Album of the year chosen by Rick Galusha at KIWR Radio.

Artist: Ian Moore

Album: To Be Loved

Writer: Rick Galusha 

Album of the Year 2008

One of the fancies of listening to music is following the career of an artist or band, waiting  for that moment when all the facets merge and the artist accelerates to the 'next level' of their career. For fans of Ian Moore, his latest album, 'To Be Loved' is that great leap forward.

Anyone that recalls a young Ian Moore, seeped in the atonal chunka-chunka-thud of the Austin sound; where the guitar slinger prevails (and melody lines suffer), will not recognize Moore's music today. While Austin, Texas has become somewhat of a Mecca to music, their blues-rock sound is dominated by a muddy, bottom-heavy movement whose remaining momentum has gone with artists such as Doyle Bramhall Jr., Jimmie Vaughan and Chris Duarte.

For a time young Moore dealt handsomely within Austin's arena. Nearly a decade ago Moore changed direction and, for lack of a better term, started a near Indie Rock / Singer & Songwriter career. For those that have hung around for the outcome, it was…weird. Listeners heard an artist redefine himself; searching for a sound all his own. As noted in a recent edition of Mojo Magazine, true creativity in the rock genre comes from outside the system, based upon rejection, desperation and driven artistic vision.  

I recall riding in a car with Moore, who had recently become a father for the first time, when he told me he was willing to "bet his career" on the shift from an Austin based sound to this new venture. When asked if the move was premeditated effort to reach a larger audience, Moore was clearly not at ease with the precept that he was making a commercial move.  Frankly, having met Ian a few times, heretofore I had to look for a value in his music that, for me, was difficult to find. I was drawn to the sound but couldn't figure out why. That there was talent buried within that meandering was not questioned; that there was direction and forethought was given. The entertainment value of Moore's guitar albums failed to reach me: I simply didn't "get it."

With the release of, 'To Be Loved' Moore has landed with a wonderful record that is at once full of melody lines criss-crossing across a palate of tonal colors and creative sensibilities as it unravels peeling away layer after layer. The continual introduction of new instruments, tempos and creative melody lines keeps this album fresh. Instead of being blues based Moore has delved back to the mid-to-late 1960's to grasp the vast creative influences of the then new artform and bring them together in a contemporary setting.

 In August 2008 Ian Moore, now of Seattle, released what was, for me, the most interesting album of the year; 'To Be Loved.'

Leaving behind the built up mythology of an Austin blues-rock sound, Moore has reached back into the psychedelia of later-Early Period Ray Davies (Kinks) and pre-success era Pink Floyd for a unique yet fresh sound. This album has more in common with "Swingin' London" than the electric blues of 1950's Chicago. For example, on the albums ninth track, 'Colvo's Passage' Moore uses a vocal passage similar to the oft used Pete Townshend's vocal lines of 'La-la-la's" heard during the passages of, 'A Quick One While He's Away," "Our Love Was, Is" or "La La La Lies."  

On the title track, To Be Loved, Moore taps into the creative juices of the studio-only-years of Lennon and McCartney, or perhaps Andy Partridge, for a wonderful, complex shifting tempo track that slowly builds, twists and uses backing vocal lines and other instruments to create a audio bed from which to build. It is compelling and creative.

On 'Innocent Maneuvers' Moore's uses a David Gilmore guitar styling's set against an early period Bowie twelve string ballad to juxtapose against a moving storyline of lost friendship. "I was asking around about a girl I used to know. We were twins when we were young, but she changed. We were both bound by numbers and the spirit of logic. Somewhere she found Jesus and her math went away." It is a perfect and careful balance between a sound that was and the contemporary; leaning softly on nostalgia but incorporating the contribution of the genre's predecessors.

In a coda, this album has nothing to do with the blues other than, "What ever happen to Ian Moore?" What's happened is that Moore chose a different route and after some attempts may well be laying the ground work for a wonderfully creative period of songwriting. I realize Moore is neither commercial nor widely recognized. Perhaps the allure of becoming a foot solider in the 'Ever Tortured Artist Effect' compels me to look beyond the vapid emptiness of today's collapsing music industry machine. If you're looking for an album that is immediately consumed – this is probably not for you; however, if you find the experience of listening to music to be interactive affair rather than passive background, I strongly suggest, no, encourage you to seek this record out and prepare to experience an album that is both panoramic and moving.
--
Rick Galusha

www.KIWRBlues.PodOMatic.com
www.OmahaBlues.com

LIVE MUSIC CAPITOL OF THE WORLD - MAYBE NOT 

The Oaks in eastern Travis County is the newest music venue to loose its battle for long life and prosperity in the Live Music Capital of the World.  Since opening in March 2006 and quickly getting recognition by both musicians and music lovers as the new cool but old styled Austin live music refuge, the venue hosted the Spring Music Series starting in April 2006 with shows that included musical talents as broad as the tastes of both the owners and the listeners who attended.  The venue hosted such greats as Marcia Ball, Asleep at the Wheel, Buckwheat Zydeco, Beausolei, Billy Joe Shaver to name just a few. 

