Charlie Moore, born in Piedmont, South Carolina, in 1935, made his first records at radio stations in the upstate: gospel numbers taped at WFBC in Greenville in the fall of 1958, and at WANS in Anderson in April 1959, with Ansel Guthrie on mandolin and Curley Ellis on banjo. Starday bought the masters and issued them on EPs. A first single, “The Story of Love” / “Big Daddy of the Blues,” was cut at Wayne Raney’s studio in Oxford, Ohio, in June 1960 and issued on the American label that September.
His longest run was with Bill Napier, in Cincinnati. Their first session there, on 28 December 1962, was leased to King, and they recorded for King until October 1966. On the July 1963 date Napier played guitar and banjo and sang tenor to Moore’s lead, and from 1964 Henry Dockery played bass. Twenty-one singles came out between February 1963 and March 1967, one of them on Bethlehem. They began with the novelty “(Metracal – Same Old Gal) Sing Along with Mitch” and “Truck Driver’s Queen,” and they followed the duo’s albums: truck-driving songs (“Long White Line,” 1965), soldier songs from Country Music Goes to Viet Nam (“Is This a Useless War?,” 1966), gospel, and instrumentals such as “Grundy Hoedown.”
After King, Moore went from label to label with his Dixie Partners. Country Jubilee issued “Lorena, Go Home” in 1969. Around 1971 Ray Davis recorded him in Baltimore for Wango, with Butch Robins on banjo and Chubby Wise on fiddle, and “The Rebel Soldier” came out as a Wango single. In early 1972 Lou Ukelson produced an album at the Jewel studio in Cincinnati for his Vetco label, Charlie Moore Sings Good Bluegrass, with Robins on banjo, Larry Jefferson on mandolin, Paul Mullins on fiddle and Dockery on bass. Vetco 522 paired two of its tracks, “I’m Leaving Detroit” and “Barbara Allen.” Starday issued a remake of “Lorena, Go Home” from a Nashville session in October 1972.
From 1973 most of his work was for Old Homestead in Brighton, Michigan, mainly albums, with Curly Lambert often on mandolin, and Napier back for sessions in 1975 and 1978. The label also issued singles, the last being “Avery County” / “Don’t Call Me” in 1979. That year Leather issued “It’s Morning Already” / “The Opry in the Forties.” Moore died on 24 December 1979.
Session details drawn in part from the Bluegrass Discography.
Tracklist
- 1 I’m Leaving Detroit alt version
- 2 Barbara Allen
