R. Stevie Moore

One of the most difficult to categorize musicians in rock, R. Stevie Moore is a true original. Bypassing the traditional recording industry more thoroughly than just about any internationally known singer/songwriter ever has, Moore has self-released literally thousands of songs through The R. Stevie Moore Cassette Club (now online at www.rsteviemoore.com), an ongoing mail-order operation which has hundreds of individually dubbed cassettes and CD-Rs in its catalog. The handful of traditional LPs and CDs Moore has released since 1975 are primarily collections of some of the best songs from those cassettes. Moore's music, a blend of classic pop influences, arty experimentalism, idiosyncratic lyrics, wild stylistic left turns, and homemade rough edges, is one of a kind, but entire generations of lo-fi enthusiasts and indie trailblazers, from Guided By Voices to the Apples in Stereo, owe much to Moore's pioneering in the field. The son of legendary Music City session musician Bob Moore (not Elvis guitarist Scotty Moore, as many articles mistakenly claim) and the older brother of Linda Moore, singer/bassist for '80s country-pop band Calamity Jane, Robert Steven Moore was born January 18, 1952, in Nashville, TN. Growing up in a musical environment, Moore mastered several instruments as a child, including guitar, piano, bass, and drums. He formed his first band, the Marlborough, at the age of 15; armed with inspiration from the first two Mothers of Invention albums and an inexpensive four-track recorder he received for his 16th birthday, Moore began recording Marlborough performances, bizarre spoken word pieces, comedic skits, and one-man band songs. This all-over-the-map D.I.Y. aesthetic would remain Moore's calling throughout his career. After graduating from high school and...