Sahara Moon Releases Debut Album, ‘Reflections’

After a decade of making and playing music, local singer-songwriter Sahara Moon has released her debut album, Reflections, a culmination of years of passionate dedication to her art.

With the album now available to the world, “There’s this peace I feel like I’ve been missing inside. I just have this inner peace a little bit,” Moon said.

Moon, who is originally from Little Egg Harbor, first started performing in 2016 outside Firefly Gallery in Surf City, where she worked. Gigs throughout the LBI region soon began popping up. Then her performances expanded to Philadelphia and New York City, and then to a support act for national touring artists, until she eventually landed in Nashville, Tenn.

Over the years, Moon has been releasing and playing “bits and pieces” of original music, but there wasn’t yet “something to connect all the dots,” she said.

“It’s been a really crazy journey throughout. I’ve been doing music now since 2016, so it’s taken that much time and investment to finally have a full body of work,” she said.

When Moon decided she wanted to write and record an album, she immediately got to work on making it happen by starting a crowdfunding campaign, through which she was able to raise $10,000. She paid the rest of the expenses out of pocket and recorded the album at Sputnik Sound Studio in Nashville, with the help of Grammy award-winning producer Mitch Dane and some friends, including upright bassist Ray Bohn and percussionist Jimmy Lopez.

Finally having something tangible after the past year of making the album – and years’ worth of songwriting and growth as an artist – is bittersweet for Moon.

“I feel like I haven’t been super-emotional throughout the process, but now that it’s dropping tomorrow, I’m a little like ‘What’s coming next?’ Now that this major thing is coming to a close – it’s kind of like a beginning, but a closing at the same time,” Moon said on Oct. 8, the day before her album was finally out in the world.

Reflections touches on themes of love, grief and the passage of time, with notes of nostalgia woven throughout. With some songs written in the past year specifically for the album and some collected over years of songwriting, the album feels authentic to Moon as an artist. She’s been playing most of the songs live at local gigs, so recording them in the studio gave them a different feeling.

Moon is especially proud of the album’s opener, “Gold Star,” which she called an “experimental tune” that came to life somewhat serendipitously. An intentionally funky chord progression and instrumental breaks give the song a mystical energy.

“When I wrote the song, I wrote half of it, literally, while I was playing outside of a restaurant on LBI, so that was fun. In that moment, I was like ‘I’m just going to play through the song,’ and I came up with the second verse, and that’s what stuck with the song. So I’m really proud that that got on the record because it just has a cool vibe. It’s a song that has a lot of my own meaning to it,” Moon said.

“Tough Love” is another of her favorites, one she loved to play live and was grateful to have the opportunity to bring it to life in the studio.

“That song is kind of about pushing through the hardships we face sometimes, and finding yourself in that process of dealing with hard things,” Moon said.

“Joy” is a wistful tribute to home, written after playing in the familiar scenery of the Pines, breathing in the scent of salt air at the Manahawkin Elks Lodge.

“Running free with the wild / Heading westerly tomorrow / Strange how time comes and goes / And joy comes wherever water flows,” Moon sweetly sings, vocalizing a feeling many who have lived near the beach can relate to.

“It’s something about the sky and the pine trees. I just had this really overwhelming feeling in that moment that I was like ‘Oh, I really miss it.’ I was at a point where I was really homesick, and I remember flying back to Nashville that night and was super sad, and just whipped out my phone and started writing that song,” Moon said.

Nostalgia and memories of home often seep into her songwriting. Another song, “My Way,” reminisces on childhood days and the pains of growing up, and “Come Back to Me” was also inspired by her home. “Laboradorite,” a song about how “love has its way of finding you,” has an oceanic feeling (and features a flugelhorn!), Moon said. But the area’s influence goes even deeper than lyrics; Moon feels the album’s very existence can be partially attributed to her hometown community, and especially its supportive music scene.

“I think the local scene in the area pretty much shaped a lot of me. I’m super grateful for the early years when I was literally playing seven days a week, doing double shows and all that crazy stuff, just because I wanted to be playing music,” Moon said.

“I’ve always had this passion to build up community, and I feel like I wouldn’t have been able to even have this album if it weren’t for the years that were so fundamental where I was performing consistently throughout this area,” she said.

The album’s release has inspired a multitude of feelings and has led Moon to “reflections” on the effort and heart poured into her craft.

“It took so much to get to this point. I feel like when people say it takes blood, sweat and tears, it’s cliché, but it literally does,” she said.

Moon will return to New Jersey for some live performances of the album next year, including a show on April 10 at the Lizzie Rose Music Room in Tuckerton (tickets are available online at lizzierosemusic.com). Find Reflections on streaming services; also, lovers of physical media can purchase the vinyl record on saharamoon.live.