Biography

"Used to be Wild" is Rob's second album (he did the first, "Eye of the Storm," in 1997 in Florida while working in tandem with singer Clifford Hawkins), and the man known as "Wild Boar"- a nickname he's answered to since he was 15- is singing and writing from his own unique perspective. Moore's old enough to draw a Social Security check, yet spry enough to cut loose on one sizzling number after another. A wry wit often shines through his originals; he's aware of the passage of time, but his blues help him through the rough spots and leave him-and you- in a better place.
"Not every blues song is humorous, obviously, but there's a lot of humor in the blues. And yeah, it's important to me," says Rob, hastening to add that not everything he writes is lighthearted.
While attending high school in the Windy City's southern suburbs in 1971, Moore gravitated to Alice's Revisited, a North Side venue presenting a steady blues diet. Rob quickly became entranced with the slashing licks of southpaw guitarist Otis Rush. "I started going every month to see Otis," he says. " I wanted to sound like Otis." Moore met Muddy Waters at Muddy's South Side house that December. " He pulled out a guitar," said Moore. So I started playing it. He said, 'I'll let you sit in!'
Before too long, Rob was a busy sideman himself on the local club circuit, playing guitar with mandolinist Johnny Young and then in the bands of harpist George "Wild Child" Butler (Moore supplied some of the fretwork on Butler's Ralph Bass- produced 1976 album "Funky Butt Lover") and saxist Little Bobby Neely for extended stretches. "A lot of times I was playing with both of them" he remembers. "Wild Child, sometimes we'd play four nights at Biddy Mulligan's. And then Bobby had a Saturday night, I'd have to tell him, 'I'm sorry, I can't do the Saturday night.' But then Bobby would probably have a Sunday night."
Moore even joined John Lee Hooker's boogie-fired outfit on a 1979 tour. But the charms of Chicago's blues circuit slowly faded. Rob went back to college, earned a degree, and relocated to Miami at the end of 1986. Teaching at a community college by day and leading his own blues band with Hawkins behind the mic at night kept him busy, but Moore eventually decided it was time to come home. "I started to miss the city," he says.
Now the Wild Boar prowls his old windy city stomping grounds once more. When Rob claims he USED TO BE WILD, take that with a grain of salt. The Boar is ready to charge. - Album liner notes by Bill Dahl