Cincinnati's Favorite Country Outlaw Talks Music, Movies and Whup-Ass

Swarthy
City Beat Magazine
November 24. 2000

Dallas Moore and his band, the Snatch Wranglers (Bobby Lee on drums and vocals; Chuck Morpurgo on guitar; Randy Peak on guitar, harmonica and vocals; and Bob Rutherford on bass and vocals), are categorized as Country.  This may cause confusion.  Let there be none.

Moore isn't the all-artifice, no-artistry Country, the stuff of Capitol Nashville and the like.  Moore is what music marketers of this day and age call Outlaw Country.  In simpler times, this passed for Rock & Roll.

Truth be known, Moore and band play Country music for Rock purists.  Three albums of danger and swagger on the Chroma Tone imprint (My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys, 1996; One More Ride, 1998; and Live - Back at the Saddle, 1999) bear witness to this.  For further testimony, take in an incendiary live show.  Watch and listen to these five as they deftly maneuver between Moore originals (the triumphant "Tonite I Own the Wind") and impeccably-chosen covers (like a seething version of Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road").  You most likely won't be alone when you do.  Moore and his Wranglers have been packing venues regionally, opening recently for the likes of the reconstituted Lynyrd Skynyrd and the re-something-ed Black Oak Arkansas.  They've also shared stages with fellow outlaws David Allan Coe, Merle Haggard and Waylon Jennings.  Indeed, if Jennings, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson and Willie Nelson ever need a fifth Highwayman (or regretfully, a replacement fourth), Moore would get the Cincinnati vote.

The new, acoustic Untold Stories finds the band in less of Mick Taylor-era Rolling Stones mode and more of a Hank Williams, Sr. one; not as raucous, just as lively.  Take the joyous ode to catching critters ("Frog Giggin").  Or the tale of a mentally abused wife ready to seek retribution against an ignorant spouse ("Woman Scorned").  Moore, the storyteller, and his stories are in the foreground, rather than the Honky Tonk, triple-guitar whip-crack sounding through on the previous three releases.

On the heels on his nomination for this year's Cincinnati Entertainment Award in the Country/Bluegrass category, Moore took some time to tell CityBeat some true stories.

CityBeat:  Tell me about your latest, Untold Stories.

Dallas Moore:  It's something different from anything we've recorded so far.  It's all acoustic.  It is the whole band on most of the tracks.  There's one song, I think, that's me and a guitar, and a couple of things that just me, guitar and dobro, or just some light accompaniment.  But for the most part, it's the whole band just recorded with all acoustic instruments, rather than electric turned way-the-hell-up.  It's also the first album on which I wrote all the songs myself.  I've written most of the songs on all our albums, but we always did at least one or two covers and made our own version of 'em.

We had all these songs that are really good stories, but they didn't necessarily fit your typical Dallas Moore and Snatch Wrangler whup-ass, in-your-face album.  But they're really intense.  A lot of the subject matter on the album is kind of dark.  It was stuff that didn't fit with any of our other albums.  Finally, I had written enough songs that fit together as one album.  It's not, by any means, a concept album.  But with one or two exceptions out of the 11 songs, the one common theme is dark subject matter.  There's a lot of murderin', cheatin', devilry and all kinda things on it.

CB:  How did you place two songs from One More Ride in last year's film Nice Guys Sleep Alone?

DM:  In a roundabout way, Stu Pollard, who made the movie, is from Louisville, Ky.  the company that manages us (2nd Street Entertainment) and a couple of our band members live in Louisville.  Stu had contacted our manager (Gary Kirves) who also books shows for a lot of national acts.  Stu had actually booked - through my manager - Willie Nelson to play his father's retirement party, which was in Louisville.  Without being obtrusive or invasive about it, our manager slipped him our CD.  He told him, "Hey, I'm in the middle of doing my first movie, and I've got a Country soundtrack.  I want to use Willie Nelson."  And I think he ended up using David Allan Coe and Lyle Lovett.  Our manager happened to slip him a CD and said, "Here's this kid that I manage.  He's Outlaw Country.  It might fit in.  Just see what you think."  Next thing we know, he's calling us from L.A., and two songs are in the movie, "Bad Checks" and "Every Sad Song on the Jukebox."

CB:  Did you see the movie?

DM:  Yeah!  Actually, we got to play the Louisville premiere at the Palace Theatre, which is like Music Hall here.  We played the after-screening party to maybe 500 people.  It was packed, which was really cool for us.

CB:  Was Morgan Fairchild (a female lead in the film) there, giving the Dallas Moore salute (an extension of a middle finger, complete with a lusty "Hyahhh!")?

DM:  She wasn't, but some of the other people from the movie were there.  Vanessa Marcil, she was there.  High-falutin'! (laughs)

CB:  Do nice guys really sleep alone, as the film title suggests?

DM:  I don't know.  I'm mean, buddy.  (laughs)