Portrait : Johnny B. Moore

 

From Clarksdale to Chicago

Johnny Belle Moore is an authentic son of the Delta : he was born in 1950 in Clarksdale, Mississippi, one of the iconic birthplaces of the blues. He first learned how to play guitar at age seven from his Baptist minister father Floyd Moore, and quite naturally played and sang gospel in his dad's church. In 1964, like so many elder blues musicians, he moved up to Chicago with his family after his mother died.
In the Windy City, Letha Jones, the widow of pianist Little Johnny Jones, took him under her wings and introduced him to the blues, playing lots of records to him. The young man was caught by the blues fever and got further guidance from Jimmy Reed that he had already met back in Clarksdale during his childhood.

Koko Taylor

In his late teens his skills as a guitarist, singer, bandleader and songwriter quickly made him a promising figure of the blues scene, so that in 1975 the great Koko Taylor asked him to join her band, the Blues Machine, as lead guitarist. He toured with her throughout the US and Europe.
When he wasn't busy with the Blues Machine, he worked as a member of Willie Dixon's band Chicago Blues All Stars until Dixon's passing in 1992, and started to gig more and more often under his own name, for example at the very first Chicago Blues Festival in June 1984.

At that period, he appeared on Dixon's 1977 New Generation of Chicago Blues European tour, and recorded several tracks for a series of anthologies released by the Austrian label Wolf Record : Chicago Blues Session Vol. 2 (1984), From West Helena To Chicago (1987) and, always in 1987, Johnny B. Moore & The West Side All Stars aka Chicago Blues Session Vol. 5 (1987), re-issued as Lonesome Blues in 1993.

Willie Kent

Recorded between 1984 and 1987 in Chicago, it also features Willie Kent on bass and Lester Davenport on harmonica on five numbers. Kent will then participate to most of Moore's recordings. Moore is showing his ability on slide on “Blues Medley”, a tribute to his great elders : Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf (with a rejoicing vocal imitation), Jimmy Reed, Junior Parker, Eddie Taylor, Elmore James, Lightnin' Hopkins, all namely introduced in the song. Other notable tracks : “Lonesome Blues” and “Mean Mistreater”, both Moore's originals.

The previous year (1986), his first album, Hard Times, had come out on the small label B.L.U.E.S R&B. A varied album in which stand out funky tracks like "Fast Talkin' Fannie" and "Groove Thing", and straight blues like "In The Closet", and a more rocking version of "Sacrifice" than the one featured on Lonesome Blues the following year. A still classic Chicago blues album by a promising artist whose sharp guitar sound reflects the strong influence of Magic Sam.

In 1996, he moved to the Delmark label and released Live At Blue Chicago. As indicated in the title, it was recorded live, in July 1995, at the Blue Chicago club, in the North Side, a music venue operated by Sicilian-born businessman and active blues aficionado Gino Battaglia. It's mainly a covers album except for Moore's “Mean Mistreater”, here in an exciting version with the excellent backing of Ken Saydak on keyboards. Willie Kent takes on the vocals on a cover of Magic Sam's “All Of Your Love” while Karen Carroll delivers a soulful rendition of Tampa Red's “Sweet Little Angel” and Melvina Allen, of Al Smith's “If You Don't Put Nothin' In It”.
Moore's bottleneck guitar style and vocals are particularly impressive on Lightnin' Hopkins' “Back Door Friend”. The album closes with a raw version of fellow Clarksdale native John Lee Hooker's “Boogie Chillen'”, the first song that the then young Moore learned on guitar back in 1957 or 58.

A typical blues night as proposed at the time in numerous clubs of the Windy City.

The year 1997 was particularly rich, first with the release of the excellent Troubled World, produced by Steve Wagner, on Delmark. The album starts exactly where Hard Times had ended , with the eponymous track “Troubled World”, but in a different version, this time clearly funky and adorned by a horn section.
With a warm soul-blues sound, it was often considered as his best opus so far and features particularly inspired songs like "Sittin' Here Thinkin'", "Troubled World", "I'm Going Upside Your Head", "Stoop Down Baby", "Walkin' Through The Park", "Think Twice".
Moore's fluid and clean guitar style, his slightly nasal vocal texture and his liking for catchy beats make his blues quite seducing.

