Moore Rocks the Country

Cincinnati band revs it up on 'High on the Hog'

Larry Nager, Cincinnati Enquirer
November 21, 2002

It's more Moore than ever before, as the latest from country-rocker Dallas Moore and his band manages to be their most down home and most rocking set to date.

Guitarist Chuck Morpurgo quotes "Layla" to open "Lookin' Out for You", a Moore original that sounds a little like the verse to Joan Jett's "I Love Rock 'n' Roll."

"Natural Born Thriller" is a rocking cousin to Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Call Me the Breeze."

But "Daddy Went to the Store for Cigarettes (and never came back)" is spare and acoustic, as is the finale "Perfume, Powder and Lead," a harrowing murder ballad from bluegrass' Lonesome River Band.

"Great Big Woman and a Little Bitty Bottle of Wine" comes from bluegrass icon Lester Flatt's later years, but the album's best lyrical moments belong to Mr. Moore. 

Country to the core, he tosses in references to cheap bourbon ("got a pretty little lady and a bottle of Heaven Hill," from his Chuck Berry-styled "Shotgun Saturday Night") and cheaper thrills ("Sleazy Motel").  In "Natural Born Thriller," he describes his redneck, nuclear family - "Mama played the guitar.  Daddy sang the blues.  Brother had a motorcycle.  Sister had tattoos."

But Dallas can also do the straight country, as he proves in his "Mr. Honky Tonk," a hardwood two-step that could have been recorded by Johnny Horton in 1956.

For country-rocking prime cuts, you can't beat High on the Hog.