Many blues fans, even those whose listening doesn’t extend beyond B.B. King and Buddy Guy, are familiar with the music of the enigmatic Robert Johnson and some of the other practitioners of the “Delta Blues” style. Indeed, the shuffle rhythms, 12 bar structure and I-IV-V chord progressions that dominate that style also dominate the sound most often heard at blues clubs and festivals. However, William Moore performed in a different style most frequently referred to as the “Piedmont Blues.”
Piedmont Blues (also called “East Coast Blues”), is characterized by a more delicate, syncopated and sophisticated approach to the guitar than the Delta style. Its roots are in the parlor guitar music playedby Victorian Era white folks, early banjo picking and ragtime piano. During the 1920s, blues was the popular form amongst black audiences who bought records released under the “race” category by Paramount, Okeh, Brunswick and other labels. Sales by Piedmont artists such as Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller rivaled those of Delta and Texas blues pickers Charlie Patton and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Generally, Piedmont guitarists were not as widely recorded as those elsewhere in the south, and releases by Virginia blues guitarists are especially rare. Luke Jordan is another Old Dominion guitarist who recorded (for the Victor label), however William Moore’s 16 recorded sides represents the largest number by guitarists from Virginia who recorded in the 1920s and '30s.
Unfortunately for fans of Virginia blues in general, and William Moore in particular, Paramount only released eight of the songs recorded in Chicago in 1928. These 78 records were released over time and the fact that the first three were released under the name “Bill” Moore and the final record under the name William Moore has caused some confusion about whether all eight releases are by the same player. However, even a cursory listen to the existing tracks reveals that the guitarist on all 8 is the same. The fact that copyright applications for all 16 songs recorded at that session were submitted together supports that they were recorded by the same person.
The real confusion about William “Bill” Moore's released tracks is because on three of four instrumental releases there are spoken “asides” in a voice markedly different from the voice that sings on four other tunes; “Tillie Lee,” “One Way Gal,” “Ragtime Millionaire” and “Midnight Blues.” However, the guitar part for one of the instrumentals, “Old Country Rock,” is identical to that of “One Way Gal.” Another instrumental, “Ragtime Crazy” has vocal asides that sound like they could be spoken by the singer of the four vocal numbers. So what's going on?!
It was not unusual for vocalists to react verbally to their guitar pyrotechnics. Charlie Patton, Blind Blake and Kokomo Arnold frequently interjected their instrumental numbers with exclamationsand self-encouraging remarks. Also heard on recordings from this period were vocal interjections from non-playing “guests” at sessions. Uncle Dave Macon can be heard cajoling, carousing and exultingthroughout the instrumental numbers of the young white mountain guitar picker Sam McGhee. Check out McGhee's recording of “Buckdancer's Choice” to hear how Macon's exhortations push McGhee to a furious pace!
I'm inclined to side with Max Haymes, who believes that xylophonist Jimmy Bertrand is the “speaker” on the two Moore instrumentals “Raggin' Dem Blues” and “Barbershop Rock.” Bertrand is cited as providing “speech” on the Blind Blake release “Doggin' Me Mama Blues.” Bertrand's voice and delivery on Blake's records are certainly similar to those on Moore's. Whether the speaker on these numbers is Bertrand or not, the commentary on Moore's tracks is often second person, such as “whip that box, Bill, whip it.” Finally, the commentary on these two tunes often comes during the passages that are most difficult to play. I can testify from personal experience that this is nigh impossible to pull off!
Conspiracy theories aside, we know some facts about William “Bill” Moore. Born in Dover, Georgia, in 1893, Bill Moore moved to Tappahannock, Virginia at a young age. He opened a barbershop there and supplemented his income with a little farming. In Warsaw, Virginia Moore met and married his first wife Gwendolyn Gordon. They had seven children. Gwendolyn died in 1930 during childbirth (although the child survived). Moore later remarried.
Moore was a popular entertainer in the Tidewater towns and countryside near his home, playing fish fries, dances, schools, and house parties. His "Barbershop Rag" testifies to his fluid style and his profession. Although most of Moore's numbers are firmly within the ragtime style, audiences would have also appreciated his “harder” numbers like "Midnight Blues." He also played minstrel number, like "Tillie Lee"and novelty songs like "Ragtime Millionaire" (derived from two songs by black composer and entertainer Irving Jones). Like many musicians of his era, Moore was a multi-instrumentalist and friends and family recalled his ability on guitar less than his skill on fiddle and piano.
Soon after World War II, Moore moved to Warrenton, Virginia, to live with his son, Winston, due to declining health. He died of a heart attack in 1951 and is buried in Sherwood Cemetery. Moore's legacy, however, lives on. John Jackson, a great guitarist and singer of the generation that followed Moore's, saw and heard Moore perform at his father's farm in Northern Virginia. Although Jackson now has also passed, many contemporary pickers like Lightnin' Wells and myself learned from him and continue to carry on Moore's Piedmont pickin' tradition.
