Claudia Mohr is a very impressive lady. She has a Masters degree in music from UCT and her debut album, appropriately named Go It Alone, has recently been released by Mohr Music, her own record label.
Mohr is an interesting case. On her big launch night she took the limelight off herself, filling the stage with a full band: Nick Catto (bass), Kyle Gray (drums) and Charles Knighton-Pullin (lead guitar) along with two backup divas. The overall picture was quite spectacular against the backdrop of the Fugard Theatre.
There is an obvious chemistry between Mohr and her band but there lacked a synergy between song changes and “stage shakeups”. After almost every song the people on stage were rearranged. One moment it was the whole band and the next just Mohr, then a solo from guitarist Knighton-Pullin, who risked being upstaged by his own spectacular eighties band hair flying in the breeze of the fan.
There are a few aspects Mohr needs to work on when it comes to stage presence, but in the end her heart trumps it all. She has a wonderful way of drawing in the crowd simply by being genuinely happy to be there with them in the moment.
Go It Alone is packed with soulful tracks written by Mohr and produced by Wayne Joshua. The best songs are jammed together on latter part of the album from track 7 onwards. The reggae-infused 98 Days is the only downer on the album, lacking the easy listening vibes of the other tracks and as such feels very out of place. My favourite is Baby, Smile – a charming bouncy little non-love song.
Jana van Heerden
@woict_girl
Claudia Mohr launched her debut album, Go It Alone on 18 November 2011 at the Fugard Theatre, Cape Town.
It’s always nice when SA media covers SA artists and their specific happenings, but at least have the reviewers should get some of their facts straight. From someone who owns the album and was at it’s launch, the reviewer has a strange concept of the show and FYI, the album is called “Go it alone”.
Hi Trumpetman. The “strange concept” is how I experienced the performance and CD, just like your comment is how you experienced my review. A million reviewers will have a million different views on the same show. That is the beauty of it. Thank you for your comment, we’ll fix the “Do It Alone” slip-up.