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Chanteur
Country US né Walter LeRoy Moore, le 24 septembre 1914 à Circleville (Ohio). Lee
Moore est décédé le 17 août 1997.
US Country
Singer born Walter LeRoy Moore, September 24, 1914
in Circleville (Ohio). A traditionally oriented Country vocalist, Lee
Moore attained a considerable following via radio from 1935. He often sang duos
with his wife Juanita in the 40’s and 50’s. For some two decades from 1953, Lee
also achieved fame as one of the pioneer all-night deejays from WWVA Wheeling.
Moreover, Lee’s origins, while rural, reflected neither a Southern nor a
mountain heritage. As a youth in south central Ohio, Lee first gained an
interest in music through hearing Hawaiian steel guitarists on network radio and
early hillbilly broadcasts from WAIU, in nearby Columbus. He later made his
first radio broadcast from that Ohio city. After completing high school in 1932,
Lee joined a traveling show group known as Doc Schneider’s Yodeling Texas
Cowboys, journeying at least as far as Texas with them. After returning home,
Lee landed a radio program at WPAY in the Ohio River city of Portsmouth. Later,
he moved upstream to WCMI Ashland, Kentucky, where he served as a featured
vocalist with a group known as the Mountain Melody Boys. In 1937, he went to
WRHS Charleston where he served in a similar capacity with
Buddy Starcher’s Mountaineers. Lee
also met a girl from Jackson County, Kentucky, who sang at the station, Juanita
Picklesimer (b. 1917), known as the "Gal from the Hills." Lee and Juanita
married on November 15, 1938, and formed a duo act. Lee and Juanita worked
together as a radio team for some 20 years and won wide acceptance with their
down-home-style harmonies, which included numerous older ballads and sacred
songs. Lee continued to project a cowboy image on stage, even wearing two
holstered pistols, while Juanita contributed some fine original sacred songs
such as The Legend Of The Dogwood Tree and When Angels Rolled The Stone Away
(popularized on record by Wilma Lee
Cooper and Molly O’Day, respectively).
For a dozen years, they followed the traditional lifestyle of Country radio
entertainers of the time, moving to a new place every year or two. During this
era they did daily broadcasts from such locales as WHIS Bluefield, West
Virginia; WMMN Fairmont, West Virginia; WSVA Harrisonburg, Virginia; KFNF
Shenandoah, Iowa; WROL Knoxville, Tennessee; WPAQ Mt. Airy, North Carolina and
finally at the end of 1949, to WWVA Wheeling, West Virginia. On May 1, 1940, the
couple had a son, Roger Lee Moore who became part of their act, even as a small
child. The Moores found a more or less permanent home at the World’s Original
Jamboree, where they did both daily broadcasts and Saturday night shows as well.
In 1953, Lee also took a late-night deejay position with the station gaining a
near legendary status as the "Coffee Drinking Night Hawk," a job he filled with
only a brief break until 1969. The duo never recorded until 1953, when they
began making discs for the small New Jersey-based, Cross Country label. These
consisted of some twenty sides nearly evenly divided between duos and solo
vocals by Lee. Some of these numbers later appeared in Canada on an album
released by Point Records. The best known title, an old comic song from 1893,
The Cat Came Back, has virtually become Moore’s trademark. Lee and Juanita split
in 1960, after which Lee continued as a solo performer, remaining with the
Jamboree through 1974. In the early 60’s Lee did some additional recording,
primarily for such smaller companies as Wheeling, Mark, Essgee and Emperor.
Somewhat later he did two albums each for the ARC label in Canada and Rural
Rhythm in the U.S. The latter release had full Bluegrass band accompaniment
furnished by Red Smiley’s Bluegrass
Cut-Ups. An unreleased album for the Texas-based Bluebonnett label eventually
came to Germany on Cattle Records. In 1974, having remarried and settled in the
Troy, New York, suburb of Wynantskill, Moore left the Jamboree after a quarter
century. He continued working as a musician primarily in the Northeastern
states. He made additional single recordings for such labels as Fontone,
Tenn-Cann, and Revonah, as well as another album for Cattle.
As a recording artist, one might conclude that his influence has been minimal,
but as a radio performer and deejay, Lee Moore has been a quite significant
figure in the development of Country music. Shortly before his death in 1997,
Lee was presented with both a U.S. flag and a New York state flag that had been
flown over their respective Capitols in his honor. For more than a half century,
he entertained audiences with his tasteful, straight-forward approach to
traditional Country songs to the simple accompaniment of either his own guitar
or Dobro. Lee Moore died on August 17, 1997.
Talents : Singer, Guitar, Dobro, Deejay
Style musical : Traditional Country
Années en activité :
| 1910 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 2000 |
DISCOGRAPHY
Albums
| 1962 | LP 12' POINT ? (US) |
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LEE AND JUANITA MOORE |
| 1965 | LP 12' ARC 606 (CAN) |
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THE COFFEE DRINKING NIGHT HAWK |
| 1965 | LP 12' ARC ? (CAN) |
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MORE COFFEE DRINKING NIGHT HAWK |
| 1967 | LP 12" RURAL RHYTHM ? (US) |
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RADIO FAVORITES OF COUNTRY MUSIC |
| 1967 | LP 12" RURAL RHYTHM ? (US) |
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EVERYBODY’S FAVORITE |
| 1983 | LP 12" CATTLE ? (D) |
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WHEELING'S COFFEE DRINKING NIGHT HAWK |
| 1984 | LP 12" CATTLE ? (D) |
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A LIVING LEGEND IN COUNTRY MUSIC |
| 04/1998 | CD RURAL RHYTHM 202 (US) |
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20 EARLY COUNTRY FAVORITES - Little Girl Dressed In Blue / Your My Own Sweet Darling Wife / My Mother's Grave / Automobile Of Life / Answer To The Maple On The Hill / She's Some Daisy For 19 Years Old / You Are My Love / Heavenly Cannonball / Strand From A Yellow Curl / When My Mother Played The Organ / The Cat Came Back / Streamlined Cannonball / Strawberry Roan / I Believe That Good Old Bible / The Deepening Snow / The Weary Traveler / When Father Hung The Paper On The Wall / I'm Going Home This Evening / Wreck Of The Happy Valley / Single Life Is Good Enough For Me |
© Rocky Productions 27/07/2008