Career
Born in the Gulf Coast town of Portuguese Arthur, Texas, in 1920, his primary instrument was the electric mandolin. Although these are 8-string mandolins, Tiny used only 4 single strings instead of pairs. This gave his mandolin an electric guitarlike sound.
Later, in 1952, he commissioned one of the first American-built 5-string electric mandolins from Paul Bigsby.
At the time Moore was playing in a band led by Bob Wills" brother, Billy Jack. The Bigsby 5-string mandolin had single courses of strings (rather than the paired courses on a standard mandolin) and added a low C string to the standard G, Doctorate, A and East. This tuning actually gives the instrument a wider range of notes than a guitar.
Western swing is a hybrid of country, blues, and jazz. Tiny Moore"s style of playing draws upon all of these sources.
Moore and his Bigsby mandolin were strongly identified with each other for the remainder of his career.
The instrument is arguably the most famous electric mandolin in the history of American popular music In the mid-1960s he taught group guitar lessons at the local Young Men’s Christian Association in Sacramento, California. He taught every style of music from Old Timey folk to The Beatles.
He also operated Tiny Moore Music, a music store in Sacramento, and sold copies of the Bigsby mandolin built by Jay Roberts of Yuba City.
In the 1970s he was part of "The Strangers", which was Merle Haggard"s band. During that decade he also made two recordings with David Grisman for Kaleidoscope Records: "Tiny Moore Music" and "Back to Back," a duet album with Jethro Burns.