Almost three years of providing a warm and welcoming old style honky tonk and road house for both local patrons and international guests who returned to The Oaks three years running for the stellar SXSW week show on the closing Sunday of the local event.  Many will miss The Oaks and its 2009 Special Sunday event which in 2008 hosted 30 bands on 3 stages entertaining over 1000 attendees from all around the world, many who were back for their third year and left commenting about what to expect in 2009.   Unfortunately, The Oaks will be dark and silent this coming March.  

Even though the recent economic downturn played a part in the closing, other factors had an impact on the owners decision, unfriendly landlords, excess demands by ASCAP and SESAC, recent complaints for noise when the closest residents are over a mile and a half away which prompted citations by Travis County deputies accompanied by TABC who literally plugged the plug on the event and required all patrons to vacate premises before the event was over;  rising costs and declining sales all contributed to Deb Flemings and Steve Deans decision to close the doors for good on November 30^th. 

Live music venues like these are scarce especially ones that are reminiscent of the old Austin hang outs like Liberty Lunch and Soap Creek Salon to name a few.  Marcia Ball once said about The Oaks It reminds me of the old Soap Creek Salon only The Oaks actually has a creek.  Just a short drive from downtown Austin, The Oaks lived on the fringe of the thriving downtown Austin music scene but offered that down home, laid back ambiance that you don’t find in the heart of the city any longer.  Unfortunately, there were not enough music lovers who truly appreciated this ambiance and style any longer.

CONTACT:  Deb Fleming, dfleming19@gmail.com                 Steve Dean, sdean5@austin.rr.com

As you know, we've entered the biggest buying season of the year when it comes to records. But all the record stores are going out of business! What's the deal? This explains everything... http://www.musicmarketing.com

 

The first annual Roots Music Awards were presented at the RMA Radio/Membership Conference. Click the link below to view the top 5 nominations and the winners.  Votes were cast by RMA members around the globe.

 

The 2008 Roots Music Awards.   Click Here......

Making the Charts
Methodology and Reporting Policy of the Roots Music Report

 Radio stations enter into the database the number of times they have played an artist/album for the week and spins are updated weekly into the database. The database then tabulates all spins reported by stations that week and places the artist/album in a chart order of most spins to least spins received by all stations.   

Each general genre chart has 50 placements. State/regional charts have a varied number of placements due to the variance of the number of albums reported with artist residing in any given state.   

A new artist/album makes placement into our database by being reported by at least 2 terrestrial radio stations or 3 internet radio stations or a combination of the two in a one week period.  Once this criterion is met the artist/album is authorized to enter the database for tabulation.  

This reporting rule was implemented after the realization that we had stations with large spins counts controlling the charts with an artist only being played on their lone station.  Our goal always is to keep the charts fair to artists receiving airplay on several stations that report small spin counts and to stop any one station monopolizing the charts. 

For this reason some spins for the week may show a 0 count on your playlist. This is directly the result of your station being the only one to station is report the album.  However, please keep reporting the artist/album and as soon as another station does the same it will be authorized into the database for tabulation.   

We have added a few new music genres in the last several months and in order to help them through the growth stage we are forgoing the number of stations needed for reporting that genre. Upon reaching a sufficient number of reporting stations for the new genre we will then switch them over to the same requirements as our established genres. 

In addition, we allow syndicated stations to multiply each spin by the number of their syndications (ex. 12 syndicated stations; 12 spins for each 1 spin); however, we do start restricting the multiplications  when syndications are to more than 20 stations.  

Most of our syndicated stations expressed their belief that they should have a larger spin count due to the fact that they reach a larger audience and we certainly agree, however we can't allow a station with an extremely large syndication rate to count all of their stations.  

For example we have some syndicated programs that are broadcast on more than 600 radio stations however we only allow them to report only 20 spins. This is due to the fact that, if a syndicated show is on 400 stations and plays an album 3 times per show the reported spins would be 1200, which would essentially make it that station?s genre a one-show-chart.  Therefore, we limit a syndicated stations spins while still trying to allow for the fact that they do reach a larger listening audience.  

Our total spin counts are much lower than most charts for this reason but we believe this allows for a more accurate portrayal of any given artist's popularity on stations around the world. 

We are doing our very best to make our chart system balanced and fair. Whether it?s an artist that is played by 10 stations with 10 or more syndicated shows each, for an artist that is being played by 2 stations at 50 spins each, or if an artist that is played by 20 stations at 1 spin each.  We no longer accept reports from Live 365 stations.

By requiring an album to be played by at least 2 to 3 stations, before being authorized into the database, as well as allowing some reporting  balance for syndicated shows we are hoping for a much more realistic chart that can still be fair to the little guys.  Our goal is to keep our charts honest and keep out the politics. 

We thank all the stations that take the time and effort to report their spins to us. You are vital to making the RMR charts work. We are well aware that without them there would be no charts.