Charlie Moore & Bill Napier - Songs by Moore & Napier for all Lonesome Truck Drivers

(King K-936/KS-936) May 1966
Later issued in Norway (Karussell 2345.013) 1971, Canada (Diamond K-936) 1976, and Japan (Gusto-Starday VIP-5051(M)) 1978.

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The first of the duo's 'themed' albums, this LP was largely recorded at King between 25-26 July 1965. Eleven titles were cut at the session including Ballad Of Big Fred, Hot Rod Kids And Women Drivers, Long Old Road, Long White Line, and Truck Driver's Woman ^[1].

The twelfth cut on the album, Truck Driver's Queen, was recycled from their Folk 'n Hill LP.

Not all of the tracks have aged well, but the album seems to have been popular having been issued in Norway (1971), Canada (1976) and Japan (1978). One of the songs which has stood the test of time is Long White Line which has appeared on at least three various artist compilations and has been the 'headline' track for the two Gusto Moore & Napier Truckin' Favorites retrospectives, (both of which have included their majority of their material from this LP).

Two 45s were issued prior to the LP's release: Long White Line / Truck Driver's Romance (King 45-6004) 1965; and Hot Rod Kids And Women Drivers which was coupled with One Broken Home For Sale from 12 Variety Bluegrass Songs (King 45-6014) 1965.

The material is much more in the Country vein than it is Bluegrass, with Bill Napier playing banjo on just two tracks and lead guitar on ten.

The two bluegrass numbers are the aforementioned Long White Line and Blue Grass Truck Driver. The latter is fairly mediocre, but Long White Line has quite a catchy vocal refrain and lovely double-stop fiddle work. Long White Line is the only song on the album not to have been written by Moore & Napier, being composed by James Buford Abner from the Swanee River Boys. They also recorded for King in the 1950s, so it's possible that King brought the song to Moore & Napier's attention, although I haven't found any reference to the Swanee River Boys having released the song themselves. Long White Line was later recorded by Aaron Tippin and Sturgill Simpson; and also by Ralph II with a slightly faster version than Moore & Napier's on his excellent Rollin' On Rubber Wheels album.

It may be that because all the tracks concentrate on one theme, the album doesn't really work too well.

Truck Driver's Woman with it's cringeworthy lyrics, and the equally banal Hot Rod Kids And Women Drivers sound very dated, but stand as a reminder how much things have changed in the last sixty years... This Truck And Me is also fairly contrived, but has some nice guitar work by Bill Napier, and smooth vocal by Charlie.

I'm Waiting For Dad To Come Home is a plum-pitiful style recitation, reminiscent of Prayer Of A Truck Driver's Son which the Stanley's recorded in Sept 1965 a couple of months after Moore & Napier's session. On I'm Waiting For Dad... the story is told from the point of view of policeman who finds a child at a truck-stop waiting for his father to come home. The catch being, that the policeman has just witnessed the wreck that killed the child's father, but doesn't have the words to tell him.

Truck Driver's Romance is a light-hearted number about falling in love with a waitress at a truck-stop:- "A truck driver's romance, that's what it is, I'll marry her in the fall, We'll have 10 kids to call me Daddy, and I'm a gonna love them all". Likewise, Pinball Blues is a slightly humorous homage to the old pinball machine - "I dream about the pinballs every night, trying to figure out a way just to turn on all them lights."

Long Old Road - a tale of a trucker who is about to retire, and Ballad Of Big Fred - a waltz telling the tale of a trucking duel, both have pleasant melodies and guitar work, but are fairly non-descript. Likewise Coming Home To You is a slow paced dirge about a trucker on his journey home.

Personnel on the album included former CMB's Henry Dockery and Paul 'Moon' Mullins. Paul's fiddle work on this one is fine, but the material on the album is unfortunately mostly below par.

I'm not sure if Eb Collins is the same musician as Ebb Collins who played fiddle on Charlie Moore's 'Avery County' LP (Old Homestead OHS-90102) 1979, but I suspect so. Ebb Collins and his brother Zeb, who worked with Doc Curley Miller's medicine show.^[2]

• Charlie Moore: guitar, lead vocals
• Bill Napier: banjo, lead guitar, baritone vocal
• Henry Dockery: bass, tenor vocal
• Eb Collins: mandolin
• Paul 'Moon' Mullins: fiddle, bass vocal
• Gene Redd: snare drum

NB: In addition to Bill & Charlie, personnel on Truck Driver's Queen included: Henry Dockery (bs), Jim Williams (mandolin), and Ray Pennington (drums).

Other artwork / related images:

[1] Personnel and dates from 'Thirty Years Ago This Month' section of the July 1994 edition of 'Bluegrass Unlimited' (p6).
[2] https://www.folkschool.org/2025/01/17/stories-from-the-archives-ebb-and-zeb-collins-at-the-medicine-show/