Ohio banjo player Steven Moore has his first solo project, Just a Little Talk with Myself, just recently released. The 31 year old part time musician has mostly been found on the contest stages in recent years, taking first in the National Bluegrass Banjo Championship twice, and in the RockyGrass, RenoFest, MerleFest, FreshGrass, and Carolina in the Fall banjo competitions. Not too shabby!
Working as an Industrial Hygienist for a natural gas utility company, Steven finds time to play banjo with The David Mayfield Parade, and with Ohio group Almost Famous. He has added banjo on a number of other artists’ projects, but tells us that an encounter with banjo wizard Scott Vestal led him to pursue his own recording.
“Just a Little Talk with Myself began as a broken Stealth banjo headstock. I sent my Stealth banjo to Scott to repair the headstock, then went to pick up the banjo in person. After spending a little bit of time with Scott, it wasn’t long before Scott had me behind the mics in his studio recording some banjo. Scott encouraged me to come back to record an entire album, saying that he could help me get some heavy-hitters on the project… now that was an opportunity that I couldn’t pass up!
In short, Scott and I came up with a cast list, I brought 14 tunes to the table, Scott made some calls, and it all happened!”
Vestal lined up Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Byron House on bass, Cody Kilby on guitar, and James Seliga on mandolin. Making guest appearances are Chris Brown, John Cowan, Gaven Largent, David Mayfield, Elliott Park, and Chris Sexton, plus Rosa and Scott Vestal.
Steven has agreed to share a track with our readers, one he wrote called A New Leaf, which opens the project.
“I wrote A New Leaf when I was maybe 20, though it remained untitled until I recorded this album and had to give it a name. The end tag of the melody is what I started writing first, and was loosely inspired by the Christian Doxology (commonly referred to by its lyrics as “Praise God From Whom All Blessings Flow”). I gave the instrumental the title A New Leaf because the melody gives the sense of a new beginning, a fresh start or a new chapter, a feeling that things are looking up, and it has a certain feel-good warmth to it. In a way, it’s representative of this project as my debut solo album, which begins a new leaf in my musical career.”
Have a listen…
A New Leaf and Just A Little Talk with Myself are available from popular download and streaming services. For those who like to support artists directly, Steven also has downloads enabled from his web site.
