Steven Moore: Championing the Banjo

As an industrial hygenist Steven Moore keeps workplaces safe by carefully monitoring dust, vapor, and noise levels, and reducing exposure to protect employees.

But on stage he’s audacious and bold. This three-time national banjo champion plays jaw-dropping, inventive arrangements of contest tunes. As a member of The David Mayfield Parade, perhaps the most animated, eccentric, and exciting band in bluegrass, Moore combines his virtuosity with a sense of humor and humility that gives him a larger-than-life stage presence. And for his solo album, Just a Little Talk With Myself, a musical tour-de-force, he wanted something different for the album cover. 

“I think that we all know the bluegrass band where the guys take themselves very seriously, and they don't look like they're having any fun,” Moore says. “Their album covers are four guys standing in front of a set of railroad tracks or four guys in front of a cabin.” 

And so for something completely different (as another banjo player noted for his humor once said), the cover of Just a Little Talk With Myself depicts Moore in a therapy session with his banjo. 

“I think that part of my humor is just not taking myself too seriously,” he explains. 

Moore has been a serious devotee of the banjo since the age of six when he heard Bela Fleck playing the instrument on a Statler Brothers album. He took lessons from local teachers in Southeast Ohio, where he was reared and still lives. Among the most influential was Butch Osborne.

“He was my teacher during my most formative years from about age 13 to 17, and he really shaped me into a better player. He was probably the best teacher I could have had at that time.”

With Osborne’s encouragement Moore began competing in banjo contests. He won his first national championship in 2008 at the fabled Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas, when he was a senior in high school. His version of “Wheel Hoss” followed the approach this biochemist/banjo player has used to win subsequent championships. 

“With a contest arrangement, you need something that's at least a minute and a half--maybe up to two-and-a-half minutes long--where the banjo is really in the lead the whole time. And I always try to do an intro. The first break is kind of true to the original. And then in the second break I’m doing something that's maybe totally different. Then the third break is totally different from that, but ultimately circling back around to that original melody or the way it was played near the end of the third or fourth break. And then playing an outro that reflects the intro. So that's kind of my formula for a banjo contest.”

Despite being a national banjo champion, when it was time for college he didn't enroll in a university bluegrass music program. 

“I went to Marietta College in Marrietta, Ohio, and majored in biochemistry. But while I was there, I participated in several music ensembles and choirs, not the least of which was the jazz ensemble where I played electric guitar,” he says. “And I really enjoyed the choirs that I was in. The concert choir was very important and taught me a lot about harmonies. That’s been beneficial for any band that I've been in.”

For the last seven years that’s been The David Mayfield Parade, a band led by a man that some have observed looks--and behaves--like Rasputin with a guitar. Moore says that the stage work of his boss, David Mayfield, is actually inspired by a very traditional artist.

“He's been influenced a lot--specifically in bluegrass--by Little Roy Lewis. The antics that Little Roy did on stage--David saw that when he was younger. He always knew that he wanted to be kind of like Little Roy. His other comedic influences are anything from Smothers Brothers to, well, I don't know, just all the comedians.” 

Mayfield’s sense of humor may have Moore second guessing that “other duties as assigned” line in his job description.

“The music video for ‘Face Your Life,’ a song that David wrote, involves me wearing an Andre the Giant one-piece wrestling singlet. And when David told us the idea of this video, I was a little bit reluctant to think, ‘Oh yes, I'm going to get in a one-piece wrestling singlet in front of a bunch of people and shoot a music video.’ But I did it.”

The David Mayfield Parade isn’t just fun and games. There are thoughtful and moving songs, such as “Sapphire Town.” Mayfield wrote the lyrics after seeing a documentary that examined the dangers of working in the sapphire mines in Madagascar. Moore supplied the melody. Moore also has original songs on Just A Little Talk With Myself, the solo album that showcases his remarkable range as a composer and player. He says it was a thrill working with Scott Vestal, who produced the album, and other great musicians.

“Stuart Duncan and Byron House and all these heroes of mine for years just showed up like it's no big deal to record on my album and play my material. It was just truly an incredible experience.”

https://stevenmoorebanjo.com/