by Brian Baker
In the early 90s, Ian Moore was a young guitarist with the natural ability to distinguish himself from the gazillion other string stranglers in talent-drenched Austin, Texas. Given his above-average chops and youthful zeal, no one would likely have been too critical of Moore if he'd chosen to take the path of least resistance and made his bones playing endless variations of the refried Southern blues/soul that captivated Capricorn Records nearly a decade and a half ago and led them to sign Moore for his first three albums.
But a funny thing happened on the way to Moore's illustrious blues career: He turned his back on it. Finding the parameters of the blues too limiting and his desire to make a broad variety of music becoming greater, Moore channeled his gifts away from the relatively inflexible architecture of the blues and began exploring the wide-open sonic expanse of pop music.
"It's the natural evolution of anyone with any artistic drive," says Moore via phone during his last days of vacation before heading back out on the road. ÒNothing really moved me away [from the blues], other than touring and growing as a songwriter and a player. If you have any interest in songwriting, youÕre going to eventually move beyond blues music. It depends on what your motivation is. Some people are really fulfilled playing those styles and theyÕre beautiful musics but my attitude is that I love doing it but I don't know that I'm ever going to be able to add anything to it. I'm just retreading things that have been done, probably better, in the late 60s. You could make the argument that everything we do was done better in the late 60s.
Fans of Moore's blues origins may have felt abandoned when he pursued this new musical direction, but they can't say there weren't hints along the way that the guitarist had a bigger vision than the one he was able to develop within the genre. By the time of his third album, Modernday Folklore, it was clear Moore was moving beyond the strict definition of the blues, incorporating unconventional time signatures and instrumentation into his blues framework. Although Moore's official jumping-off spot seemed to be his fourth album, And All the Colors, he insists he's been working toward the jaw-dropping Grant Lee Phillips-fronts-Wilco tapestry of his last album, 2004's Luminaria, and his brand new masterpiece, To Be Loved, since his first album.
"It's been a very organic process, being in my skin and being there the whole time, it's never really felt like any one big move, it's just been kind of gradual," says Moore. "As a matter of fact, It"s hard for me to see it from that angle. But I do realize from the fan's perspective, especially coming from 1994, they're like, "Oh my God, what happened to you?" I guess I can see that, but it really is truly hard to understand it on a deeper level."
Whenever it began, To Be Loved is clearly the culmination of Moore's musical gifts. The evocation of Beatlesque pop as envisioned by Jeff Lynne, the soulful rock reinvention of Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello, the crunchy pop confection of Jellyfish and the psych-folk blues of Grant Lee Buffalo are all on vivid display within the epic sweep of To Be Loved. When confronted by the perception that this album could be construed as his Sgt. Pepper or Dark Side of the Moon, Moore is flattered but demurely self-deprecating.
"Boy, I don't know. Those are auspicious comparisons," he says with no false modesty. "It's humbling to be compared to that stuff because those are the best records ever made. I have no idea. I just worked my butt off on the record and I really had a vision and dug deep into some sonic imprints that I wanted to get and I did my best to get them. That was my goal."
Although Moore's last three albums are cut from a similar sonic cloth, he notes that To Be Loved benefited from an abundance of planning and the learning curve he experienced on both Colors and Luminaria.
ÒWhen I made Luminaria, it was the first time I'd really taken the whole concept of making a record in my own hands, and it was a bit daunting, to be honest," he says. "I stumbled a bit in terms of how I planned it out, whereas with this I had a little more of a game plan, although I'm still kind of stunned it came out the way it did. I cut 18 different tracks in two days, which is pretty ambitious and with a band that wasn't really actively playing a lot, but they're such good players that really kicked ass in the studio and we got some great rhythm tracks. Then I took that to my studio and I just kind of did the crazy one-man studio thing for a couple of months whenever I could get in there."
Although it's been three years since Luminaria came out, Moore wasn't huddled in his studio obsessively tinkering with the components of To Be Loved. Between his seemingly constant touring obligations and his determination to spend as much time as possible with his family, Moore found that the time available to work on To Be Loved was fairly slim.
"I made this record largely from the hours of 11 p.m. until 5 in the morning, most of the time on my own, and that wasn't every night; those were the days that I could get in the studio," says Moore. "It really stretched out over a long period of time, and I guess in a way that allowed me to reflect on stuff and go back and redo some things, but I worked really fast. Most of the time, vocals and guitars were one or two takes and if I didn't get it, I would go back in a couple of days later and try it from a different angle. But I didn't do the kind of Brian-Wilson-87-takes-of-every-sound."
Moore had a lofty vision for To Be Loved, based on the things he was using to guide himself, sonically and philosophically, but he also made a structural shift that wound up paying big dividends.
"I sold one of my vintage amps which I knew I was never going to play and I bought a really good vocal mic, and I really worked on capturing vocals in a way that I didn't feel like I'd achieved before," says Moore. "And I was listening to a lot of Big Star and late 60s Kinks and the Zombies, and these great textural records like Roxy Music, so I had some heady things that I was aspiring to."
An inveterate road dog, Moore is especially looking forward to taking To Be Loved to the stage, primarily because he'll be traveling with a full band for the first time in five years.
"I've been doing the acoustic set for five years and that's been enjoyable, but it's really nice to have a full band," says Moore. "I can feel the energy; it's kind of palpitating. The people are just getting to know the songs, and there's always an interesting dynamic at my shows because I've covered so much terrain. ThereÕs people aligning themselves with every different phase of my career. Whenever you have a new record, thereÕs always that thing of ÔIs the energy of the record going to be enough to pull the crowd to the new place it could be? And I'm feeling that."
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Ian Moore
9 p.m. Thursday, September 13
The Winchester
12112 Madison Ave.
216.226.5681
Tickets: $15
