Deacon John Moore 's career follows a similar curve as other talented instrumentalists who got locked into anonymous, albeit aesthetically rewarding, lives as session musicians. Moore's locale was New Orleans and the professional associations from just the early days of his career would serve as a good enough hat-rack for musicians with even the biggest of heads, Moore played guitar in a recording band utilized by the legendary Allen Touissant, leading to a bit of factual data sure to evoke a nod of recognition from just about any listener. A requirement of this sort of career is presence on an instantly recognizable recording that has enjoyed extraordinary popularity, in this case Lee Dorsey's lament of labor, "Working in the Coal Mine".
There is no question that Moore's presence on this side makes him one of the most widely-heard guitarists in musical history. This is despite the strange fact that there is a marked variation in how much of the final 30 seconds of the original song actually makes it onto its many, many inclusions in various compilation collections, perhaps just a statistical noodle in light of how much of Moore's riffing made it onto other New Orleans hits from the period. The list includes Ernie K-Doe's "Mother in Law" and Irma Thomas' "Ruler of My Heart". .Moore developed a specialty for slide guitar and apparently had the talents all along to be a leader in his own right. Yet he waited until nearly the mid '90s to front a performance on his own, a memorable coup at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival finally prompting twhat will hopefully be a whole series of recordings under his own name, In 2000 he was inducted into the Louisiana Blues Hall of Fame. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide
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