americana / Artist Profiles

Moot Davis – Randy’s Rarities

randydafoe21 Comments
“Whisky Town” by Moot Davis (2004)

One would think it’s a pretty big break to have one of your songs appear in an Oscar-winning film, but here we are 20 years after Moot’s song “Whisky Town” was in the movie Crash (2004) and I am not sure too many of you have ever heard of him. The song did not appear on the Soundtrack and while he is on Spotify that song/album is not there either. I found it on Apple Music however I think he remains largely unknown. We all have our artists in these niche or undefined genres that just can’t catch a big break, I have many names similar to Moot so he’s a bit of a representative sample.

Moot is from New Jersey and wanted a career in Country Music and with the help of the great Rosie Flores it was off to Nashville with an introduction to Dwight Yoakam’s producer Pete Anderson. This resulted in two albums, the song I just mentioned was from the first in 2004, Moot Davis.

Some of his songs have been used in TV series such as Justified starring Timothy Olyphant (great show btw), not sure how much that helped him either. Five albums have come and gone and I can’t find much about Moot these days. No Wikipedia page and his website has not been updated in some time. No tour dates and his last album was released in 2021. He just hasn’t been able to find a wider audience.

He just announced a new podcast “The Highway Ain’t For The Weak” so I know he’s still around. As I mentioned, he is one of those hard-to-classify artists. He can be straight up Country, to Country Rock, Rockabilly, and the sort of undefined Americana. working with Dwight Yoakam’s producer, he has some Bakersfield sound as well.

I do like his more bar-room/Honky Tonk-style songs. This variation can often be a problem for artists, sometimes finding a lane and sticking to it may be the way to go. Anyway, I enjoy his music and do hope he’s doing well. I will leave you with another Hank Williams-style tune “Highway Kind”. (not the TVZ song)

MootDavis.com

21 thoughts on “Moot Davis – Randy’s Rarities”

  4. Randy, that top song is so easy on the ears. It’s honky tonk but not ear-splitting, rip-roaringingly so. Excellent guitar work and a nice scale of twang to Moot’s voice. Is the 2004 Crash a Canadian movie about the people with car crash fetishes? Isn’t that Cronenberg? I have the DVD and have watched it more than a few times but the song isn’t ringing a bell.

    I agree with you on Justified. I own the whole set of DVDs. Again don’t remember Moot’s music from it, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing — except for him and royalties and fame and all that. I do remember the theme song from Justified very well and even practiced it enough to be able to sing it with no flubs 🙂

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    • Whoa you’re pretty serious about Justified! I watched the whole series a second time. Yhe reboot was ok but just not the same. Yeah that Whiskey Town is classic Honky Tonk. The were two Crash movies the one you are thinking of and the other was about rasicm and was an American movie by the Canadian Director from my home town of London. The now disgraced Paul Haggis.

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      • Oh yes, I am serious about Justified. Raylan and Boyd, talk about two compelling characters. The way they interact with others and each other, is very cool to watch. Such a wonderful support cast also. I watched the reboot and was super disappointed. The villain had a lot of potential but they wouldn’t let loose of the reins so he became a hollow wooden horse. I also did not like how some of the characters seemed like they had integrity at first and then fell apart. I don’t think I saw the other Crash movie, and I haven’t heard about the scandal with Paul Haggis. Sorry a local hero fell from grace 😦

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  5. A well-researched post, Randy. I sure know what it is like to discover such a lack of information about a musician online. You did very well!

    And I can’t get over the fact Moot’s song was used in ‘Crash’ but not included on the soundtrack. That seems criminal!

    Good country twang here…

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    • Thanks Steve! I should have asked the Director myself when speaking with him. Not likely I’ll have another conversation with him, not the person we thought he was. That said, likely some licensing thing, same reason it’s not on Spotify i suspect.

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  7. I don’t think I ever heard of him. Listening to the first song right now, not a bad old country sound, was perhaps out of step with what was happening in country at that time. Hard to know if he should be better known (from the one song so far) but have to say, if he really was still trying not having a Wiki page and not updating the website is fairly inexcusable – he could do those things himself (or hire some basic computer techy designer to do it cheaply if he’s not computer savvy) without any backing from a big label and it would at least make him seem like he’s out there.

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    • You bring up some very good points. He’s not marketing himself. But did at one time. I can’t help but think life circumstances must have changed for him. No tour dates, and as you pointed out not a big deal to update a website. If he’s doing a podcast from home most likely i feel like something is up. Otherwise you’re right he needs to put in more effort.

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  9. I like both of these Randy… his name rings a bell because you would not forget hearing it…but I’ve heard of him before…probably from Justified. I like what I’ve been hearing here though…the Dwight connection is perfect.

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