Bart Moore - Graveyards Wind & War

Bart Moore

Graveyards Wind & War
​self-released; 2022

4.0 out of 5

By Dino DiMuro

Bart Moore is a folk artist and veteran of the San Francisco alternative rock scene, and is now based on a farm in Lansing, Michigan, “to escape the Big City club scene and postpone ultimate deafness.” After releasing his CD Curse of Los Lunas in 2017, he continued to tour several Lansing venues and has just dropped a new album titled Graveyards Wind & War. Moore’s music shows the influence of Tom Waits, Waterboys, Bob Dylan and the Pogues (“just before the whisky kicks in”).

In developing this album, Moore started writing new songs in 2019 and wound up with about 22, many of them colored by COVID and the political climate. “Overall they turned out more dystopian and lyrically dark than they otherwise would have.” Mixing and mastering took place at Troubadour Recording in Lansing, with engineering by Corey DeRushia (who has worked with Luther Allison and the Dangling Participles). DeRushia even provided a mic for Moore that was used to record Johnny Cash! Though Moore admits he didn’t magically wind up sounding like Cash, the quality of the vocals and all the instruments is stellar.

Speaking of vocals - and hear me out, this is going to sound weird - my first impression of Moore’s voice in “The Third Day” is that it sounds like actor Dick Van Dyke playing one of his bearded, grizzled old man roles, with the insistence of a crazy prospector who keeps jabbing you in the ribs. This is most certainly not a bad thing! Moore says this song is about “war” and with the acoustic guitar, mandolin and fiddle, along with a reference to “Johnny Rebel,” I’m guessing the war he’s talking about was the Civil War. At any rate this track has a great upbeat folk energy and feels totally authentic to its subject. “There’s a devil on the hill… I can hear him howling still.”

“I Will Go Where The Wind Blows” feels like Moore took the acoustic guitar and recorder opening of “Stairway To Heaven” and made a whole song out of just that section. I had a shock of recognition with the lyrics, which appear to reference Captain Beefheart! “The west wind howls in a crazy man’s dream / The Magic Band greets the dawn’s early light / The Captain sings a lullaby / I will go where the wind blows.” You may think this kind of lush acoustic music is a strange tribute to the Captain, but Beefheart actually made one “commercial” LP with instrumentation very much like this.

Moore states that the next track “The Fly In The Ointment” was reprised from an earlier release “at the promoter’s urging.” This song concerns matters Irish, with callouts to Dublin, Jameson Whisky and Paddy Malone (late of the Chieftains). Reviving this track was a great idea, as it is more than worth the groove space. “Graveyard” is sort of the title track, reinforced by the cover photo showing Moore sitting on his own tombstone. This one has a compelling, heartrending structure not far from the hit single “Young Girl” by Gary Puckett. “People come and talk to me in this graveyard / Sorry Ma’m, you’re not even alive!”

With “Fire In The Rain” I’m going to say out loud what I’ve been thinking silently, which is that Moore shares some songwriting traits with Neil Diamond. I’ve been holding back because Diamond can be a divisive artist, but I’ve always appreciated his skill as a song craftsman, as I do now with Moore. Later this song feels like the acoustic songs on The Beatles’ Rubber Soul. I must also mention the lovely, uncredited female backing vocals here. “Marcelena” begins more like a song from The White Album, but ultimately feels like a folk radio song from the late ‘60s. Background chorus vocals and cello make this track shine, and Moore’s vocals really sell the emotions behind this song about a witch. “And Marcelena told me how she prayed to mother night / How under cloak of darkness, she grew wings and then took flight / She told me how she killed her prey / and ate from a bowl / That’s the way that Marcelena rolls.” I wish I could write a song like this!

“Oak Street - Rush Hour” is a quick instrumental callout to Leo Kottke (who Moore had mentioned lyrically in an earlier song): just one acoustic guitar played very fast. Wish it were longer than a minute! “Back To The Bad Old Days” brings me back to thoughts of Neil Diamond in storytelling mode, with more of those amazing backing vocals and cello. The chorus vocals are gut-wrenching and gave me big time chills. “Pteryodactyl (Color Wild The Sky)” is Moore’s song about “a prehistoric flying lizard” which again showcases his ability to paint word pictures like a Widescreen Technicolor Epic. Musically we’ve gone back toward the Civil War, with some impressive picking in the middle section. 

​As you may have gathered, these songs don’t sound like much of anything modern or current, but if you’re open to folk and Americana, please do yourself a favor and check out Bart Moore. Tell him Dino sent you!

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