Kip Moore

Singer and songwriter Kip Moore mixes tight country narratives with a touch of heartland rock, and at his best, he fashions songs that led one reviewer to call him "a hillbilly Springsteen," although he's probably closer to a less feisty Steve Earle, say, with a focus on how love works and doesn't work between men and women in the blue-collar South. Moore was born in Tifton, Georgia, near the Florida line, the son of a golf pro and a painter, and he grew up listening to Jackson Browne, Willie Nelson, Bob Seger, Tom Petty, and Bruce Springsteen, all of whom were obvious influences on the lyrical style he would bring to his everyman version of country later down the road. Moore started playing his brother's guitar some while he was in high school, but his focus was more on sports at the time, particularly golf and basketball, and while at Wallace State, he played on both the college's basketball and golf teams, eventually transferring to Valdolsta State University on a golf scholarship. But music was beginning to become his passion, and he started to tackle the guitar in earnest, and also started writing songs, eventually joining a band that toured the Southern club and bar circuits. After graduating from college, Moore moved to Hawaii for six months, and while there, he was convinced to try his hand in Nashville as a singer and writer, and he finally relocated to Music City on the first day of the New Year in 2004. He watched and learned from Nashville's young songwriters, and he performed wherever he could for four years, eventually catching the ear of Creative Artist Agency's Marc Dennis, who in turn notified Universal Music Group Nashville's Joe Fisher about Moore. A deal was put in place with MCA Nashville, and Moore recorded his debut album, Up All Night (produced by fellow songwriter Brett James), which was released in the spring of 2012 and quickly attracted positive critical attention. ~ Steve Leggett, Rovi