Robin Moore Band

Second Front
Married music makers
by CJ Carnacchio
February 07, 2007

The Captain and Tennille. John and Yoko. Sonny and Cher.
Over the years, the music industry’s certainly seen its share of talented married couples.
Tom and Robin Moore are no exception. The Oxford couple are the heart and soul of a new local band
called “Robin Moore and Orange Barrel Convention.”
Performing what’s called ‘Americana,’ the group’s music encompasses country, blues, rock, folk and gospel.
“It’s kind of everything that sort of made American music what it is,” said Robin, who does vocals and
percussion.
Aside from covering their favorite artists – which include Emmylou Harris, Van Morrison, Bob Dylan, Lucinda
Williams, Steven Stills, Buddy and Julie Miller to name a few – the Moores have been writing their own songs
together for the last three years.
“We’re trying to do something different,” said Tom who plays guitar and bass along with doing vocals. “We
don’t want to be just somebody else’s cover band.”
All the couple’s songs are based on personal experiences or the experiences of others – things listeners
can relate to, reflect on, connect with and remember long after the music’s stopped.
“That lends a truthfulness and an authenticity I think,” Tom said. “We’re just trying to do something real.”
Their “rollicking love song” entitled “Geronimo,” which is available on CD, is an “ode” to the “blind leap of
faith” everyone takes when they first fall in love.
“You sort of jump off into love yelling ‘Geronimo!’,” Robin said.

“Northstar” is about Robin’s father leaving northern Alabama because he didn’t want to be a farmer and
coming to Michigan to work in the auto industry.
Although the Moores are devout Christians and members of Christ the King Church in Oxford, their songs
are not stereotypical religious or church music. They are inspired by faith and real life.
“We try to appeal to a wider audience,” Robin said. “We don’t sing about the light. We sing about what we
see by the light. It’s our experiences.”
"Just because you’re a follower of Christ doesn’t mean you don’t have challenges – that you don’t blow it
some days, that you don’t have temptation. These are all things that even Christ struggled with,” she noted.
Their song “Marveline” is about an eccentric woman who nobody wanted around, nobody cared about, but it
was never evident by the way she carried self through life.
Robin said the point of the song is that you can “always find people who care about you and ultimately there’
s a God who cares about you.”
“You’re welcome at my table and you’re welcome at God’s table,” she said. “I think probably like most people
who write their own music we want it to be thought-provoking.”

Married for 20 years, this is the Moores third band. The first two were Christian-oriented.
Robin comes from a musical family with a mother who used to sing on a local radio station in Alabama,
sisters who have beautiful voices and a fiddle-playing cousin who recorded with legends Johnny Cash and
Bill Monroe.

“I grew up in a house where everyone sang,” she said. “I don’t really consider myself a really good singer,
but I’m a good interpreter of a song.”
“She has a unique gift in her voice,” said Tom, noting that’s why he wants to share her “emotive” style with
others. “If you’ve got a candle, don’t cover it. Let it burn.”

Tom’s been playing bass guitar since he was 15.
“I buried all my teen angst in the bass,” he said.
He’s played bass in countless classic rock and country bands, but three years ago he became serious
about the acoustic guitar in order to write songs with Robin.

Writing songs has definitely brought the couple closer together.
“When we write these songs we’re relating on a different level than we are as a husband and wife,” Tom
said. “It’s a great new dimension. With all these shared experiences over 20 years, we can almost finish
each other’s sentences musically.”
Sharing a hobby that requires both creativity and collaboration has required the couple “to learn to work
together in a lot of ways, give and take,” according to Robin.

Currently, the Moores are looking for a local home for their band, a place to play on a semi-regular basis
like every other week.
Tom said the band’s “well-rounded repertoire” and “infectious” tunes appeal to both younger and older
crowds.
Even though the couple’s two sons – Dylan, 17, and Harrison, 12 – think old mom and dad are “weird,”
every now and then, they’ll get caught “humming or singing” one of the Moores’ original tunes
“That’s means our songs have got a hook,” said Tom with pride.

From coffee houses and cafes to bars and pubs, the Moores can play just about anywhere.
“Wherever we’re called, we’ll go,” Tom said.
“We can kind of fit into all kinds of different venues,” Robin said. “We have the ability to be acoustic. And we
have the ability to be a little more rough and tumble electric.”
Jamming with the Moores are Garry Valentine (lead guitar), Bill Immekus (vocals, guitar and harmonica) and
Juergen Neugebauer (dobro). The band’s close to securing a drummer.
Robin Moore and Orange Barrel Convention are scheduled to play at the Coyote Club in downtown Pontiac
on Feb.23, March 16-17 and March 31.
The band will will perform at The Raven Cafe in Port Huron on Saturday, March 3 beginning at 8 p.m.

For more information about the band visit www.mooretunes.net.
- Oxford Leader