That same year, Wolf released 911 Blues aka Chicago Blues Session Vol. 27, a collection of recordings made between 1987 and 1995. The album opens with a burning version of Magic Sam's boogie "Lookin' Good" that heavily smells the dry dirt of the Delta. His liking for Caribbean-tinged beats appears on the beginning of his own “Why Ya Wanna Do Me Like That”. "Race Track Blues", "Kiss You In The Morning" and an acoustic rendition of Fred McDowell's "Kokomo Me Baby", just accompanied by Billy Branch on harmonica, are the other highlights of this collection. Only four covers and nine originals make this opus the most personal one in his career.

In 1997 again, two tracks by Moore, another version of "Kokomo Me Baby" and one of Tampa Red's "Don't Lie To Me", were featured on a compilation by the Blue Chicago label, titled Clark Street Ramblers. The album also featured bassist-vocalist Willie Kent.

Moore paired with the same Willie Kent for Acoustic Blue Chicago published in 1999 on… the Blue Chicago label of course, along with two guests : harmonicist “Mad Dog” Lester Davenport and singer Bonnie Lee. Recorded live at the Blue Chicago Store, a sister company of Battaglia's Blue Chicago club, it gives an interesting idea of Moore in an acoustic setup.

Lester Davenport

Quite at ease alone on guitar, just accompanied by Davenport's harmonica on some tracks, Moore sings seven of the twelve titles with a voice deeper than on his previous recordings. His version of Robert Wilkins' “No Way to Get Along” is an outstanding and poignant moment. Kent takes on the vocals on two numbers, particularly “Look on Yonder's Wall” with Davenport on harmonica, while this latter and Lee sing one title each.

Bonnie Lee

The four of them are sharing the vocals on the final track, Willie Kent's hypnotic Hooker-inspired boogie “All Night Long”.
This album has a Delta blues mood which is not surprising as Moore, Kent and Davenport are all Mississippi natives. Only Bonnie Lee was born in Louisiana and raised just across the Texas border in Beaumont.

With Born In Clarksdale, Mississippi, out in 2001 on Wolf, though back to electric and with a solid energetic backing band including Willie Kent on bass and drummer Larry Taylor, Moore extended the preceding experience, clearly returning to the roots of the Blues, meaning the Chicago Blues, but in a resolutely modern way. Paying tribute to some of the legends of the genre, he chose to record eleven covers and only one original, the appropriate nearly 9-minute acoustic “Legends Of The Blues”.
As fluid on slide guitar as ever Moore opens with a tribute to Elmore James incorporating pieces of Robert Johnson, and follows with excellent revisits of classics like Willie Dixon's famous “Back Door Man” and “170 Pounds of Joy”, the exciting “Help Me” from Sonny Boy Williamson Rice Miller, Magic Sam's “That's All I Need”, and Jimmy A. Lane aka Jimmy Rogers' "Goin' Away Baby". Harmonicist Sugar Blue is featured on a few tracks, in great form. Three titles highlight the album : "Crosscut Saw", a long and vigorous funky version of Bobby Rush's "Dangerous", and a superb acoustic rendition of Charley Patton's “Saddle My Pony”.
An outstanding opus in Moore's too short discography, in my opinion one of his best two outputs.

