## Lattie Moore, Cincinnati hillbilly bop and Rockabilly (1952-1982)

Though highly revered within hillbilly and rockabilly circles, the name of Lattie Moore is practically unknown outside auction lists. Even there’s a tad mysterious, Eddie Bond’s « Juke Joint Johnnie », Jerry Reed’s « If The Good Lord’s Willing » and George Jones’ « Out Of Control » have been reissued on CD but they were probably more familiar than Lattie’s versions even before they were readily available. Yet, arguably, Lattie’s records are more rewarding. His experience-laced vocals have far more expression than Jerry Reed’s or the affectless Eddie Bond and the countrypolitan elements which often diluted George Jone’s 60’s music are almost entirely absent.

Lattie’s voice is absolutely perfect in a coarse, grainy, ragged sort of way and there’s the odd device like a half yodel when he sings about doleful effects of drink. Country traditionalists go for the light, twangy vocals on hillbilly songs like « Don’t Trade The Old For The New ». Rockabilly enthusiasts bid big bucks for Lattie’s very scarce records on Arc and Starday. Lattie, however, admits to singing about drink more than anything else.

## Don't Trade The Old For A New

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Dont-Trade-The-Old-For-A-New-1228.mp3

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Lattie Harrison Moore was born in Scottsville, Kentucky, on October 17, 1924. He was named after Lattie Graves, the family doctor who delivered him. He grew up learning to play guitar, mandolin and bass. Only 65 miles of Nashville, Lattie listened to the Grand Ole Opry. He was impressed by Roy Acuff, and later, Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams.  
In 1944 Lattie hichhilked 200 miles North to Indianapolis, a city of greater opportunity for the professionnally-minded musician. A brief stint in the Navy interrupted his intentions but on discharge he worked nighclubs and some of Indiana’s large jamboree parks. In December 1944 he married. They raised 4 children, and recently (in 2000) they celebrated 55 years’ togetherness.

If ever a record disappeared into collector holy graildom, it was Lattie Moore’s first. No one has ever seen a copy ! It was called « Hideaway heart » c/w « Married Troubles » and cut in 1951 at the home-built studio of Tate Boland, the Arrow’s label owner. The same year Lattie joined the Mid-Western Jamboree held at Turner’s Hall and broadcast over WIBC, from the Indiana capital.

_A copy of the 78rpm was sold $ 134 in January 2019._

In 1952 Moore travelled to Nashville with a view to recording for Bullet, the local grandaddy of independant labels. He discovered that Bullet wasn’t signing anyone new but was pointed by John Dunn, who handled Bullet’s pressing plant, in the direction of the Speed label, a smaller company in which Dunn also had interest. Story of Lattie Moore’s Nashville debut was given by Dunn’s partner : « In the summer of 1952, I met Lattie Moore as I walked out of the Ernest Tubb record shop on lower Broadway. He was a writer and guitarist who wanted to make a record and he sung right there in the busy sidewalk for me to listen.

## Married Troubles

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Lattie-Moore-and-his-Allen-County-Boys-Married-Troubles-.mp3

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The song was called « Juke Joint Johnny ». I thought it was so good I gave him a contract and cut it that very afternoon. We went to a makeshift studio on Union Street. No one in the band knew the song except Lattie and his lead player, so to fill up the sound I told the engineer to bring the drums in as loud as possible to fill ut the sound of the piano.

## Juke Joint Johnny

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/25-Juke-Joint-Johnnie-Lattie-Moore.mp3

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## It's Good Enough For You

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/speed-101-Lattie-Moore-Its-Good-Enough-For-You-1.mp3

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## Baby, I'll Soon Be Gone

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Lattie-Moore-Baby-Ill-Soon-Be-Gone-Speed-105.mp3

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The song “Juke Joint Johnny” hit the jukeboxes fast and good. I think this was about the first rock’n’roll record out of Nashville, and in these early days we didn’t know it. »

Lattie Moore cut 25 tracks for King over two periods : 1953-1956 and 1959-1963. The musicians on earliest recordings, made at the label’s own studio on Brewster Avenue in Cincinnati, included Zeke Turner (electric lead guitar), Don Helms, veteran member of Hank Williams’ Drifting Cowboys (steel), Tommy Jackson (fiddle) and Zeb Turner (rhythm guitar). They had as firm a grasp on the essentials of the honky-tonk genre as any musicians in Texas.

