Tickets to the Aug. 9 concert are $10 in advance at Kingfisher Used Books, Black Bear Books and Buffalo Trails Coffee House, and $13 ($7 for teens) at the door, which opens at 7; showtime is 8.
—MOON GLOW