The Professional Work of Lattie Moore
Lattie Moore & the Allen County Boys (October 17, 1924 ~ Jun. 23, 2010): Lattie Moore came from Allen County, Kentucky and grew up in the tobacco farming area before doing something with his musical talents. His home was about 65 miles from Nashville, Tennessee, the home of the Grand Ole Opry and that inspired him to take up learning the guitar and later and enter talent contests. Moore was a country and hillbilly singer/guitarist, an admirer of Gene Autry and Hank Williams whose early high-energy numbers anticipated rock & roll in everything but name.
In 1944, his career took him to Indianapolis, Indiana where he did television and radio appearances in the capital city and also worked some of the large jamboree parks in Indiana. Moore was drafted into the United States Navy around this time but didn't stay in the service very long and he was back in Indiana by the end of 1944, playing small clubs and other minor venues. Later he hosted a local radio show as well as working on the musical side of an act put together by aging cowboy movie star Lash LaRue.
In 1951, Moore made his recording debut on the Arrow label with the single Hideaway Heart b/w Married Troubles, which quickly disappeared without a trace. By then he was also broadcasting on the Mid-Western Jamboree on radio from WIBC in Indianapolis as the show's emcee and he later performed a similar function on television from Bloomington, Indiana.
Moore got another chance at recording in 1952, in Nashville, on the Speed label, where he cut Juke Joint Johnny, reportedly after auditioning for the head of the label on the sidewalk outside of the Ernest Tubb Record Shop.
Juke Box Johnny was ahead of its time, so much so that it only generated local interest. It was also covered by other artists, including Red Sovine. However, the label thought it did do well enough to justify Moore's cutting a second single, Baby, I'll Soon Be Gone, which also did well locally and somewhat regionally, though this single was in a different, more familiar honky-tonk style. Moore’s most notable success came with the single Drunk Again (No. 25, 1961, his only Billboard chart single, which he recorded for King Records.
During the 1960s, he shifted more toward straight country music, abandoning rock & roll and rockabilly. He showed up on bills supporting Johnny Cash and cut his own songs as well as those by Ray Pennington and Jerry Reed, among others. His departure from King at the end of the 1960s marked the end of his work for a major label. He continued working in music until health problems caught up with him in the 1980s.
