A l
ot has happened in Dallas Moore’s life since our last conversation almost exactly seven years ago. The topic was 2008’s Tales from a Road King, which came after a six-year gap since the “Outlaw Country/Ameripolitan” belter’s last album, 2002’s High on the Hog.
In the years between Hog and Road King, Moore toured relentlessly with a boundless appetite for the road and its greater and lesser sins. Since Road King, he’s put out several releases, including his latest album of powerful originals, Dark Horse Rider.
Moore’s also been up for several prestigious music awards, including his second consecutive nomination for “Outlaw Group” honors at 2015’s Ameripolitan Music Awards in Texas. He’s also scored six Cincinnati Entertainment Awards over the years. He’s pumped the brakes on his 24-hour party bus, pruned deadwood from his high-friends-in-low-places entourage and married his wife Jenna, now his tour manager. So what sparked Moore’s more recent career/life productivity?
“Tales from a Road King got us to where we’re at now,” he says. “I started getting my priorities right and the band followed suit. We’ve always toured, but the last few years, that’s multiplied so much. I played 321 nights in 2014, which topped my 2013 record of 317 nights. The last six months, we’ve had more sold-out shows than in the 100 years we’ve been playing.”
Moore’s constant touring/carousing cycle subordinated his songwriting, but Road King illuminated the possibilities of placing songcraft higher on his git-r-done list. That shift resulted in an almost album-per-year pace, an uptick in gigs and an exponential profile expansion.
“Road King was the turning point,” Moore says. “We had some success with Can’t Tame a Wildcat, and that led to Hank to Thank, which was a big milestone. We recorded at (famed former Cincinnati recording space) Herzog Studio with Jody Payne from Willie Nelson’s band, who I called my godfather until the day he died and still do; it was Jody’s last album (he died in 2013). Everything kept snowballing forward to Blessed Be the Bad Ones. Doors kept opening and got us to Dark Horse Rider, and things are going fast.”
Dark Horse Rider is a perfect storm of Moore’s unique storytelling abilities and incendiary performances. After 20-plus years, nine studio and live albums, Moore and his band (guitarist Chuck Morpurgo, bassistBob Rutherford, drummer Rocky Parnell, percussionist/harmonicat Mike Owens) have crafted the release that could break them wide open.
“This record is getting the most exposure we’ve ever had and the campaign has just started,” Moore says. “Sirius XM’s Outlaw Country (station) got behind the first single (“Beats All I’ve Ever Seen”) and it really took off. We’re touring with Billy Joe Shaver, Charlie Daniels and Dale Watson all this year, and we’re actually touring coast-to-coast. We’ve been playing the Hill Country Barbecue in New York City for three years and this is our first year going to California.”
When Moore began writing for Dark Horse Rider, he stuck with the tried-and-true techniques established on Blessed Be the Bad Ones: No covers, nothing but the truth and let it happen organically.
“If I try to write a song, it’ll be the worst song you ever heard,” Moore says. “The only time I’m really alone and can think is when I ride my bike or out on my tractor mowing the lawn. I’ll get melodies in my head, and when I come in, I write them down, get a guitar and put music to it. That’s what works for me. That’s how every one of those songs came about.”
Much of Moore’s recent success is traceable to his five-year marriage to Jenna. Originally a fan who planned to have Moore play her wedding, Jenna and her fiancé split and she and Moore wound up together. (“I was going to sing at her wedding and instead I got to sing at our wedding,” he says with a laugh.)
It was Jenna Moore’s clear-eyed assessment of Dallas’ business dealings that led to some serious reorganization.
“The song ‘Trash’ is a true story,” Moore says. “Jenna figured out the money wasn’t coming out right with merch and so we took out the trash, literally. And here we are.”
Moore quickly points out that nothing would be possible without his band, the one-time Snatch Wranglers, now strictly billed as the Dallas Moore Band. The members’ chemistry is evident every time they take the stage.
“Reverend Bob and Lucky Chucky have been with me 20 years this year,” Moore says. “Rocky Parnell has been with me 13 and Mike Owens has been with me seven or eight years. (The band) has a spat here and there, but it’s nothing we can’t resolve over a fine Kentucky bourbon. We always kiss and make up. We figure nobody else will have us, we better stick together.”
Equally important is Moore’s long relationship with Brian DeBruler of SOL Records. The pair rely on their own organization to get things accomplished, a 24/7 proposition.
“We’re completely independent,” Moore says. “We’re our own publicists, we do our own booking and tour management. I’ll get home at 4 or 5 in the morning, and you’ll see me on Facebook, making my posts at 7, 7:30. I hit the ground running.”
Dark Horse Rider (dedicated to the late Payne and longtime friend and singer/songwriter Wayne Mills, tragically killed in a Nashville bar altercation in 2013) is Moore’s typical pastiche of various influences — Country, both traditional and Outlaw, Folk, Southern Rock, Bluegrass, Blues — unified by his passionate presentation and complete lack of calculated forethought.
“It comes out that way because that’s what I’m listening to,” Moore says. “If Willie Nelson, the Allman Brothers and Jimmy Martin were one person, that’d be me. My multiple personality disorder works good for me sometimes. I’m good people.”
It’s standard for artists to identify their latest work as their best, but it’s definitely the case with Dark Horse Rider. Like every other facet of Moore’s life, he doesn’t shy away from absolute honesty.
“This one’s my favorite,” he says unabashedly. “Of course, you like each one. People say, ‘It’s like my kids, I can’t pick a best one.’ Well, this is my best kid. This is the one that went to college, got a good job and is taking care of the old man. I like this kid.”
DALLAS MOORE BAND plays Loveland’s Sloppy Joe’s Friday and Fairfield’s Scotty’s Pub Saturday. More details: dallasmoore.com.
This article appears in Apr 1-7, 2015.