a Soul Music Explosion

~BIO~

MC KINLEY MOORE,  SON OF THE BAPTIST REVEREND, MCKINLEY SHAW SR. AND MITTIE ARCOLA MOORE, SPENT HIS EARLY YEARS IN AND AROUND  MOORE STATION, CHANDLER AND TYLER TEXAS  AND BEGAN TO CUT HIS TEETH ON THE GOSPEL MUSIC IN CHURCH AND COUNTRY MUSIC AS THOSE SOUNDS WERE OMMI PRESENT. THIS EXPERIENCE LEFT AN INDELIBLE MARK ON MCKINLEY AND HIS " MUSICAL PSYCHE”. HE BEGAN PLAYING DRUMS IN A GARAGE BAND IN HIS TEEN YEARS OUTSIDE SACRAMENTO  CA.  HE THEN MOVED TO SAN FRANCISCO IN THE LATE 70S, WHERE HE MET GREAT MUSICIANS AND SOME OF THEM DIRECTED HIM TO CULTIVATE HIS VOICE THUS RE-DISCOVERING HIS GOSPEL ROOTS.

 IN THE SAN FRANCISCO MUSIC SCENE HE BEGAN TO MAKE HIS WAY BY PARTICIPATING IN SHOWS  AND OR COLLABORATING WITH ARTISTS  SUCH AS  ALBERT COLLINS, THE GREAT WILLIE DIXON, MATT MURPHY, JOHNNY HEARTHSMAN, BILLY BRANCH AND SAMMY MEYERS, THE HARMONICA BOSSES, AS WELL AS KATIE WEBSTER, JOE LOUIS WALKER AND MANY OTHER GREAT PERFORMERS ALONG THE WAY.

IN BETWEEN 1986  AND 1993  MCKINLEY JR.  HAD A  MAJOR DISRURTION IN HIS PERSONAL LIFE.  HAVING SUFFERED THE LOST HIS ONLY SON AND THEN SERIOUS FALL ACCIDENT ALL OF WHICH  KEPT HIM SIDELINED FROM PERFORMING FOR SOME YEARS. 

BUT THANKS TO A CHANCE MEETING WITH THE GREAT SOLOMON BURKE IN 2006, WHOM PERSONALLY ENCOURAGED MCKINLEY, AFTER HIM DIVULGING HIS ASPIRATIONS AND DESIRES TO CONTINUE HIS JOURNEY INTO SOUL MUSIC AS A PERFORMER.  MR. BURKES' QUESTION WAS, "THEN  WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR MCKINLEY!? THUS GIVING MCKINLEY THE PUSH HE NEEDED,TO RETURN BACK TO THE MUSIC SCENE.   ALONG THE WAY, THE NOW LATE GREAT JERRY BUTLER, GAVE A GREAT ENCOURAGEMENT AS WELL  TO MCKINLEY VIA TELEPHONE., JUST PRIOR TO   MCKINLEY TAKING THE STAGE AT THE PORETTA SOUL FESTIVAL SOME YEARS BACK TO SING THE PHENOMENAL  "CIGARETTES AND COFFEE"

A BRILIANT LOVE SONG PENNED BY MR. BUTLER AND  OTIS REDDING  ie " GOOD  LUCK MR. MOORE!"

AND FARTHER, MR. LEVI SEACER JR. PRODUCER AND A MEMBER OF PRINCE'S AGGREGATION,  HELPED MOVE  MCKINLEY A BIT MORE FORWARD WHEN LEVI PRODUCED AND RECORDED A MCKINLEY SELF PINNED TUNE

 “Still Worth It” 

MC KINLEY DEVELOPED HIS DEEP SOULFUL BARITONE SINGING STYLE WITH THE HELP OF THE INIMITABLE VOICE COACH, THE LATE

" JUDY DAVIS,"  UNDER HER TUTELAGE MCKINLEY DEVELOP A DEEP  SOULFUL BARITONE STYLE  IN THE MANNER OF; OTIS REDDING, SOLOMON BURKE, DAVID RUFFIN, RAY CHARLES AND TEDDY PENDERGRASS,  OVER THE YEARS, EARNING HIM THE NICKNAME "the voice"

NOW MEET! MCKINLEY " the voice" MOORE

Claudia Linquist