## I'm Gonna Tell You Something

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/lattie-moore-Im-gonna-tell-you-something.mp3

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## I'm Not Broke, But I'm Badly Bent

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/lattie-moore-Im-not-broke.mp3

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## Pull Down The Blinds

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Lattie-Moore-Pull-Down-The-Blinds.mp3

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## A Brand New Case Of Love

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/16-A-Brand-New-Case-Of-Love-Lattie-Moore.mp3

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King dropped Lattie after six singles. He cut a flat-out rock’n’roll version of « Juke Joint Johnny » (as « Juke Box Johnnie ») for Arc Records in December 1956. On stage, however, he mined the mother lode ; Elvis and Little Richard were as important to his repertoire as Hank Williams and Ernest Tubb.

Cash Box, Dec. 15, 1956

## Juke Box Johnnie

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/22-Juke-Box-Johnnie-Lattie-Moore-1.mp3

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## Pretty Woman Blues

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Lattie-Moore-Pretty-Woman-Blues.mp3

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In 1958 Lattie joined Starday which had moved its HQ from Beaumont,Texas to a suburb of Nashville the previous year. « Don Pierce looked me up in Indianapolis, said Lattie ; He really wanted me on Starday. We cut « Why Did You Lie To Me » in Nashville in a studio that Floyd Robinson had in part of his house. Floyd played electric guitar and Benny Martin wrote it and played the acoustic flat-top guitar on it. » « Too Hot To Handle », Lattie’s second and last Starday single, was his take on Eddie Noack’s enduring and much-loved song.

## Why Did You Lie To Me

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/403A-Lattie-Moore-Why-Did-You-Lie-To-Me.mp3

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In 1958 Lattie joined Starday which had moved its HQ from Beaumont,Texas to a suburb of Nashville the previous year. « Don Pierce looked me up in Indianapolis, said Lattie ; He really wanted me on Starday. We cut « Why Did You Lie To Me » in Nashville in a studio that Floyd Robinson had in part of his house. Floyd played electric guitar and Benny Martin wrote it and played the acoustic flat-top guitar on it. » « Too Hot To Handle », Lattie’s second and last Starday single, was his take on Eddie Noack’s enduring and much-loved song.

## You Never Looked Sweeter

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Lattie-Moore-You-Never-Looked-Sweeter-Starday-403.mp3

## Too Hot To Handle (441)

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/starday-441A-lattie-moore-too-hot-to-handle.mp3

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## Just A Waitin'

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/441A-Lattie-Moore-Just-A-Waitin.mp3

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## Skinny Minnie Shimmy (1962)

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/27-Skinnie-Minnie-Shimmy-Lattie-Moore.mp3

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## Tall Man (1982)

by **Lattie Moore**

http://www.bopping.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2-22Tall-Man22.mp3

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Derby Town LP (1982)

Leaving King for a second time, Lattie cut a good album and a single for Derbytown and a single for WPL. Eventually Lattie returned to Scottsville and worked in law enforcement for four years. He underwent laser surgery for throat cancer in 1986 and recovered from a quadruple heart bypass in 1999. Now, he says, he’s fine, and keeps fit walking 30 minutes every evening.

Sources: Bill Millar’s biography of Lattie Moore (Westside CD “I’m Not Broke, But I’m Badly Bent”, 2000); most labels from 45cat and 78worlds; music from various sources (e.g. YouTube or Gripsweat.com). Article originally published in September 2009, completely revised July 2019. The podcasts omitted second King period (1959-61), in my mind the poppiest-country sounding period of Lattie Moore.