Carl “Deacon” Moore was a fascinating personality who became a central character in my book, I Went Down to St. James Infirmary. Pictured here with his orchestra in 1940, Moore (leaning against the piano) was credited as co-composer, in 1925, of the first sheet music for “Gambler’s Blues” (aka “St. James Infirmary”). Born and raised in Arkansas, Moore adopted the persona of the hillbilly hick in his performances. If one were simply to listen to a Moore performance, one would expect, upon opening one’s eyes, to see a country hick in bib overalls, chewing on a bit of straw. His drawling vocalizations were in sharp contrast to the smooth sounds of his orchestra.
He made only four records, all during the same session for Decca records on August 9th, 1938.
In 2006, Big Band historian, the late Joseph E. Bennett, made cassette recordings of the original 78s for me (I transferred them to mp3s). None of his recordings have ever been commercially reproduced since those early 78s. You won’t find them on Spotify.
Carl “Deacon” Moore was a fascinating personality who became a central character in my book, I Went Down to St. James Infirmary. Pictured here with his orchestra in 1940, Moore (leaning against the piano) was credited as co-composer, in 1925, of the first sheet music for “Gambler’s Blues” (aka “St. James Infirmary”). Born and raised in Arkansas, Moore adopted the persona of the hillbilly hick in his performances. If one were simply to listen to a Moore performance, one would expect, upon opening one’s eyes, to see a country hick in bib overalls, chewing on a bit of straw. His drawling vocalizations were in sharp contrast to the smooth sounds of his orchestra.
He made only four records, all during the same session for Decca records on August 9th, 1938.
In 2006, Big Band historian, the late Joseph E. Bennett, made cassette recordings of the original 78s for me (I transferred them to mp3s). None of his recordings have ever been commercially reproduced since those early 78s. You won’t find them on Spotify.
(You will find something on Spotify, though - “Arkansas Boogie,” a rollicking piano/guitar instrumental from the 1940s, credited to Moore. Moore’s wife told me Carl played a very rudimentary piano, and that this song illicitly used his name to gain traction.)
I have yet to find a way to embed sound recordings into Blogger posts, so to listen to these please find them here: Down to St James Infirmary at Substack
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