Kid Prince Moore Shorty Bob Parker

Complete Recorded Works (1936 – 1938)

Featuring the recordings of:

(Kid) Prince Moore, vocal / guitar. Kid Prince Moore, vocal / guitar; probably Shorty Bob Parker, piano. Shorty Bob Parker, vocal / piano; Kid Prince Moore, guitar / comments on 20, 21

Genres: Blues, Country Blues, East Coast Blues, Country blues, Piedmont Blues, Guitar, Ragtime Guitar, Blues Piano,

Abridged from this album’s original booklet notes. Kid Prince Moore (it is not known which elements of this nom du disque, if any, formed part of his real name) has been more kindly served by posterity than some of his contemporaries; although many of his performances remained unissued at the time of recording they have all since been recovered and made available. They reveal a man who was something of an east coast chameleon. His first sessions, in April 1938, were held in New York, a common venue for artists from the more eastern states. Of the nine sides cut only four were deemed worthy of release. Bruce Bastin, in his informed study Red River Blues speculates that this was because much of Moore’s material reflected the influence of other, better known, performers. He cites Josh White’s previous version of Heavy Cotton and points out the similarities to Blind Lemon Jefferson on the vocal of Bite Back while Market Street is a rag firmly in the tradition of Blind Blake and Blind Boy Fuller. That Moore was willing to try anything is illustrated by his adapting his facile guitar style to a less exacting support for two (somewhat unconvincing) sanctified numbers and forcing his normally low voice into an uncomfortable pitch for Bug Juice Blues, a ploy which might account for it being one of the sides that did get issued! It was long thought that the 1938 Decca Session was also cut in New York while in fact it took place in Charlotte, North Carolina. At it Kid Prince Moore made six recordings under his own name, with the support of Shorty Bob Parker on piano, and helped out Parker on his six titles. As a piano/guitar duet they were not in the class of Leroy Carr and Scrapper Blackwell although they did have some nice moments. Shorty Bob Parker, another biographical mystery, has been compared with Peetie Wheatstraw but on this, his only session, he was sometimes let down by the quality of the recordings while at others he tended to swamp Moore’s guitar. Kid Prince Moore was either in a less adventurous mood for this date or found himself restricted by working with a pianist. His range of styles was narrower and he kept pretty close to first base. This caution, if that’s what it was, seems to have paid off as all twelve tracks saw issue. And that was it for both men. Neither is recognizable again in the later history of the blues and it can only be assumed that they both sank back into the anonymity that had preceded their short-lived attempts to cash in on their talents and that their whole legacy is here on this disc.

DOCD-5180