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Pics -High resolution downloadable press release photo- Bio
Hunter Moore is a performing songwriter of uncommon ability. His new project, South of St. Louis (Wind River Records) joins three previous releases which have received radio airplay across the US and abroad and generated excellent reviews in publications including The Album Network, Gavin, Performing Songwriter, Nashville Scene, Sing Out! and Dirty Linen. His performances have taken him to coffeehouses and folk clubs in the US and Europe. Hunter's songs have been recorded by other artists as well, including Ricky Skaggs, Kathy Mattea, and Don Williams. Hunter’s
songs during live performances draw deeply on his seventh generation
Southeast Missouri roots for inspiration. Growing up in a county
surrounded on three sides by the Mississippi River, his writing evokes a strong sense of time and place. Many of Hunter's songs present vignettes of rural
Southern life with characters who are both proud and ambivalent about
their surroundings. Described
as “country/folk with a groove,” Hunter borrows from country, folk,
and blues to create a contemporary sound powered by his rhythmical
approach on acoustic guitar. Also contributing to the high level of
craft in his songs is a decade spent on Nashville’s Music Row working
with some of Music City’s most highly respected and successful
songwriters, including a two-year stint with Songwriter Hall of Famer
Bob McDill. Reviews FolkWax Rating: 8 out of 10 A House Concert For One From one standpoint South Of Saint Louis is a house concert (for one), since Hunter Moore recorded it at home. There are twenty-three tracks, eighteen of which are Hunter Moore compositions and only one of which has appeared on his trio of previous solo releases. The other tracks are short (20 seconds max) sound bites, "Enter" - footsteps are heard as he enters the room and picks up a guitar, "Before" - a false start to a song, "Bad Dream" - editing a song lyric, "I'm Recording" - audible movement is heard elsewhere in the house and Hunter calls to his wife, and finally, "Exit" - the guitar is laid down and you hear his footsteps as he leaves the room. Play this disc on "repeat" and between track twenty-three and track one you can have Hunter leave and re-enter the room, the premise being "Hell, that was fun. Let's do it all again." All joking apart, this is music beautifully stripped down to the basics of voice and instrumental accompaniment - in this instance an acoustic guitar, sometimes a piano, and, on one cut, percussion (performed on a guitar body). Moore was born and raised in the state of Missouri and that portion of America's Midwest landscape and the Mississippi River, which ran its course near where he grew up, are themes that consistently permeate his work, as is that of family and the ties that bind. Confirming the foregoing, the opening cut, "To Missouri," is a heartfelt recollection of a much-loved place and the people whose lives unfold there. The song also hints at a yearning to return there. Moore regularly tours Europe and the second cut, "Antwerp Sunday Afternoon," is a sightseer's road song as well as a stranger's impression of a foreign land tinged with heartache for someone close left at home. Later in the set, there's the goodtime sounding "Mississippi Mud," in which the narrator actually returns home - darn if he isn't a performing musician! - and has to (repeatedly) inform old friends who ask why he has come back -"I've got the Mississippi mud in my blood." Towards the end of the album, "Myrtle Marie," is another river song, albeit set to a kick up your heels beat, while "Angelita," which follows, as you might guess, musically possesses a Tex-Mex borderland feel. "Just Because We Do" first appeared on Hunter's sophomore album Delta Moon [1996] and features an old couple in their twilight years, "He looks at her at eighty three like she was twenty-two." The narrator goes on to reflect on his own marriage with "Romance doesn't have to get old, just because we do." The title "Goodbye Old Friend" is self-explanatory. Sat at the piano, Hunter's "I Still Have My Dream" finds the narrator attest that he simply isn't giving up on achieving his goal despite setbacks. Later, and also performed at the piano, "Pardon My Nostalgia" is a melodic song of unrequited love that could easily have been penned during the era when Messrs. Gershwin, Carmichael, and Porter were at their peak. In fact there's more love songs - and, thank heavens, not all subjectively conventional ones at that - sprinkled throughout this set, including "In The End," the bluesy "If I Didn't Love You" and "If You Were The Answer" The onset of old age is a factor that none of us can avoid, in this life, and "If Everything Else Were Gone" handles with sensitively the subject of caring for the elderly and infirmed. Towards the close the lyric also draws attention to the younger generation, in particular "the child whose mind