Who was/is Cecil Moore ? - CDs, Vinyl LPs, DVD and more
Cecil Moore
CECIL MOORE's rocking 1958 debut Walkin' Fever b/w (I Lost My) Little Baby gives the listener no impression that the singer was a Korean War veteran pushing 30 who'd been performing country music in the Luling area for a full decade. Neither a country music purist nor a pseudo-rock 'n' roller, the uncommonly versatile Moore (born 1929) simply intertwined all popular music styles and made them his own. He also created a few of Sarg's most enduring and likeable sides along the way.
Inspired by Jimmy McCracklin's hit The Walk, Walkin' Fever was Cecil's calling card. Recorded at ACA on March 22, 1958, and featuring Link Davis sitting in on saxophone along with biting guitar from Wendell O'Neal, Walkin' Fever sold briskly and established Moore as a recording artist. An article in the Luling newspaper dated June 6, 1958 -- one of the few times a Sarg act was noticed by the local paper -- exclaims, "Move over, Elvis...He may not have the pelvis, but we've got a homespun hepster who's got that rockabilly beat born in him...'Walkin' Fever' is Cecil Moore's first cutting, and if you haven't heard it, your radio is on the blink. Local radio stations have been swamped with requests: Gonzales' KCTI replied to 23 requests in one day alone."
After George Jones hit with White Lightning in 1959, Cecil responded with Moonshine, a clever variation on the theme. Recorded in San Antonio with most of Adolph Hofner's band supplying the music, Moonshine couldn't have been more different than Walkin' Fever. The pimply teenagers who'd bought the latter were undoubtedly dismayed to hear Cecil's boastful lyric "I got a little pistol just to back up my talk." Great stuff, but it didn't sell. My Money's Gone, a 1961 release recorded at ACA, was another winner, featuring the gnarly guitar of the Moods' Jimmy Bazar.
Fitch was recovering from an abysmal year when Cecil approached him in early 1964 with his fabulous guitar instrumental Diamond Back. Released in April of that year, Diamond Back, featuring Moore playing lead guitar (a Les Paul) for the first time on any of his records, was an immediate hit in South Texas. Of the radio stations that issued their own charts, the record hit the Top 10 in Houston, San Antonio, and Austin, and sold thousands of copies. It was by far the biggest hit Sarg ever had -- a nice surprise for Fitch, who after ten years in the business seemed poised, as he had in 1957, to throw in the towel.
Moore remained with Sarg into the seventies and continued performing into the 1980s. Today he still lives near Luling, but is retired from music.
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Excerpt from
Various - That'll Flat Git It!
Vol.18 - Rockabilly From The Vaults Of Sarg Records (CD)
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