Browse by Artist: MOORE, SAM

Artist:	MOORE, SAM
Title:	Moooohieee!
Label:	EM RECORDS (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$20.00
Catalog #:	EM 1040CD

2002 reissue in stock for the first time. Innovator of the octo-chorda (an open/alternate-tuned eight-string steel guitar), banjo, singing saw, inflated rubber balloon, and various other "household instruments," Floridian Samuel Pasco Moore (1887-1959) -- not to be confused the Sam & Dave soul shooter -- was a darling both in NYC and on the vaudeville circuit during his 1920s heyday. While novelty acts suffered the pitfalls of most soft-soapers, Moore's sound is startling, heavenly, haunted Southern folk, Hawaiian and ragtime, the ghosts of Stephen Foster, and the stretching, endlessly splayed void that he carelessly toys with. Moooohieee!, his first compendium, on which he plays the octo-chorda and singing saw in duo settings, collects 13 of the man's unknown amount of sides. Only two others have seen digital release, and as far as we can tell, he had not a single LP moment.

        Today remarkably obscure, there appears nary a whiff of this unheard heavy in the noses of some of the biggest pre-war provocateurs in these parts. Glenn Jones reports that a) he's unaware of the man and b) John Fahey never mentioned him. Fahey's encyclopedic knowledge of the era -- and being pals with 78 heavyweight Joe Bussard -- probably led to at least his awareness of Moore's "Laughing Rag." It was a seller in its day, not forgotten in later years, and sounds like another coin jingling in the Takoma bag. But the real cream here is the singing saw material, which Moore performed on regular old off-the-farm toothed blade handsaws. If the other excellent saw records on EM are any kind of snort, Sam Moore is a giant of that universe. I mean, this cracker sounds like he's bowing the fucking earth, people.

        Some of these mysteries will hopefully be solved, bringing him into the light alongside Emmett Miller, John Jacob Niles, and the folk-blues giants. But for now, answers ain't exactly forthcoming. EM pulls out most of the stops for their amazing releases, but English liner notes are not among them. In this collected form, let's say Moooohieee! works as the Song Cycle of its day, with all the people's music mashed into one big holy huge. --Kris Price

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