Our 10 Most Intriguing People

Cincinnati Magazine, December, 1998

Can Dallas Moore make it from Norwood to Nashville? 

"I think I'm as country as mud," Moore says, "but we walk into a country bar to play with our hair down to our ass and tattoos and everyone kind of goes, "Hold on, this ain't Garth Brooks."

Moore flashes his big, easygoing country smile and lets out a hearty laugh.   He doesn't care.  There's more than one way to get to Nashville and the Norwood-born singer-songwriter is in the process of blazing his own trail.  Mixing traditional country music with his eclectic experience - he's an ex-student of classical music who's played in swing as well as biker bands - critics are saying that Moore may be the best and brightest of a new generation of outlaw country rockers.

But the Norwood-born singer-songwriter knows he still faces some hurdles - not the least of which is the homogeneity of the mainstream country music scene.  In the corporate-driven record world, one can be too country for rock and too rock for country.   But Nashville would love Dallas Moore.  He's down-home, energetic and cocksure but not cocky.  Moore's music shows no regard to genres as defined by radio formats but lays everything out in a no-holds-barred classic outlaw country-rock style.  And his Dallas Moore Band puts on a raucous set in the great Tristate roadhouse blues tradition made famous by the likes of Lonnie Mack.

On Moore's left arm is a tattoo of Hank Williams, Sr.  He always performs with a black hat and usually a black t-shirt, with a neatly trimmed beard and nearly waist-length hair. 

His raspy sound is a bit like a southern Bob Seger, although Moore cringes at the analogy.  It's the outlaw country originals that are his heroes - Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard and of course, Williams.

And Moore has managed to play with most of his heroes in the last couple years.   He's been the opening act for Nelson, Haggard, Jennings, David Allan Coe, Marshall Tucker, .38 Special, even Ted Nugent.  He used Travis Tritt's backup band on his new CD.

Although Moore isn't a musical groundbreaker, an infectious energy spills from his music.  His sly, versatile writing style spans the country genre and he can pull off a honky-tonk number, toss in a clever novelty tune and write a classic crying-in-your-beer country song with the best of them.

But just when you think you've figured Moore out, the guy surprises you and reveals he studied jazz as well as classical music while a student at Northern Kentucky University.  He also plays the dulcimer and banjo thanks to his mother, a bluegrass artist who made several appearances on WLWT's Midwestern Hayride in the 1950's.

Moore says he would like to make the move to Nashville armed with a major label deal, but he has no five-year plan.  He insists he's happy just playing, that he is one outlaw musician in it for a life of country-rock crimes and misdemeanors.   "I've been playing six nights a week for eight years.  I'll keep doing that no matter what happens."

That may mean touring with Willie Nelson in front of 20,000.00 fans, then the next night playing for 20 in a roadhouse bar.  "We just go out and stomp them" he says.  "I'd be happy playing anywhere I can - just to make everyone dance and have a good time is all I want."

By Rick Bird