Moore to know than just the music

Story by Chris Graham
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Don’t get Nathan Moore wrong. He lives for his music, is happy with life in the indie scene, loves having total creative control from start to finish.
But …
Well, you’re familiar with the concept of the grass being greener on the other side, right?

“It’s a double-edged sword,” Moore said in an interview for today’s “Augusta Free Press Show.”
“The hardest thing for me has been adjusting. I was such a fan of the ’50s and ’60s and ’70s, and read a lot of stories and biographies and things like that. So when I set out to pursue my dream, I was really pursuing an old dream that I didn’t even know wasn’t necessarily there to be had anymore. I was looking for the cool record exec in the house to sign me to a record deal kind of thing, and I didn’t really even know until it just unfolded that the world is changing so fast,” Moore said.

The Clifton Forge native grew up in Staunton and recently relocated to the Staunton area after spending time out in the Southwest cutting his musical teeth. He has been playing since he got his first guitar as a Christmas present at the age of 14 – and he spent his formative music years in his 20s and early 30s developing the reputation of being the “Man of a Thousand Songs.”

Excerpts from his recently released solo album, “In His Own Worlds,” are featured on today’s “Augusta Free Press Show.” He went solo after years in Texas and New Mexico playing in bands and piling up experiences that he said have shaped who he is right now as an artist.

“I don’t think I could’ve done what I’ve done alone, that’s for sure. The group of guys and girls that I met in Austin, Texas, when I first went out there, we ended up spending about eight years together – really seven days a week, 24 hours a day, just following our dream and chasing it all over the country,” Moore said.

“Having a gang with you is just so much easier than if I’d tried it alone. I learned so much from them musically – and we learned together how to put on a show and what would work and what wouldn’t work. And the amount that I grew as a songwriter throughout my relationship with those guys is immeasurable,” Moore said.

Moore wants to add to his experiences – his dream is to still one day have that record exec show up at his doorstep and sign him to a megadeal.

“We definitely have a lot more control over our music, but there’s lots of experiences that I’d still like to have – in terms of going into big, fancy studios and being produced. I’d love to have one of my songs completely ruined by a big-time Hollywood producer. That would just be awesome. Something like, What is that string section doing in there? I want to experience that. Because I would probably love it,” Moore said.

Chris Graham is the executive editor of The Augusta Free Press.