Jana Mashonee: New Moon Born CD review

New Moon Born is Jana Mashonee’s first venture into the mainstream music scene, and it’s a pretty good one.

With this album, she explores new directions in her music by incorporating blues, soul, and world music into the new tunes. The Native American singer provides all the vocals and piano, and serves as co-producer of New Moon Born.

For the most part, all the songs on this album are varied and worth a listen. The lyrics possess honesty and passion. New Moon Born is comprised of a whopping 16 songs. However, a tighter set of 10-12 songs might have worked better, because the album gets off to a bit of a slow start. Also, a great deal seems to be synthesized, which weakens some of the album’s potential.

The album really takes off and shows its strength at song number five, the funky “Miracle.” It’s high-spirited, playful, and has fun lyrics involving unicorns and new moons. The meat of the album is right in the middle, with songs like “Never Fall” and “Just One Night,” a romantic ballad about new beginnings. The album closer, or bonus track, “Una Noche” is the Spanish version of this song. The upbeat songs that stand out here are “Take Me Back,” “Chameleon,” and “Carousel,” a very inspiring and soulful composition.

Jana Mashonee sings her heart out on New Moon Born and her passion for music really shines through. Her voice is soothing and powerful. Mashonee is a talented composer and singer, and bound for a successful career.

Mashonee earned a Grammy nomination for her 2006 concept album, American Indian Story, and has won seven Native American Music Awards, including one for The Enlightened Time video. It’s fantastic! View it below.