The other best one is his latest opus, Rockin' In The Same Old Boat (Delmark, 2003). It fully deserves its title : it's rocking all along and delivers an even more electric and powerful sound than the previous album. Moore is backed by an excellent reduced three-piece band (Hirotaka Konishi on guitar, the talented Robert Peterson on bass, and Cordell Teague on drums).
Moore leaves large space to covers with only two of his own titles, the muscular “Broke Man” and “I'm a King Bee”.
Among the covers, some rejoicing versions of Buster Benton's “Lonesome for a Dime” and "She Hit Me From The Blind Side" from soul man Frank Johnson, the exciting "Cut You A Loose", an amazing boogie version of Magic Sam's "Lookin' Good", “Big Boss Man”, originally recorded by Jimmy Reed, a rocking version of Blind Lemon Jefferson's "Matchbox Blues", Lightnin' Hopkins' "Walkin' The Streets" and Big Joe Williams' “Baby Please Don't Go”.
Moore's guitar has got a sharper attack than ever, and his vocals are flawless. The man sounds at the peak of his talent.
A superb album that certainly stands out from the huge Chicago blues production.

Unfortunately, it will remain as his ultimate work. While he was certainly bound to become one of the Chicago greats, he suffered a mean stroke in the early 2010's that forced him to put a stop to his career in music.
He still lives in Chicago and turned 74 last month. He will be remembered for his particularly fluid and clean guitar style and his taste for rousing beats. His forced retirement is a cruel loss for the blues.

Oh, just one last little thing : it's too bad his labels, particularly Wolf, didn't care much about the artistic quality of his LP or CD covers, he really deserves much better ! ■

Four Full Albums (Audio)
► Hard Times, 1986 : https://youtu.be/YUlQbZCwK5s
► Live at Blue Chicago, 1996 : https://youtu.be/FyamsgU8gPU
► Troubled World, 1997 : https://youtu.be/pjJqw6Aq9mY
► Acoustic Blue Chicago, 1999 (five titles) :
→ “Got To Find My Baby” : https://youtu.be/L5ph5hK8qcE
→ “Looks Like It's Gonna Rain” : https://youtu.be/2E5qxes_K8Y
→ “Look On Yonder's Wall” : https://youtu.be/ba8uOOYV2rU
→ “Goin' Away Baby” : https://youtu.be/yXILQYE1xic
→ “All Night Long” : https://youtu.be/ILiq74vykWk

► Rockin' In The Same Old Boat, 2003 : https://youtu.be/pOvQ3IBbhCQ
Also :
► Clark Street Ramblers, 1997 : https://youtu.be/i73yQL-njdU
[0:00 Johnny B. Moore - Kokomo Me Baby, 6:50 George Baze - Park My Car, 11:08 Eddy Clearwater - Sun Is Shining, 15:03 Maurice John Vaughn - Turn Up The Heat, 19:49 Michael Coleman - I Been Foolin' Around, 24:55 Willie Kent - I Wonder Why, 29:35 Aron Burton – Nothing, 35:15 Eddie Shaw - I'm Tired, 40:14 Johnny B. Moore - Don't Lie To Me, 43:54 George Baze - Hush Hush, 48:13 Maurice John Vaughn - It's My Fault, 51:13 Michael Coleman - You're Going To Miss Me, 55:38 Willie Kent - All Night Long.]

Rare Live Videos

Most of these videos of Moore performing live are unfortunately of poor quality but they are the only ones available on YT.

► With Willie Dixon & The New Generation of Chicago Blues, Berlin, Germany,  1977 : https://youtu.be/lj_gs3V5N2s
► Acoustic, Chicago Public Library, 1995 : https://youtu.be/Z1gjahB2LZc?t=11
► Rehearsing "You Don't Want My Loving No More" with Mary Lane, 1995 : https://youtu.be/P-pGEq8ZxPM
► Reggie's club, Chicago, during the 2009 Chicago Blues Festival (Cadillac Zack, off image, can be heard on second guitar) : https://youtu.be/qtJnsnuqia8


► Bill's Blues club, Evanston, IL, 2009 :
→ “Nothing You Can Do” : https://youtu.be/E33M5NJGRGI
→ “Goin' Home” : https://youtu.be/5KRhAbrfP9s
→ “It's You For Me” : https://youtu.be/o7VBLiCaOj0
→ “Leanin' Tree” : https://youtu.be/ygADEgl2wtM
→
“That's All I Need” : https://youtu.be/TaG7OdE2lD0
→ “Work Hard In The Daytime” : https://youtu.be/v4bSbA13pys