Kat Moore is all country music– Texas country. Her parents were Texas country music performers. Kat used to sleep behind the amplifiers at live shows when she was a little girl, while her folks performed. So she started singing when she was young.
“I started performing when I was 11, and began consistently performing when I was 14,” she says.
The experience she garnered over the years can be heard in her striking voice, as on the single “Shadows” off her new album Miss Understood from the Kat Moore Band. Dave Moore, Kat’s husband plays guitar in the band – keeping the family tradition alive.
Miss Understood is really good music, with all the classic components of great country and honky-tonk, but notched up a level higher by Kat’s voice in which you can hear strength, experience, knowledge and courage. She pours her heart into the lyrics in “Shadows”: “All my life I’ve spent my time trying to break free, from demons that I can’t see. Lately I’ve realized that things aren’t what they seem. And I’ll never be the girl I wanna be – cause I live with shadows creeping round the corners of my soul in the dark. I still see shadows, memories that haunt me wherever I go, in my heart.”
You can hear a little Patsy Cline and a lot of Dolly Parton through Kat’s voice, and she is a “hometown girl” which is even more appealing.
Kat and her band sound like their ready to break free – polished. Her songs are repeatedly requested on the airwaves and she plays a steady schedule of shows including the Hard Rock Casino. Kat is ready for the big time. Like the rocking title track of Miss Understood “Country Through and Through”, a big song that you want to hear over and over, Kat is thoroughly country.
Roothog Radio recently caught up with Kat.
Roothog Radio: Who were your musical influences when you started?
Kat Moore: Vocally, Linda Ronstadt has always been my hero. She’s probably my most favorite performer ever. I remember vividly at 4 years-old sitting in front of the record player and singing along to vinyl LPs of her music for hours. I always say, she (Linda Ronstadt) taught me how to sing. I also love all the old classics, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams and such. I also think there are some brilliant song-writers on the Texas scene today, too.
Roothog Radio: What’s the song writing process like for you?
Kat Moore: It usually comes when I least expect it. Typically I‘ll get a “hook” in my mind that ends up being a chorus and then the melody and the lyrics come at the same time. My husband Dave and I write together too. We co-wrote our first album. A lot of the times he will come up with a riff and play it over and over until I start to hear something to it and it goes from there. I am definitely more of a lyricist. He writes the music and I write the lyrics.
Roothog Radio: Tell us more about the band?
Kat Moore: Really there are three core members, myself, Dave and Tommy Watts my drummer. He’s also a co-writer on “Country Through and Through” and “Home” off of Miss Understood. He is one of the founding members of The Kat Moore band as we are now. Tommy is our first drummer and only drummer since we started. On the sidelines, very consistently I have my producer Greg White from SG Studios in Ft. Worth who plays lead guitar for us. He’s a phenomenal, brilliant, musician, producer and song-writer. Then I have a couple of bass players that I use on rotation depending on who is available. I always say the band is pretty much myself, Dave and Tommy.
Roothog Radio: What’s it like being a woman playing country music in the Texas scene?
Kat Moore: The Texas scene is very difficult for females. I think Nashville is set up more for women, although it is a known fact that women do not draw as well as men do and I understand that some of your biggest female artists out of Nashville, when they put them out on the road they put them out with a male artist to make sure they are drawing. Here (Texas) there’s not many of us. There is only a handful female Texas artists that are charting and getting air play. In that respect I am blessed to be one of them. But they don’t make it easy for us. It’s definitely more of a man’s market, a “good ole boy” kind of a thing. There is definitely a difference in how were accepted, versus how your average male artist is accepted. And what’s expected of them. The Texas music scene is unlike anything else around. We actually have a little mini-Nashville. We have our own charts specifically geared for Texas artists…Texas stuff.
Roothog Radio: What’s your favorite part of live shows?
Kat Moore: Connecting with people is the best. There is no feeling like standing in front of a crowd and sharing something that you wrote yourself and being able to give them the background on it, the story about it. Then watch them listen to the words and get up and dance to it, even though they’ve never heard it before. That feeling that you’ve connected with them, gotten through to them. That’s definitely the best part about performing live. There is really no greater compliment to an original artist than an audience member getting up and dancing to a new song, one that they’ve never heard before, because you know you’ve done something right. There not dancing to it because it’s familiar to them, they are hearing it for the first time. And if it makes them want to dance, I think that is the greatest compliment.
Roothog Radio: What was your first big break in the music industry?
Kat Moore: I think I am still waiting for it honestly. We have been on the scene for three years now, consistently and we have put out three albums and so far I am still operating without management, independently without label support and no financial backers or investors. I have literally made this music myself out of my own pocket and it has been a labor of love. It is really rewarding to make the music. If you look at the staple artists in the Texas music scene you will see that none of them did it (got their big break) in a year, or two or sometimes even 10. A lot of them have been on this for a long, long time. This scene really forces you to make the commitment, and you really have to prove that you’re in it because you love what you’re doing. It’s not for the weak of heart. You have to prove that you’re in it for real. It’s called paying dues.
Kat Moore is the real deal. Check her out at thekatmooreband.com
I give the song “Shadows” and the entire album Miss Understood a resounding 10/10.
I am sure Hank and Waylon got my back on that too.
Goes good with Dolly Parton, Patsy Cline and Mo Robson.
