abra's one of my guilty pleasures. you know, one of those secrets you know you should share, but dont want to - you enjoy it being all yours.

When I was in school, I worked at a local newspaper, serving in several different roles while I was there - photographer, op-ed contributor, entertainment/features column writer, etc. Very good times. One of the perks was getting free tickets to concerts and movies, and lots and lots of CDs from upcoming bands. Every week we'd have a couple of CD reviews, and I'd have to sort through massive stacks of cds - reading media packets, learning about the bands and then listening to their cds.

Practically every week I'd find some aweome new band to listen to.

One week I got Abra's second CD, Strangest Places, an invite to come watch Abra play at a bar in OKC as well as an opportunity to conduct a phone interview with her for an article.. I listened to the CD, and loved it.

After a year or so Abra dropped off the scene. I'd search the web every once in a while but there was no news of a follow up record. In 2001, I moved down to the Lone Star State and though I never forgot Abra, I wasn't listening to her music as often as I used to.

I'm not sure why but one day in mid 2002 I grabbed Strangest Places off the CD rack and took it on a road trip. I listened to it over and over again, while driving on Texas freeways, and was reminded of how talented Abra was. I started wondering what had happened to her, and made a note to check up. When I got back home I went straight to Google and looked her up, and was presented with some amazing news.

Abra had signed with J Records, and was a month away from releasing a new record, No Fear, her follow up to Strangest Places. In advance of the records release Abra was going to be touring - and she was going to be in Houston the following week! Humbled at my good fortune, I thanked the Universe for reminding me of Abra. If I hadn't looked her up - I would never have known she was coming to town.

I patiently waited the week, and with a couple of friends, made my virgin visit to the Continental Club. There was a fairly small turn out - maybe a few dozen people. This was a far car from seeing Abra in OKC - in front of hundreds if not a thousand people. But I didnt care - I just couldnt wait to hear a new Abra song.

I had brought my gear to tape - so I headed to the sound booth and introduced myself to the sound man. After a few minutes I asked if I could tape and I could immediately tell he didnt really want me plugging into his board. He skated for a sec and then told me he wasnt sure if Abra would like it. Well Abra had just walked in, so I asked if we could ask her. We wandered over and he told her I wanted to tape. Abra looked nervous for a second, and asked me why I wanted to tape. I told her I loved her records, and I'd been waiting years for her to come back. She told me that this was just the seond show on the tour and wasn't sure if she was ready to be recorded. She paused and changed her mind - the sound man argued with her for a second, but she'd made up her mind - go ahead she told me, im ready.

Awesome.

I got a great tape that night in June 2002 went home and waited patiently on No Fear to drop. It didnt happen. July came and went, and J Records pushed the record out to November or December. Abra scheduled another mini tour in September, partnering with some travel magazine, and playing a few shows in Department stores, of all places. With that said it was one of the most fun shows I've ever been to. It was more of an event, really - with servers passing out hors d’oderves and glasses of champagne. By the time Abra actually came on I was fairly drunk - some 40 year old lady kept handing me new glasses every few minutes. I think she was trying to get me drunk ;) Anyway - it was a brilliant show, and looked really good on video. Something about those Department store lights made the video look really radiant.

After the show I gave Abra a copy of the Continental Club show on DVD & CD, and got some CD's signed. Her Manager (a lovely guy) took me aside, thanked me for being a fan and gave me a promo copy of No Fear. I was thrilled - I finally had some new Abra studio recorded tunes!

Months went by and no new news came of No Fear. Later it came out on AbraMoore.com that Abra had left J Records, and they had graciously given her the masters to No Fear. She was working on new tracks and would be putting out a new record at some point in the future. I was just thanking the Universe that I had managed to get a copy of No Fear before it was pulled.

I made it a point to check Abra's site once a month to see if new news or shows had been posted. At some point in early 2004 it was announced that Abra's new record would be called Everything Changed, and would be coming out on Koch Records. Some tracks from No Fear had been kept, other new tracks had been recorded and that Pull Away, a No-Fear-Era web-only exclusive track, had been rerecorded and was also being added.

The best news of all was that Abra would be playing a 5 show run at the Mucky Duck - 3 shows during March 2004 , then 2 shows on the same day during the first week of April. On top of these she was also playing a CD release gig at Cactus Music Video, and a South by Southwest appearance during March. Doing some swift math in my head I realized I was going to get to see her a grand total of 7 times during a 5 week period. Oh yes.

I taped every one of the shows, both video and soundboard, and I love them all. The very last show at the Mucky Duck was on April 4th 2004 - with Abra playing both an early and late that night. A friend and I bought tickets for both and had an amazing time at the last show of the run. Adding together both sets, Abra played for almost 2 hours and 30 minutes. I've posted the whole thing here for your pleasure. This is the beauty of Abra live.