Forgotten Blues Heroes: Gatemouth Moore

 "One night during a performance I was singing Stardust and while I was doing my song, a drunk woman staggered up to the stage and said "Ah, sing it you Gatemouth S.O.B. The drummer fell off his seat, the rest of the band quit playing and the theater went into an uproar. And there I stood in front of a frenzied audience a new personality named "Gatemouth Moore." So recalled Gatemouth Moore who went on to a remarkable career as a blues crooner, gospel singer, ordained Reverend and disc jockey. At 90 Reverend Arnold Dwight "Gatemouth" Moore is still with us, currently the Pastor of the Lintonia A.M.E. Church in Yazoo City, Mississippi. This is his story.

 Arnold Dwight Moore was born in Topeka, Kansas on November 8, 1913. Along with his two sisters he grew up in a white household where his mother Georgia Moore worked as a wash woman. His mother's employers encouraged his singing, entering him in contests and booking engagements throughout the state and beyond. He sang sentimental ballads and not blues during this period. He ran away from home at age 16 with a carnival that came to the Kansas State Fair that featured the legendary Ma Rainey. After this joined the famous F.S. Wolcott's Rabbit Foot Minstrels (the troupe that also employed the late Rufus Thomas). The troupe traveled all over the south performing tent shows. He learned about the blues and also about the South as he recalled: "The train was going through a Mississippi cotton field when I woke up. 'Look, it’s snowing! I shouted." And as far the blues it was a matter of making a living: "...Being a crooner you got to work every now and then. Being a blues singer, you got to work every day. It was a matter of living, and I got right in there with those mouth harps." During this period he was very busy singing with Benny Moten's band with a young Count Basie on piano in Kansas City in the early 30's, with the Four Sharps singing quartet, the minstrel shows and touring revues of Porkchop Chapman, Booty Jim, Sammie Green, Sam Dale and in Ida Cox's Darktown Scandals revue.

 His first major break came when he was singing with the house band at the Brown derby on Beale Street in Memphis ("where they threw me eight or nine dollars in change-in those days, a dollar and a quarter made you a big deal"). Gatemouth came to Beale Street in Memphis in 1934 and eventually became a fixture on the famous street. He was nicknamed "Mr. Beale Street" in 1939.

 Around this period he was hired by Walter Barnes and his Royal Creoles. It was with the band during this period that he survived the infamous Rhythm Night Club fire in Natchez, Mississippi in 1940. The fire killed one hundred to one hundred and fifty people and was immortalized in a number of blues songs most notably Howlin' Wolf's "Natchez Burning." "The only reason I survived, Gatemouth recalled, was because I was outside, in the bus, with a girl." The rest of his band perished in the fire.  

 In 1941 he returned to Kansas City where he sang at the Chez Paree. To cash in on Gatemouth's popularity the club owner recorded him on her own Chez Paree label. The songs eventually came to the attention of National Records A&R man Herb Abramson who felt the songs could be hits with National's nation-wide distribution. "He was a crooner", recalls Abramson. "He was tall, well built and good looking. We felt that we had someone who was right there with Wynonie (Harris)."

 The first session was May 10, 1945 in Chicago with Gatemouth cutting six sides including a remake of "I Ain't Mad At You Pretty Baby" but unfortunately none of these charted. The next session was conducted in November 14 & 15, 1945 in New York City. Eight songs were cut at the session including his immortal "Did You Ever Loved a Woman." "They ask me why I tell the story so well? Every blues I made I wrote it. Have You Ever Loved a Woman? Lots of people know it. Well, my wife wasn't’t home when I came back to Memphis from a trip, so I went down on Beale Street to look for her. A fellow said, 'Yeah, she’s upstairs.' I'm mad now. The band leader saw me. 'Sing something, Gate,' he said. I was looking for my wife, and I told him to turn up all the lights. I shouted out singing: 'My wife is here with another man/and I swear we’re going to fight.' That song came from me looking for Willa Mae. She got outta there too." Similarly "I Ain't Mad At You Pretty Baby", which became his signature song, also had roots in a true story. "I was in washington D.C. when I wrote that one", recalls Moore. "A Woman had just taken her shoe off and busted her old man across the head with it. As the cop car came to take her away, the guy ran up behind it, blood still running from his forehead, yelling 'I ain't mad at you, baby'." He cut a final session in 1946 with the Tiny Grimes Swingtet including the fine seasonal tune "Christmas Blues."

 Gatemouth's most prolific recording period would come in 1947 when he signed with the Cincinnati based King label. He cut over two dozen sides for the label over the course of three sessions. These songs failed to chart but the material was consistently good including notable songs like "Highway 61 Blues", "Hey Mr. Gatemouth" and "Graveyard Disposition." Also cut were some remakes of his earlier National songs. Some titles from his King sessions appeared on the King LP "Gatemouth Moore Sings Blues" that has since become a collector's item; a copy was sold at auction a few years back for $4,400.

