R. Stevie Moore

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R. Stevie Moore
Background information
Birth name	Robert Steven Moore
Born	January 18, 1952
Origin	Nashville, Tennessee / Essex County, New Jersey
Genre(s)	DIY, Rock, Jazz, Punk / new wave, Country, Classical, Experimental, R&B, tape manipulation
Occupation(s)	Composer, Musician, Conductor, Producer
Instrument(s)	Vocals, guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, vibraphone, synthavier, drums
Years active	1955 - present
Label(s)	Vital, HP Music, Flamingo, New Rose, Hamster, Cordelia, Megaphone, Fan Club, CDRSM, Fruit of the Tune, Jar Music, Evelyn Place Tapes, Old Gold, Innova, The Orgone Company, Heliotrope
Website	rsteviemoore.com
Notable instrument(s)
Electric Bass Guitar

Robert Steven Moore (born January 18, 1952) is an American singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. The majority of his output was recorded on domestic-quality home-recording equipment (such as consumer reel-to-reel tape decks, 'boom boxes', hand-held cassette recorders and etc.), with Moore overdubbing sound-on-sound and/or multitracking all of the instruments and vocals himself. He has issued approximately 400 CD-R albums, most of which through the R. Stevie Moore Cassette Club, his home-based, self-run label. A number of these are formal releases by independent record labels in the US and Europe. In February 2005, The New York Times described Moore as being a "lo-fi legend".^[1]

[edit] Biography

Born and raised in Nashville, Tennessee, R. Stevie Moore is the son of celebrated session bass player Bob Moore, who features on recordings by Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Frank Sinatra and many other artists^[2].

Exposed to the music industry from an early age, Moore made his commercial recording debut at the age of 7�singing the duet "But You Love Me, Daddy" with Jim Reeves for the RCA Victor label.

After dropping out of university, and choosing not to pursue a session career, Moore moved to New Jersey. Here, with financial assistance from his uncle, Harry Palmer, he reissued his home-recorded 1976 debut album Phonography (album). Pressed to vinyl in a limited release, this first reissue is now a rare collector's item.

In 1996 the Rolling Stone book "Alt-Rock-A-Rama" named "Phonography" as being among "the fifty most significant indie records". During the 1980s he performed a number of times on the Uncle Floyd TV show, a tongue-in-cheek, public-access style clown, puppet and variety show.

Throughout his career, Moore has attempted to create music in many styles, from pop to avant garde experimentation, and often within the same release (and sometimes within the same song, or phrase, or measure, or syncopation). This fact, among others, doubtless, has contributed to his "outsider" status and low commercial profile.

Most of his "formal" album releases have been compilations using songs selected from existing "Cassette Club" releases. A few of these have been curated by musicologist, author, fan and WFMU DJ, Irwin Chusid.

Moore has collaborated widely, in particular making noteworthy recordings with Jad Fair, Ariel Pink, Lane Steinberg and Yukio Yung.