time has rearranged." "First Things Last" is a recollection of the initial and varied experiences that life offers us. As a youngster, there's that first pet dog - "no particular breed, the last of the litter, the neighbours gave away for free," the awkward high action playing action on a store bought Stella guitar, and "the last thing I'll ever need" - the girl that the narrator married. Purely going by the title, I expected "The Carpenter," the only co-write (with Niles Borop), to lyrically have an overt religious approach. In fact, it's rather more down to earth - and much more subtle. Having repaired the narrator's leaking roof, the carpenter proceeds to put right all else that is wrong with his house. As I said, subtle. The closing cut "America" - "you'll always be home to me," is by way of a summation of all that has gone before on this charming and melodic song collection. There's a gentle grace present throughout South Of Saint Louis" one that embraces all of life with open arms. Arthur Wood is a founding editor of FolkWax Copyright Visionation, Ltd 2005. All Rights Reserved with limited rights offered to artist and their agents for publicity purposes only with proper citation to FolkWax, FolkWax.com, or www.folkwax.com. FolkWax is the largest weekly Folk publication in the world. It is delivered via email to more than 50,000 subscribers around the world each week. It is only sent to subscribers and maintains a strict privacy policy and never shares its subscribers' information; just Folk in your box each week. You may subscribe at www.folkwax.com. For further information contact folkwax@visnat.com or call 515.440.0610. Visionation. Ltd. is the
publisher of Blues Revue, BluesWax, FolkWax, and Blues Revue. Information
at www.visnat.com or 515.440.0610.
Music Reviews Quarterly
This one is mostly about the lyrics, and they are of that superior sort which
really can't be overvalued. What Hunter Moore has accomplished lyric-wise on Conversations
haunts with an exceptional honesty, and while the simplicity of the arrangements and the
melodies carries plenty of weight in presenting the lyrics, it is the words which stand out
and should be used as a primer for all songwriters on what can - and should - be
accomplished by anyone hoping to create a lasting work of art.
The core of Conversations comes in the very last line of the last song ("Trucker") where
the narrator recounts of the trucker "he left as I finished my coffee, he went without
saying goodbye, and I still recall this conversation, not sure why." That line is nowhere
as simple as it appears. Nor are any of the lyrics of Conversations. The trick here is
that Moore has come to a major realization: very few conversations mean anything on the
surface, and we spend our lives in seemingly meaningless conversations, but at the same
time, that is what we remember, that is what is important, that is what both frustrates
and completes us.
In all of Conversations no one gets anything accomplished through talk. When people come
even close to veering into substance, they draw back from each other. Often old friends
meet after years of separation ("Conversations," "The Boys") only to talk about the weather,
old times, the new Phish album, relationships - and then they back away. In "The Road to
Quang Tri," a Vietnam vet comes home only to maintain silence because he sees no point in
putting others through what he experienced. In "The Boys," the narrator begins to talk
seriously about himself for half a second and realizes quickly that his old friend is
making an excuse to leave.
Quite a few years ago Paul Simon worked to capture the frustration of old married couples
who stay together simply because it's too much trouble to leave. Simon's "Overs" was a
poignant look at two people who "share a smile passing in the hall, but there's no laughs
left cause we laughed them all - and we laughed them all in a very short time." Hunter
Moore returns to a younger version of that couple in his "Wall." Here the couple has
children whose busy schedules keep the couple from addressing the mechanical way they have
begun to live their lives, share their love. Tight narrative lyrics in "Wall" are easily as
sharp and poignant as those in Simon's "Overs," but in the end Moore goes further and digs
deeper than even Simon did. To understand exactly what Moore pulls off here, it's necessary
to note that Conversations was inspired by Robert Frost's North of Boston collection of
poems. As Moore concludes "Wall," he makes reference to Frost's "Mending Wall" directly.
Frost's poem ends in a message that attacks blind tradition, but Moore retreats from that
moral to a more ambiguous, more insightful conclusion: "Aren't we like those neighbors in
the poem working to repair an old stone wall? There isn't one good reason why it should be
standing, still we can't seem to bear to let it fall. Could it be it serves some strange
purpose in the end, one we know but can't quite comprehend? So we mend, so we mend."
