Jukejoints & Cantinas

Dave Moore's debut album, recorded, as he notes, with some free studio time he won at a music festival in western Iowa, reflects his musical taste, which he describes as "the country blues and gospel of the South, and more recently norteño music of the Texas-Mexican border area." Accordingly, he combines nine covers of folk-blues tunes, played on guitar and harmonica with Paul Cunliffe on drums and Doug Thomson on bass (and both pitching in backup vocals), with five norteño instrumentals that he plays on the button accordion. Moore's conception of the blues comes directly from the rediscovered masters who played to acclaim in the folk clubs and festivals of the 1960s, people like the Reverend Gary Davis, Mississippi John Hurt, and Sleepy John Estes. It is, for the most part, a happy blues intoned by reborn Christians, as indicated by the leadoff song, Davis' "I'll Be All Right," and Moore plays it in a lively manner. The accordion tunes are even livelier, making this a bouncy, danceable collection. The world may not really need yet another interpreter of the folk-blues canon, but Moore brings enthusiasm and conviction to his renditions.