TheWaster.com :: Nathan Moore Shenandoah Fables

Words by Martin Halo
Interview by Audra Tracy

Editor's Note: Drop Audra a line to wish her a speedy recovery and hope she feels better! She will luv ya for it! audra@thewaster.com

08.19.2009

Hailing from the Shenandoah Valley at the tip of America’s southeast corridor, singer songwriter Nathan Moore pens honest songs in a manner of simplistic hum. There is no mistaking his rustic exhale or his common-man charm. In fact, despite spending stints as a founding member in TheMuseMeant and Surprise Me Mr. Davis, Nathan Moore is stripping his folk boy status even further to the core. The release of Folk Singer only solidifies his ballad blazing soul.

Now part of Kevin Calabro’s record bag of musical jingles (which also includes Marco Benevento and the Jacbob Fred Jazz Odyssey), Nathan Moore has entered an artistic family where he is free to explore the deepest crevasses of his fable-laced soul. “I was doing a run of dates with Marco Benevento,” says Nathan Moore as a storm hugs on tight to his tour van while he barrels down 80 West in Wyoming, “and that is when I met Kevin Calabro. We had some really good conversations on that trip. Marco would always say that Kevin was interested in working on / putting out a record, and this is it.”

His North American journey has found its way back to New York City where a corked bottle of champagne awaits his arrival tomorrow night at Littlefield in Brooklyn. Moore and his inner plotters will celebrate the release of “Folk Singer,” released on August 18, 2009. Aligning with the struggles present within the common plight, Moore breathes the hanging vocal twang on a record that is direct in its delivery and free from clutter sonic disturbance.

It is Moore who defends the power of a not long forgotten muse. “Folks Singers? I think we have already died. We are more of a resurrecting breed now. It’s like poets… except poets aren’t really resurrected yet,” he remarks charmingly. “I would not like to think I am part of a dying breed,” as his voice bounces off the open road.

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“Since the economy has turned and with the state of the world, people are looking closer to home for the things to sustain us. In that sense, the folk singer thrives... I seem to catch people off guard when I am performing.. I think people are poised. Our culture is so accustomed to not having direct connection, expect through TV or the Internet that people are just jaded enough to be pleasantly surprised by a little folk singer.”

- Nathan Moore
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“Since the economy has turned and with the state of the world, people are looking closer to home for the things to sustain us. In that sense, the folk singer thrives. More and more people are loosing interest in the media as their source of entertainment. I seem to catch people off guard when I am performing, in how they are reacting to me. I think people are poised. Our culture is so accustomed to not having direct connection, expect through TV or the Internet that people are just jaded enough to be pleasantly surprised by a little folk singer. They come up to me after the show and say, ‘I wasn’t expecting to feel any of that stuff, thank you!’ I think it’s grounding, it feels real and people like that. I think for a while there, we didn’t even want real, but I think its coming back around here.”

There is nothing more genuine than the musical tradition of Virginia, and the coal mines of Appalachian trials. It is where Moore grew up, in Virginia’s Shenandoah Mountains. “I definitely have love for people where I live,” Moore offers. “My songs are loving. They speak about my friends, my town, friends, family and the countryside.”

“I have never been able to consciously write a style of song. I can’t sit down and give you a dance tune or a great pop chorus. What you hear is what comes out of me. Right now my working song list on this solo tour is close to 300 tunes. I carry it around with me to all of the shows. I consider my memory to be the perfect filtration system, if I don’t remember it, then it was for a reason.”

Moore remembered enough tunes to gain some overdue recognition as the winner of the 2008 Telluride Blues Festival’s Troubadour Competition. For Moore he reflects back on the moment that put him in front of 10,000 fans as a defining time. “It definitely validated my career,” he says. “It greased some wheels for my manager, that is for sure. There’s some phone calls that weren’t being returned that are now being answered, which is nice. I hope I don’t have to do more competitions like that, because it’s surprisingly nerve-wracking. Especially for somebody like me who’s been doing this for 16 years, the idea of losing something like that is hard to stomach,” he laughs. “I wonder what it would be like to try to write the songs to try to win one of those things.”

As far as what to expect from the future of Nathan Moore including as part of Surprise Me Mr. Davis, he offers these choice words: “in 2010 we are going to try and take over the world!”

“It’s sort of a perfect time. Surprise Me Mr. Davis is gearing towards kicking it up several notches at the moment. We are about to debut a new website and just completed a series of new demos. We are doing a few dates before we go for it in 2010. In the meantime, I should say at the same time, there’s the folk singer side of me. I have done some records with great musicians and bands. I loved making them. But I’m really glad that right now we are focusing on the solo work because it is a great contrast to Davis. It is the perfect compliment because the two projects have such a stark contrast.”

“I am either by myself… or with the greatest band I’ll ever be a part of,” he concludes.