In a Nutshell

Alastair Moock started performing in 1995, moving from his home outside New York City to the folk haven of Boston, Massachusetts. After working his way up through the local coffeehouse and club circuit, he began touring the U.S. and Europe, eventually graduating to renowned events like the Newport Folk Festival and opening for national acts like Arlo Guthrie, Taj Mahal, Ramblin’ Jack Elliot, Bill Morrissey, and Greg Brown. In 2007 he was nominated for a Boston Music Award for Outstanding Singer-Songwriter of the Year. The Boston Globe calls him “one of the town’s best and most adventurous songwriters” and The Washington Post declares “every song a gem.”

When Moock’s twin kids were born in 2006, he turned his focus for several years to family music. His five albums for kids garnered many of the top awards in the genre, including a 2013 GRAMMY Nomination for Best Children’s Album, three Parents’ Choice Gold Medals, and the ASCAP Joe Raposo Children’s Music Award. In 2020, he respectfully declined a second GRAMMY nomination due to what he deemed historical underrepresentation for women and artists of color.

In 2021, Moock co-founded The Opening Doors Project, an organization dedicated to “amplifying voices of color and advancing interracial conversations about race through the arts.” Opening Doors presents community concerts and conversations at venues throughout New England, as well as education programs at schools for students of all ages. The organization’s signature program, “Race and Song: A Musical Conversation,” was co-created by Alastair and legendary folk musician Reggie Harris as a way to explore complex issues of race, class, gender, and history, while framing their lived experiences through music. Moock’s full list of programs and workshops—on subjects ranging from social justice and American history to language arts—is available here.

Moock returned to “adult” singer-songwriter-ing with a 2017 eponymous release produced by Mark Erelli. The album reached the top ten of the national Folk DJ Chart and Rich Warren, of the nationally syndicated Midnight Special radio show, hailed Moock as “the best new, old singer-songwriter on the scene.”

Alastair is an artist advisor to The Folk Americana Roots Hall of Fame, a charter member of The Folk Collective equity group at Club Passim, a co-founder of the Family Music Forward equity group, a co-founder of The Melrose Racial Justice Community Coalition in his hometown outside of Boston, and a recipient of the 2024 Phil Ochs Award. He is also a regular contributor to Boston NPR’s online magazine Cognoscenti and has his own Substack, Letters From A Moock.

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