 In 1949 Moore had a life changing experience while on stage at Chicago's Club DeLisa. When he opened his mouth nothing came out. When he opened his mouth again he inexplicably began singing the gospel classic "Shine On Me." "Folks started screaming, they though I lost my mind. I just singing and crying "Shine On Me." ...I walked off (stage) and walked right out the club and folks were hollering and screaming; thought I'd gone crazy. When I walked out to the bar one of the greatest preachers in Chicago was sitting out there and said 'Gate I be waiting on you.'" He was ordained at the first Church of deliverance in Chicago with Rev. Clarence Cobbs as Pastor.

  Gatemouth became a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and served his first church on Florida and Colorado Street. He joined WDIA Radio Station where he became the station's first religious disc jockey. "My program was called ‘Prayer Time,'" Moore recollected, "and my phone would ring and I've had white people to say, 'What is happening on that radio station? My maid is tearing up the house!'" He left there and went to Birmingham, Alabama and worked at WEDR Radio and later joined the staff of WBEE radio in Chicago. In 1957, he came back to Chicago and joined WOPA Radio. He also had the first religious T. V. show on channels 26 in Chicago. During this period he became Pastor at Wesley Chapel Church.

 Even as a preacher Moore was still the showman. As a revivalist preacher, Moore's greatest moment was perhaps the time he preached from a casket on Easter Sunday, cleared $38,000.00 and made such a spectacle of the whole thing ("The flowers, casket, the pallbearers and me in my red convertible. Took the casket out of the hearse and had the pallbearers carry the casket with all the money inside the bank") that an unappreciative sheriff gave him 24 hours to get out of town. On another occasion he promised to walk on the water of the Mississippi. He kept the crowd waiting until the very last minute of their patience, at which point he appeared in a dazzling white suit, bent down and placed his palm on the water. Standing up slowly and taking off his wide-brimmed white hat, he announced, "Children the water is troubled today. Reverend Moore cannot walk on troubled waters."

 Gatemouth recorded gospel in the 50's for labels such as Aristocrat (later to become Chess), Artists and Choral. In 1960 he cut the a full length album "Revival!" for the Audio Fidelity label and "After Twenty-One Years" in 1973, another gospel outing this time for the Bluesway imprint. He recorded his last record in 1977 under as "Great R&B Oldies" on Johnny Otis' Blues Spectrum label. This was a blues release as Gatemouth recut some classics and cut some new ones including an amazing ode to his old stomping grounds on "Beale Street Ain't Beale Street No More." He was also featured recently in Martin Scorsese's blues series singing this same song as he strolled down the famous street. In recent years he occasionally played festivals and kept busy with his duties as Pastor. In 2004 the Mississippi State Legislature issued a concurrent resolution commending the career of music heritage pioneer Reverend Arnold Dwight "Gatemouth" Moore.

Essential Listening

Cryin' And Singin' The Blues (Savoy): Collects all 20 sides cut for the National label between 1945-46 including classics like "I Ain't Mad At You Pretty Baby", "Did You Ever Love a Woman" plus forgotten gems like "It Ain't None Of Me", "Walking My Blues Away" and "Bum Dee Dah Ra Dee."

Hey Mr. Gatemouth (Westside): Collects every one of his King sides cut in 1947 including first rate blues like " Highway 61 Blues", "Hey Mr. Gatemouth", "Something I'm Gonna Be", "Graveyard Disposition" plus several others

Other Recordings/Video

Revival! (Audio Fidelity): A rousing, foot-tapping set of gospel cut in 1960. Unfortunately this one is out of print.

After Twenty-One Years (Bluesway): A fine out of print recording of gospel material cut for Bluesway in the early 70's featuring Wayne Bennett on guitar. Includes the spoken/sung "The Conversion of Gatemouth Moore" where Gatemouth eloquently recounts his conversion.

Saturday Night, Sunday Morning (California Newsreel): A wonderful and fascinating 1992 documentary on the life and times of Gatemouth Moore. This ranks as one of the great documentaries of it's kind and is well worth tracking down.

Sources

-Liner Notes to Savoy CD 17327: Gatemouth Moore, Cryin' & Singin' The Blues- Billy Vera, 2004

-Liner Notes to Westside CD 100: Gatemouth Moore, Hey Mr. Gatemouth- Neal Slavin, 2000

-Liner Notes to Savoy LP 2244: The Shouters/Roots of Rock 'n' Roll Vol. 9- Aaron Fuchs, 1980