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A couple of months ago, those more familiar than I with all the new electronic gadgets that are available these days talked me into getting an iPod (still haven't gone the Blackberry route, however; there's such a thing as being too connected, in my book.) Anyway, I spent a long time going though my CD collection and uploading songs in this contraption until I wound up with 6,113 songs in this little hand-held device.
I gotta tell ya, I love the thing. I don't know how I got by without one for so long. I have unique tastes in music--so unique there's not going to be a radio station that fits my needs. I like to listen to Robert Earl Keen, Marcia Ball, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springston, Bob Dylan (lots and lots of Bob Dylan), Frank Sinatra, Willie Nelson, Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, the Stones, Lyle Lovett, the Beatles, U2, Bonnie Raitt, Shake Russell, Wilco, the Flatlanders, Terry Allen. Tell me, folks, what single radio station is going to give me all that? So for years I used to make my own compilation tapes and then burn my own compilation CDs to keep me company in my automobile. But I was never going to be able to have tapes or CDs with 6,000 songs on them. Besides, they would always follow in the same sequence. Boring.
The iPod has been the answer to my dreams. So today I'm driving into the office, the iPod is randomly selecting tunes for me to listen to and I heard a song I first heard ... golly ... it's been way longer than 30 years ago now, called "Slow Moving Outlaw" by Dee Moeller. I almost had to pull off to the side of the highway.
I remembered how much I loved that song, how much I enjoyed seeing Dee sing it in concert and how, I must admit, I had a major crush on Dee Moeller for a long, long time. I have no idea where Dee Moeller is these days or even if she is still alive. I did a Google search, but it didn't give me much.
Dee Moeller wrote that song. It has been recorded by Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Lacy J. Dalton, among others, but no one could put the heartbreak into it like Dee could. Sam Peckinpah and other filmmakers of his ilk fashioned careers of making movies about the dying "Old West," but no one summed it up as perfectly or as succinctly as Dee Moeller:
"The wide open spaces are closing in quickly
From the weight of the whole human race.
It's not that I blame them for taking her bounty,
I just wish they had taken it slow.
Where has the slow moving, once quick-draw outlaw, got to go?"
I wish you well, Dee Moeller, wherever you are. And thanks.
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9 comments:
Pete -- You've really blown me away (again). I, too, finally caved in and got an MP3 player and I've been loading it up with my CDs. And tonight I was thinking about some old songs I liked a lot from the days in the mid-'70s when I left the Iconoclast in Dallas and moved to Austin to try to manage Billy Joe Shaver, who I quickly learned was (and is) unmanageable. And one of those songs -- a song that became the unofficial theme song of my old professor and cohort, Jay Milner -- was "Slow-moving outlaw" by Dee Moeller. I had tried to locate a copy of it a year or so ago with no luck, but I thought it was worth another try, so I Googled it, and up popped your blog post from YESTERDAY. Amazing! Anyway, I'm still in Austin and I'm still looking for a copy (or download) of "Slow-moving Outlaw." Any ideas or tips?
-- Doug Zabel
dkz@swbell.net
I also did a Google search for Dee Moeller and I found your post. I want to let you know that Dee Moeller is my aunt (she's my father's older sister) and she is very much alive and well and living in Tennessee. Thank you for your post and the nice words about her.
johnsonly --
Thanks for the update! I'm glad to know Dee is doing well. She was an important part of the "cosmic cowboy" scene back when Austin was the center of the universe. Life has never been better than in the '70s when KOKE-FM was THE voice of progressive country and clubs like the Armadillo World Headquarters, Castle Creek, Soap Creek Saloon, the Rome Inn, the Wagon Yard, and a half-dozen others were the nexus of the music, political and literary scenes in Austin. Meanwhile, much of the rest of the nation was into disco. Poor bastards, they had no idea what they were missing out on.
How wierd! I had just decided to browse google to find Dee, and came across your article. Dee and husband Larry were really good friends or ours when they lived in Denton County. And like you, I lost them along the way. "Good night, Dee, wherever you are."
Jimmy Conn Hobbs
jchobbs@myway.com
I also was a friend of Dee & Larry Moeller via a friend, Jolene Coffee Smith, when she played in Denton. They moved to Santa Fe, NM, and I found this from a web page that was posted in 2002.
DEE MOELLER
5544 HWY 100
LYLES, TN 37098 (931) 670-3649
Paula Day
pooladay@hotmail.com
I also forgot to add that my favorite song Dee wrote was for Bill & Bonnie Hearne's "Tequila After Midnight."
Paula Day
I have a haunting version of Tequila After Midnight. I think it's Dee Moeller but I don't know. I recorded it off of 90.1 Pacifica Houston in the early 80's. I keep searching the web every couple of years and she's the only female name coming up (no, it's not Nanci Griffith- I started the search before her version). Do you have Tequila After Midnight by Dee? I'd like to know if my copy is her's. Maybe I could put it on uTube so you could hear?
Here's another lifetime fan of Dee Moeller music and performances chiming in about the misery I've endured for not being able to find more than two or three of her songs recorded that I could acquire. The ones I am talking about are those recorded on the compilation of Kerrville Folk Festival: Early Years 1972-1981. I went to school at UT-Austin from 1969 through 1977. A friend and I caught every one of Dee's live performances that we could, including the Kerrville shows. She came to recognize us and would often dedicate a song to "Dewey." Special memories for Dewey!! If anyone knows where any more of her music can be found, I would certainly appreciate another post. I loved so many more of her songs, including "Back to the Hills." The years go by and there haven't been many posts lately, so this may be a futile request. But, I'm willing to try anything for another opportunity to hear Dee's music again.
Dewey
wardddd@msu.edu
Just watched a Nanci Griffith interview online where she sings Dee's praises. I found Tequila after Midnight recorded by Dee on YouTube and absolutely love it. It's such a shame that more of her recordings seem to have been lost, I'd love to hear more. Lynne, London, UK
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