Nathan Moore (at times identified under the pen name Percy BoydCook, Dennis
"The Many Worlds of Nathan Moore"
''JamBase''. October 23, 2007. Retrieved March 28, 2008.) is a United States-based

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has ...

guitarist and singer-songwriter best known for being a founding member of both ThaMuseMeant and Surprise Me Mr. Davis. Moore has also released numerous solo albums on

Frogville Records Frogville may refer to: *Frogville, Oklahoma, US, a small community *''The Frogville ''The Frogville'' () is a 2014 Taiwanese 3D animated children's film. It was released on October 3. Box Office The film has earned NT$510,000 in Taipei ...

, an independent record company he co-founded with John Treadwell. A prolific songwriter, Moore has written over one thousand songs. In June 2008, Moore won the prestigious

Telluride Bluegrass Festival Telluride Bluegrass Festival is an annual music festival in Telluride, Colorado hosted by Planet Bluegrass. Although traditionally the festival focuses on bluegrass music, it often features music from a variety of related genres. History The tow ...

Troubadour Competition, performing for 10,000 festival goers and winning a custom made guitar. His most recent project (2017) is called The Whole Other, featuring Nathan's songs and sounds on an electronic backdrop, partnered with multi-instrumentalist and collaborator Lex Park.

Biography

Surprise Me Mr. Davis

Surprise Me Mr. Davis is an electro-folk band consisting of Nathan Moore and the members of

avant-rock Experimental rock, also called avant-rock, is a subgenre of rock music that pushes the boundaries of common composition and performance technique or which experiments with the basic elements of the genre. Artists aim to liberate and innovate, with ...

band The Slip. They formed in 2003 in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...

while Moore was visiting The Slip at their apartment and the Blizzard of 2003 hit. When they were snowed in, Moore and The Slip spent the time playing with home recording equipment, the result eventually becoming their self-titled album. During the period in which they were snowed in, the band members would ask each other what they should play on their instruments. The typical answer soon became "Surprise me". Toward the end of the week, Nathan Moore received a message on his cell phone from the voice of an elderly lady with a rich accent saying, "Mister Davis, you're having fun with that recording!" It was a wrong number, but the band decided to merge "Surprise Me." and "Mister Davis", thus making the official band name ''Surprise Me Mr. Davis''. In the winter of 2004, the band toured for the first time in the Northeast. The clubs they played included the

Tin Cup ''Tin Cup'' is a 1996 American romantic comedy and sports film co-written and directed by Ron Shelton, and starring Kevin Costner and Rene Russo with Cheech Marin and Don Johnson in major supporting roles. The film received generally positive rev ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

, Savannah's in

Albany, New York Albany ( ) is the capital of the U.S. state of New York, also the seat and largest city of Albany County. Albany is on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River, and about north of New York Ci ...

, and

Eclipse Theater An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object or spacecraft is temporarily obscured, by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer. This alignment of three cel ...

Waitsfield, Vermont Waitsfield is a town in Washington County, Vermont, United States. The population was 1,844 as of the 2020 census. It was created by a Vermont charter on February 25, 1782, and was granted to militia Generals Benjamin Wait, Roger Enos and other ...

. In March and April 2005, they again played a

Northeast The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each sepa ...

tour. Later that year in November, they played a California tour, hitting clubs such as The Independent in San Francisco, Sweetwater in

Mill Valley, California Mill Valley is a city in Marin County, California, United States, located about north of San Francisco via the Golden Gate Bridge and from Napa Valley. The population was 14,231 at the 2020 census. Mill Valley is located on the western and ...

, Moe's Alley in Santa Cruz, and Winston's in

San Diego San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the eighth most populous city in the United States ...

. They have also played

High Sierra Music Festival High Sierra Music Festival is a multi-day music festival held in Quincy, California, United States, a mountainous area about 80 miles northwest of Reno, Nevada. History The first High Sierra Music Festival was in 1991, and was the genesis of ...

every year since forming. At the 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010

, they played surprise late night shows at Camp Harry. Keyboardist

Marco Benevento Marco Benevento (born July 22, 1977) is an American pianist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer, who has been a fixture of the New York experimental music rock and jazz scene since 1999. He is the founder and recording e ...

joined the band in 2009.

2007: ''In His Own Worlds''

Moore's seventh solo effort, ''In His Own Worlds'', was released on

on June 27, 2008. Moore picked the title of the album by weeding out all other "bad" choices, and settled on one that used wordplay, although Moore stated that "it doesn't seem to be the best marketing angle in America." In a 2007 feature article with JamBase, Moore explained how his religion influenced the making of the album: Contemporary music critics responded positively to ''In His Own Worlds''. Dennis Cook of JamBase called the album "brilliant", and said that the album was "Nathan Moore at his best, which is saying something."

Songwriting

For Moore songwriting is "...a very elusive and mysterious thing to talk about...You feel like people saying they feel like they're a conduit, that something is passing through them. I wouldn't necessarily say that that's true, but it does feel like that." "The sharp, introspective lyrics of Nathan Moore draw an instant connection to the great folk singers of the past." -Paste Magazine "Nathan Moore…is one of the greatest songwriters we have and the faucet is always on pouring fresh songs out like water." Aaron Case- Jambase "Moore has a timeless sound that falls easily into place next to those hollowed names that came before him – Seeger, Havens, and Dylan." - AmericanaUK

Discography

Solo

*1999: ''Single Wide'' *2002: ''Percy Boyd's Lost Tracks'' *2002: ''Live at the Blackfriars Playhouse'' *2002: ''Sad Songs Make Me Happy'' *2003: ''Other Wise Blue Skies'' *2003: ''Cans 'n' Can'ts'' *2007: ''In His Own Worlds'' *2008: ''You Yeah Smokin' Hot'' *2009: ''Folk Singer'' (EP) *2011: ''Dear Puppeteer'' *2013: ''Hippy Fiasco Rides Again'' *2014: ''Dandelion Killers'' *2015: ''Enough About Me'' *2016: ''Goodbye America'' *2017: ''The Whole Other'' *2021: ''Holler & Hope''

With Surprise Me Mr. Davis

*2004: ''Surprise Me Mr. Davis'' *2005: ''Only in Montreal'' *2010: ''That Man Eats Morning For Breakfast''

With ThaMuseMeant

*1995: ''Live at the Mineshaft Tavern'' *1997: ''Breakfast Epiphanies'' *1998: ''Sweet Things'' *2000: ''Grow Your Own'' *2001: ''Nudes'' *2004: ''Silver Seed'' *2006: ''Never Settle for Less''

References

External links

Nathan's Official WebsiteNathan Moore interviewedNathan Moore – Poet, Wordsmith, Songwriter
Interview from HonestTune.com
Nathan Moore: Wild & Free on TheWaster.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Moore, Nathan American folk guitarists American male guitarists Singer-songwriters from Virginia 1970 births Living people People from Staunton, Virginia People from Clifton Forge, Virginia Guitarists from Virginia 21st-century American male singers 21st-century American singers 21st-century American guitarists American male singer-songwriters