That is one brilliant piece of poetry and insight. Frost would approve and even envy what
Moore did with "Mending Wall."
The key to Moore's insight throughout Conversations is that we can't comprehend it, but
that the seemingly meaningless conversations seem to serve some purpose, even if we're "not
sure why." To Moore's credit, he doesn't pretend to know why and he doesn't make up morals.
He simply lets it be, and that is what makes Conversations so potent. When Bill Morrissey
is on his game, he can approach these subjects, but beyond Morrissey and Moore, so few
writers ever attempt to enter this gray area of ambiguity. It's a tough area to explore
without preaching, without confusion, without frustration. But when it is delved into, the
results can capture an honesty we often feel uncomfortable with, just as Moore noted in
"The Boys."
Musically, Hunter Moore has kept this simple. He does the vocals and acoustic guitar rhythm
work. He is joined by guitarist, mandolinist, accordionist Phil Madeira, bassist Chris
Donohue, and percussionist Steve Hindalong. That's it. The production is excellent given
its sparseness, and that sparseness is perfectly fitting considering the stories being told.
The songs are a mixture of folk, country and blues, with folk perhaps being the dominant
source of melodic reference. Moore's voice is very pleasant and it rides along the edginess
of the melodies again in perfect sympathy with the simple frustration being presented in
most of these stories.
Conversations is a concept album that meshes together with only one momentary exception,
"When You Fall" (a lovely song with a message that, simply because it does contain a
message, doesn't fit in with the surrounding material but which you simply can't blame
Moore for including). As a concept, it's brilliant; that the concept is pulled off so
effectively is amazing. Conversations is Moore's third recording.
Hunter Moore has spent several years in Nashville
providing material for artists such as Ricky Skaggs, Alabama, and Kathy
Mattea. Delta Moon is his second release, following the
well-received Departure. Moore’s delta moon shines down on
small towns, old railroads, and the mills and churches that make up the
landscape along the Mississippi. The title track has just the right
amount of bayou bounce. “Just Because We Do” salutes the old couple
who manage to keep romance alive in their twilight years. “Lost
Train” is the tale of a lost locomotive that “just kept going.”
“Other People’s Misery” pokes fun at the morbid fascination within
us all...Well written and well played, it all looks deceptively easy.
That’s a neat trick for anyone to pull off and on Delta Moon Moore
shines. -Neil Fagan
Performing
Songwriter Hunter Moore’s best songs are careful, deliberate
folk-pop tunes about the importance of moral values and the quiet inner
struggles that make or break them...Delta Moon, Moore’s second album,
reveals how he’s developed into one of Nashville’s most precise and
eloquent songwriters. -Michael McCall Nashville Scene Nashville based singer-songwriter Hunter Moore’s
Delta Moon is our latest offering from Tangible Music. He writes songs
that glorify the common occurrences of everyday life, elevating them to
acts of an almost sacred quality. There are just enough Delta blues
elements mixed in with his country-folk charm to make his music stand
out from the pack. Whether it be the more electrified title track, the
get down feel of “Condition of the Heart” or the warm feeling of
“Home Again,” Moore offers songs of maturity and simple beauty.”
The Album Network
Hunter Moore’s list of credits include recent Midwest an East
Coast appearances with such leading new-folk swingers as John Gorka,
Bill Morrissey, and Greg Brown. His first CD collection makes it easy to
understand why. Moore’s best work-“City of Lights,” “Human,”
“These Nights,”- puts him in league with the major sluggers (or is
that chuggers?) Of the U.S. coffeehouse circuit. His songs are like a
good cup of cappuccino. The lyrics, the basic ingredient, are distilled
to their power-packed essence, and Moore delivers his thick, heady
concoction in a light, frothy melody dusted with the bittersweet shaving
s of his flavorful voice...What makes the music work, like that of any
good folkie, is the sureness of Moore’s vision and the pure
distillation of his personality. There’s no doubting that he’s felt
every emotion and observation contained here, and he’s worked
diligently enough at his craft to put it across directly with a sense of
individuality and freshness.
-Michael McCall Nashville
Scene
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