Over the past few years, a fair number of newbies have attempted to co-opt and self-apply the term “outlaw country.” For veteran singer-songwriter Dallas Moore, outlaw country is more than just a catchy tagline; it’s both a state of mind and a way of life.
Moore takes his cues from the founding fathers of the genre – Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, David Allen Coe and George Jones – all of whom he’s shared stages with at various points during his nearly 30-year career. He also cites the influence of the Allman Brothers Band, Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Marshall Tucker Band, artists he’s also had the pleasure of performing alongside. “There’s an honesty to them as people, and that comes through in their music,” Moore observes. “They paint real-life stories – there’s nothing artificial about what they do. And that’s all I ever tried to do, as well. Trends come and go, but people always gravitate back to something that’s authentic, and that’s where I’ve always tried to be.
Fans of gutsy, traditional country and Americana have long flocked to Moore’s transcendent performances (with his ace outfit, the Dallas Moore Band, he logs upwards of 300 shows per year), and embraced his last album Mr. Honky Tonk which received rave reviews, including a five-star rating from Country Music People. But his loyal audience might find his newest offering Tryin’ to Be a Blessing something of a departure. While the album still brims with the kinds of hard-charging, whiskey-soaked anthems that have made Moore an award-winning, hell-raising modern legend, it’s also the singer’s most autobiographical record to date, the result of profound changes – both joyous and tragic – in his personal life.
“My wife Jenna Danielle Moore and I are now the proud parents of a baby girl, Victory Lee Moore,” he says. “That’s the really good side of everything. At the same time, both of my parents passed away in the last year. They were married 62 years and they died six weeks apart. So on this record, I’m paying tribute to all of them, my wife and daughter and my parents, and I’m talking about how I miss all of them while I’m out on the road. And, of course, I get into a few other characters I know and the lives they’ve led. It all fit together pretty well thematically.”
On Mr. Honky Tonk, Moore enjoyed his first collaboration with famed producer Dean Miller, who in addition to being a successful songwriter in his own right (co-writing with George Jones, Hank Williams III, Jamey Johnson among others) is also the son of music icon Roger Miller, and so he was thrilled to work with him on Tryin’ to Be a Blessing. “The first time I recorded with Dean, I thought, ‘Wow, it can’t get much better than this?’” Moore enthuses. “But we really captured lightning in a bottle on the new album. He just gets the way I want to sound so intuitively. We’re a perfect match.”
Moore and Miller convened at Nashville’s OmniSound Studios where the producer assembled a crackling group of Music City’s top-flight musicians, among them pedal steel great Steve Hinson, Guthrie Trapp on Lead Guitar, drumming champ Mark Beckett, keyboard whiz Gordon Mote and fiddle-playing sensation Jenee Fleanor. Those session players, combined with members of Moore’s own band (guitarist Chuck “Lucky Chucky” Morpurgo and harmonica man Mike Owens), coalesced into a grouping that Moore calls “a dream team of players.” Citing the prodigious skills of the studio band, he reveals that all instrumental tracks for the album’s nine songs were cut in a single day. “Every song was a first or second take,” he says. “When you have musicians that good, the music just pours out of them.”
Moore himself was no slouch and his vocal performances (also cut in one day) on Tryin’ to Be a Blessing are among his most forceful and impassioned. He lets it rip right out of the gate on the album opener “Mama & Daddy,” a barn burner full of rollicking fiddles and sparky guitars. But while the song is dedicated to his recently deceased parents, Moore states that he wrote it several years ago. “I kind of had it in my back pocket, and obviously I thought it was appropriate to record now,” he says. “It’s actually an accurate portrait of the two of them. I think they would approve of it.”
For wistful, open-hearted love songs, look no further than the album’s spectacular first single, “Everything but You,” which Moore wrote for “the two most important people in my life, my wife and my daughter.” Reflecting on the lyrics and title, he says, “I can be out on the road, and it’s like I’ve got everything – my music, my band, my fans, but I’ve got everything but you. That’s what I’m missing.”
The album’s title track is a blissed-out country-folk gem with widescreen hooks and a groove that lasts for days. Recalling its origins, Moore tells the story of how he was talking to a friend who had gotten into a fight with his wife. “He said, ‘I’m just tryin’ to be a blessing.’ I teased him and said that I was going to use that title. Then one day I was out for a walk, and the title popped in my head and the whole song just came to me. By the time I got to my guitar, I opened up a beer and I played it straight on through.”
Moore addresses the rewards of romantic commitment on “I Love You Woman,” an earthy soul number that features a searing blues guitar solo courtesy of Chuck Morpurgo. And he further explores affairs of the heart on the gorgeous toe-tapper “You Saved Me From Me,” a track highlighted by Steve Hinson’s sweeping pedal steel playing. “There’s regret and gratitude on that one,” Moore notes. “For those of us who have had some wild times, we’re just lucky to be around, and it’s usually because of someone special. I imagine that can apply to quite a few people.”
The swinging sounds of Bakersfield ring true on “All I Need,” a rousing, feel-good wonder chock full of virtuoso guitar picking. “I’m a huge fan of guys like Buck Owens and Wynn Stewart,” Moore says. “One time I was on tour with the guys, and we were riding out a storm in this hotel room. For three days we sat there with no TV, and our only entertainment was a Buck Owens cassette. After listening to it, I told everybody, ‘I’m going to write a song like Buck would have written back in the day.’ And that’s just how it came out. I’m really happy with it.”
In addition to his own stellar originals, Moore has his way with a compelling trio of cover tunes. He discovers previously unearthed pockets of funk in Hoyt Axton’s honky-tonk classic “Della and the Dealer,” and he pulls in his good friend Tommy Ash for a smoky and sexy duet version of Mel Street’s 1972 hit “Lovin’ on Back Streets.” Moore traces the melancholy of every traveling musician on CCR’s swamp-rock jewel “Lodi,” but he notes that, while John Fogerty was writing about a certain California town, the song could also apply back East. “Our guitar player, Chuck Morpurgo, is from Wyckoff, New Jersey, and he’s always telling me about a neighboring town, Lodi. He told me that he always thought Fogerty wrote the song about New Jersey.”
Moore started slipping “Lodi” into his set several years ago, and it’s now become a staple of his live shows. What’s more, he recently began previewing the rest of the songs from Tryin’ to Be a Blessing on stage, performing the entire album from start to finish. “I know most musicians don’t like to play material from a new record before it’s released, but these songs are just too good to hold back,” he says. “We play the whole thing, and the reaction has been unbelievable. It’s been a lot of years doing this – a lot of records and tons of shows – but I think we’re really on the right path with everything. This album really sums up where I’ve been and where I’m at – and maybe where I’m headed, too.”