Ian Moore

After three critically acclaimed albums, Ian Moore stands on the threshold of stardom with his fourth full length release, “and all the colors…”. In the current musical climate of frothy teen confections and hardcore rap, Moore’s artistic vision stands in stark, electrifying contrast. His music inhabits a visceral world of erudite fantasies and bluesy melodies. Moore’s passionate, soulful vocals, atmospheric arrangements and mysteriously though-provoking lyrics are a dense garden of sensual pleasures.

On his KOCH debut disc, “and all the colors…”, Moore offers up poetic, bittersweet vignettes in songs about obsession, isolation, love and Johnny Cash. Intense, melancholy compositions are laced with layers of evocative sounds; a thick array of musical textures which incorporate Moore’s signature lush and moody guitar with violin, bazuki and sitar. From the pulsating rhythms of the album’s opening track, “Float Away”, through the beautiful ballad, “Magdelena”, to the sinister, deceptively quiet syncopation of “Oceansize”, Moore paints an exotic, masterful musical portrait.

Moore’s music has been steadily evolving in the years since he was anointed a teenage guitar prodigy in his then hometown of Austin, Texas. With the release of his 1992 self-titled debut, Moore was quickly dubbed a guitar virtuoso, but his musical adventure was only beginning. “Ian Moore” yielded three Top Twenty Modern Rock hits, including “Harlem”, with a music video directed by Ice Cube. The album’s success also led to opening spots on tours with the Rolling Stones, ZZ Top and Bob Dylan. An EP, “Live From Austin”, followed in 1994, but as Moore’s skills increased, so did his hunger to explore more varied musical territory. In 1995, came “Modernday Folklore”, an album co-produced by Daniel Lanois protg, Mark Howard. The disc displayed Moore’s originality and flexibility as both a songwriter and musician, incorporating a wide variety of styles and instruments including strings, Dobro and horns. In 1996, Moore made a cameo appearance in Billy Bob Thornton’s Oscar-winning, “Sling blade”, along with Dwight Yoakum and Vic Chesnutt, as a member of the famously unruly backyard band.

In 1997, Moore, free from his contract with Capricorn Records, released “Ian Moore’ Got The Green Grass”, on his own Hablador Records. Co-produced by Mark Addison, he went totally eclectic on this collection, which seamlessly spanned 60’s psychedelia to shimmering gospel and included an ebullient version of the Beatles “Hey Bulldog”, as well as songs by Bob Dylan, Jimmy Cliff and Texan, Terry Allen. “…Green Grass” received roaring, critical approval and completely freed Moore from the suffocating label of 90’s guitar hero.

On “and all the colors…”, Moore once again artfully demonstrates the expansive musicality, which has inspired him practically since birth. The son of a linguistics and Eastern Studies scholar, Moore was born in Berkeley, California. His childhood was spent shuttling between California, Mexico and India, before the family settled in Austin.

As a result of his father’s career, Moore’s exposure to music was naturally multi-cultural. Ravi Shankar and Al Green. Sam Cook and Stevie Wonder. The Beatles and Bob Dylan. At five, he discovered his first instrument, the sitar, which Moore nearly destroyed by imitating The Who. At age six, he took up the fiddle. At fifteen, he began playing guitar. A voracious reader, Moore also cites Latino novelists, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Jorge Luis Borges, Federico Garcia Lorca, cultural commentator, Octavio Paz, and the literary genre, “magic realism” as highly influential. He’s also a fan of writers Dylan Thomas, James Joyce, Cormac McCarthy, Dennis Johnson, Thomas McCann and Terry Allen, a sculptor, painter and musician.