Angela Perley & The Howlin' Moons

"It would be a serious disservice to Angela Perley & The Howlin' Moons to simply say that they were just another 'Americana' or 'County' band with 'Rock and Roll Roots' or whatever tired shit someone's likely said in the past. Truth is there's a lot more to The Howlin' Moon sound than just a pretty singer and a sound that middle America can hold on to. The Howlin' Moons are a veteran, air tight band with serious chops." Robert Dean, MoonRunners Magazine.

At 27-years-old, Angela Perley's nostalgic and high energy music tells stories of love, death, railroads, and everything in-between. Her songs are rooted in small town Ohio where she spent much of her childhood wandering in her family's cornfields, enveloped in her own world of dreams and imagination. She wrote numerous plays and poetry and would often perform her works to her family and friends. Countless hours were later spent listening to Patsy Cline, The Carter Family, Loretta Lynn, Bob Dylan, Wanda Jackson, and Billy Holiday while she grew fond of writers and poets like John Yeats, Mark Twain, and Sylvia Plath.

"My songs are very visual to me and I often think of them as little motion pictures. I get a lot of my inspiration from old movies because there are so many epic tales of lost love." Perley paints portraits of towns, landscapes, and people with her unique lyrics and phrasing and does so with a soul and vision that is well beyond her years.

As Jackie Mantey of the Columbus Alive states, "Hearing [Angela Perley & The Howlin' Moons'] songs is like being transported to a forgotten time, when breaking bread together was a religion and kisses were best stolen by the railroad tracks."

Another one of Perley's many muses, the moon, has been a recurring thread in her songwriting. Perley's lifelong romance with the moon began with her being born on a full moon and always feeling connected to the moon and it's different phases throughout her life. A fortune-teller once revealed that her ruler card was "The Moon" and she was "The Magician." Many of her life-changing events including some of her most memorable shows have fallen on full moons.

Angela Perley & the Howlin' Moons formed in Columbus, Ohio in 2009. The band is comprised of two longtime friends, Billy Zehnal (bass) and Chris Connor (lead guitar), and Perley's high-school classmate Steve Rupp (drums). Connor and Zehnal were first introduced to Perley through Fred Blitzer (Vital Music USA) who had discovered her music from some homemade demos a friend had passed onto him. Rupp was later introduced to the band by Connor who was unaware that Rupp and Perley had attended the same high school.

Since their incarnation, The Howlin' Moons have become an extension of Perley's songwriting and the band's sound has been gradually evolving. In the last 3 years, the band has released 4 EPs, Black Cat (2010), Yellow Moon (2011), Fireside (2011) and Nowhere is Now Here (December 2012). Nowhere is Now Here is by far the most rocking EP in the collection through its well-balanced sound of aggression and intimacy. Before you know it, you'll be crumpling up a letter from your ex-lover in "Brooklyn Girls," threatening that cheating man in "18 Feet Under" or even experiencing your first love at the "County Fair". Don't be fooled by Angela's charm, though. This young woman will make you fall in love while she sings of love, heartbreak, and even murder.