More and Moore Music!

Don’t forget music-lovers, I have a host of product out there: including 2 full albums as digital downloads, “The Long Walk Home” and “The Songwriter Diaries” COMPLETELY FREE! Plus, available to buy from Shop:Kev,  My DCFC tribute CD “Fan Fayre for the Commons People”, and my latest CD, the 18 track “Blue Odyssey”.

Click on the picture links to explore, listen, download and buy!

Kev Moore

Blue Odyssey Featured on Friday in the DET

You can read the whole article by following THIS LINK to the Derby Telegraph Website

Kev Moore

The Blue Odyssey rolls on….

 

Have car, will travel......

My new album was featured last week on Sunshine Sonny Payne’s King Biscuit Time down in Helena, Arkansas, and next week, I hope to have a couple of tracks aired on BBC Radio Derby when they run my interview with Colin Bloomfield that I did recently on my last UK visit. If you want to buy a copy, it’s easy – just visit our online shop – MIKISMART and place your order, and before you know it, this 18-song, 75 minute disc will be winging it’s way to you via the miracle of snail-mail!  It comes in a beautifully packaged 6 panel digipak, designed by MIKI.

I thought I’d publish an unseen photo from the trip that inspired the album. This was taken just down the street from Sun Studios in Memphis, and seems very fitting for anything to do with Blue Odyssey – me with a blue Buick!

Kev Moore

Blue Odyssey: Release date set for October 31st!

My new album, Blue Odyssey, goes on sale at the end of this month – but you can pre-order it NOW by visiting MIKISMART,  and get yourself a FREE download of my song “The Turre Stomp” into the bargain!

Weighing in at 18 tracks spanning over 75 minutes and presented in a quality full colour 6 panel digipak, I’m really proud of it. To order from our online shop it costs just 10 euros + 3 euros p&p.

The songs take you on the same journey I made through the music heartland of America earlier this year, geographically and chronologically, the lyrics describing my experiences and the people I met along the way, with guest contributions from musicians from Arkansas, Ohio, Georgia, and London – not to mention legendary King Biscuit time presenter “Sunshine” Sonny Payne.

Order yourselves a copy now!

Kev Moore

Searching for Mr. Johnson

Mr. Johnson and Friends at the Memphis Rock and Soul Museum

Today, I’m going to try and do some work on the track “Mr.Johnson” from my Blue Odyssey project. It would be unthinkable to do a musical trip through the Delta without a nod to the Father of the blues, Robert Johnson.  We made a pilgrimage to his grave – and the other two memorial sites, just in case!

The lyrics will deal with the folklore that has grown up surrounding the circumstances of his death, and the mystery over his final resting place. Of course, its invaluable to have actually been there, to have something tangible to draw on. I hope I can reflect it in the song. I’ve already got the bare bones of the track down, with my attempt at some blues slide guitar for the intro to set the mood, then a thoughtful laid back verse that breaks into a steady shuffle for the chorus.  I’ve used a simple trick to get a certain mood on the verse. It’s something I heard on a Johnny Cash record recently, a single, repeating piano note underlying an acoustic guitar. I thought “thanks Johnny, I’m having some of that!”

The next job is to kind of ‘sew’ the whole thing together, make it sound cohesive – and finish the lyrics. One of my biggest failings is completing the music and lyrics to a verse and a chorus of something and then leaving it for weeks on end – it’s something I need a huge amount of self-discipline to combat.  I suppose I love the cathartic process of having the idea, getting it out, and realizing it in its basic form – but the necessary completion means I need to get into another gear, and I sometimes find that difficult. Nevertheless, it will be done!

The ultimate blues harp collection

Kev Moore

Blue Odyssey News

Big Dave on stage at Ground Zero, Clarksdale

Yet another guest has been confirmed for my “Blue Odyssey” album project. Clarksdale’s David Dunavent will be contributing some of his blues guitar work to a couple of tracks. I’m really happy to have Dave on board for this, as I jammed with him at Ground Zero in Clarksdale when we were over there. I think he’ll really bring a lot to the tracks. You can check out some of Dave’s work at his MySpace site HERE.

The current state of play is thirteen songs at various stages of development. The CD should finally comprise eighteen songs. The other five already have titles and ‘locations’ – i.e. the places that will inspire the lyrics. It’s quite unusual for me to work this way, sketching out the ideas to so manysongs at the same time, instead of completing one at a time, but I felt it was the best way to capture the memories of the trip while they were still fresh in my mind.  My task now is to get rough mixes together for the tracks that will feature the guest artists, so I can get them sent off for them to play their part. Truly an exciting project for me!

Kev Moore

Tell me where did they lay you down?

Tell me where did they lay you down

Tell me where did they lay you down?

Two graves in Mississippi, and nobody knows,

 Tell me where did they lay you down?

– “Robert Johnson’s Tombstone, by Thunder

 

On our way from Clarksdale to Jackson, we went in search of the final resting place of perhaps the most legendary, and certainly the most mysterious of all the Delta bluesmen.  There were three sites of interest, though one is simply a memorial stone commemorating his life and work, and though it rests in a churchyard, it has never laid claim to being his final resting place.

Between the other two, however, there is some contention. We set off from the Crossroads memorial (where else?) and made our way down Highway 49 south to Greenwood. Outside of the town, on Money Road, there stands Little Zion Church.  At the Roadside there is a blues trail marker. The unassuming little wooden church has a graveyard to the left, and there towards the back under a tree was Robert Johnson’s Grave.

There was a small collection of ‘tribute’ surrounding the headstone, from beer bottles and whisky bottles (toasts, no doubt, drunk to his memory) to CD’s and guitar picks. We added our own, one of Miki’s leaflets and a photo of Christie.

Our next stop was Payne Chapel in Quito to the West. It was originally thought Johnson was buried here due to its proximity to the Juke joint behind Three Forks store where he was allegedly poisoned.  There is a small marker in the graveyard there, and we were quickly welcomed by the guy ‘in charge’ of the graveyard who managed to finagle a couple of dollars out of us towards graveyard upkeep. Nice one!  In a curious coincidence, his brother is the Pastor at Little Zion church. Looks like a family business…..

Our third and final stop on the Robert Johnson trail was the marker erected in recognition of Robert Johnson’s legacy by the people of Mississippi. It takes the form of a small obelisk, situated in the graveyard  of the Zion Church north of Morgan City, and is notable in that it lists every one of his recorded songs on one of its faces.

Haunted by Papparazzi – Even in Death

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Our pilgrimage complete, we began to make our way south to Jackson, State capital of Mississippi.  I pondered on what we had seen. I believe, as do the majority, that he is buried in Little Zion Churchyard, and there were wintnesses who said they saw him being placed beneath the tree.  Once again, as with Elvis, I had such a deep emotion sat by that simple grave.  There is an inscription on the Little Zion headstone that says everything –

“He influenced millions beyond his time.” 

This was the closest I’d come to touching the blues.

Kev Moore