Moonshine and Wiscombe: Finding their Voice in Salt Lake’s Music Scene

As a pandemic stormed the stage and made booking concerts and tours difficult to nearly impossible, local musicians have felt the brunt of COVID-19 lockdowns on their livelihoods. Married singer-songwriters Michelle Moonshine and Andrew Wiscombe are no exception—especially considering Moonshine’s time commitment as a contestant on NBC’s The Voice.

While they performed together as Turtle Dovin’ and in their own shows at local outdoor venues during warmer months and are still lining up shows here and there, opportunities to perform are scarce. “It’s our full-time gig, so it makes it difficult,” Wiscombe said. “It feels like we’re on unemployment… but without the money,” added Moonshine.

But a lack of live shows hasn’t dampened their creativity. Both artists have been livestreaming performances over the course of the pandemic, and released new music: Wiscombe’s album Strangest Congregations, and Moonshine’s singles Wait a Minute and Oh So Many Days (which will both be on an upcoming album). Last October, Moonshine played for judges on The Voice, an experience she won’t soon forget.

Moonshine and Wiscombe met exactly two years prior to the date we interviewed them, Dec. 7, 2020. We spoke to them via Zoom at their home in Salt Lake, where they are raising three children and have a dog named Willie (after Willie Nelson, of course).

Here are excerpts from our discussion, including how the pandemic has impacted their career as musicians, their new material and being on The Voice:

Salt Lake Bard: When concerts were more regular, what local venues did you enjoy playing at the most?

Andrew Wiscombe: We love The Garage; that’s always a hometown favorite. The Owl Bar at Sundance is great.

Michelle Moonshine: I loved opening shows at The State Room. That was pretty routine for me.

SLB: Michelle, I think the last place I saw you perform was the Utah Arts Festival.

MM: Oh, nice. Yeah, my band and I were supposed to play that this summer, so it looks like they have us on for next year if that happens. [The 2020 festival was cancelled due to concerns over the spread of COVID-19.]

SLB: Andrew, earlier this year, you came out with Strangest Congregations. How has it been received by fans?

AW: I think my album, it did a lot better on Spotify than I thought it would, but in terms of touring it and selling records and getting it out there, obviously that didn’t happen. But I’ve been very pleased for this country boy with the reception. I’ve had some really good reviews and stuff, so it’s been great.

SLB: It’s music that I want to put on when I’m catching up with an old friend, just shooting the breeze. Is that the kind of feeling you tried to give it?

AW: You know, I just tried to stick to my roots. Probably it comes across that way because I grew up with music like that just around and in my environment. Whether it was riding in the truck with my dad or hanging out with friends or bucking hay in the fields, that’s just the kind of music we listened to. Lyrically, I think it definitely takes on a number of different topics that I think affect humanity in so many ways.

MM: And you can get into that if you want to, listening to the lyrics, or you can have it just be feel-good stuff. It’s kind of like choose your own adventure with Andrew’s music.

SLB: So, what parts of the album are more focused on humanity?

AW: I would say it’s some of the trials of humanity. Obviously, White Mâché is one about me coming home from war. [Wiscombe served in the Army and was deployed to Iraq in 2008 as a sniper.] As a soldier, the world is just very different when you come home, and just trying to navigate it can be very difficult. I think that’s for anybody that goes through a traumatic situation. Trying to go back to work and just do normal things, it can feel very different. It can feel like you’re a square block in a round hole… I think Love Me Complete was definitely one. I grew up in a very blue-collar environment. [Most men were] farmers and construction workers and things like that, but these men who had rough exteriors still showed love in their own way, and I think, as a father, I really appreciate those things and I try to do that with my three boys as well. It may not be like having a psychologist for a dad who’s so thoughtful about everything, but I really do care and I try to just love them through my [rough] exterior.

SLB: Michelle, tell me about your singles, Wait a Minute and Oh So Many Days.

MM: Those are two tunes off of an album that’s done but not out yet. I need to do a Kickstarter so we can print it and get it out to people. That album took two years to record because I was paying for it on my own, like one session a month for a couple years because I was a single mom and getting in music full-time, and it finished right before March. So, without money from touring and gigs, I can’t self-fund to put it out. I could have put it out digitally in March or April like Andrew did, but I was hoping things would just go back to normal. Oh So Many Days is mine and Wait a Minute is a cover, and I love that song, so we did that. Hopefully, I’ll be launching a Kickstarter here soon.

SLB: Michelle, was The Voice what you expected it to be?

MM: Absolutely.

SLB: Is that bad, or good?

MM: It was a really interesting experience, for sure. I met some of the coolest people ever, like people who will be lifelong friends that live around the country.

SLB: Do you think what made it on TV was an accurate depiction of what actually happened?

MM: No, I was practically shitting my pants. I was super nervous, and I had to be sober—which was not cool. I don’t do that when I sing, usually. I feel like I fucked up real bad. They stick you in a hotel room for a month and a half, and they’re like, ‘Okay, this moment’s coming,’ ‘It’s coming,’ and then it came and went, and it didn’t work out so great.

AW: They don’t give you a lot of time to rehearse though. Well, you can rehearse by yourself, but not with the band [as much]. And I think, sound-wise, they give you about five minutes total to figure out where your sound’s going to be. By the time she got up there, the sound wasn’t even what she had asked for. Sorry…I’m defending her here, but if you’re trying to perform and they change levels (instrument volumes), that’s really hard. Usually, when you have a show, you’ve got several songs to figure that out, or, you’ve got a rehearsal right before where you can run through the sound. That wasn’t the case there.

MM: There were a lot of factors. I wish I had stuck up more for myself…for what I wanted…but that didn’t really seem like an option. You come to them with an arrangement, they change the arrangement, and then you see a vocal coach and they tell you note for note what to sing. And they completely changed it to sound exactly like the [original] song, so it took away any “me” part out of it (the performance). And they asked me to come back for the next season the day after I came home, and I didn’t end up doing that. I don’t know if I would ever want to do it again.

SLB: What do you want people to know about Salt Lake’s music scene?

MM: I think people are starting to get the point that there’s good music here.

AW: I have lived a lot of different places and played in a bunch of different scenes, and this is definitely up there in terms of talent. There’s some really great songwriters and performers and artists, and all kinds of different genres, too. It’s quite an honor for me to not only be able to play with these people but consider them friends.

Keep in touch with Michelle Moonshine on Facebook and stream her music on Spotify. Follow Andrew Wiscombe on Facebook and stream his music on Spotify. You can also follow Turtle Dovin’ on Facebook.

For a bit of backstory, read how the couple announced their marriage to the world on social media, at the same time Moonshine was participating in The Voice.

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All photos by Beehive Photography, Natalie Haws. Moonshine and Wiscombe recommend checking out fellow artists Triggers & Slips, Marny Proudfit, Matthew and the Hope, Nathan Spenser, Jordan Young, The Hollering Pines and Carl Carbonell. They also want to thank fans and fellow musicians, like Talia Keys, for being so generous and supportive during this difficult time for live performers.