He learned to play guitar (and later dobro) as a boy and first worked with the Yodelling Texas Cowboys, a travelling show. In the mid-30s, he sang with the Mountain Melody Boys, before moving to WRHS Charleston, as vocalist with Buddy Starcher’s Mountaineers. After marrying Juanita Picklesimer (b. 1917), in 1938, he worked as a duo with his new wife. For many years, they proved a popular act on various radio stations, including WHIS Bluefield and WHMN Fairmont, West Virginia, WSVA Harrisonburg, Virginia, WROL Knoxville, Tennessee and WPAQ Mount Airey, North Carolina, before arriving at WWVA West Wheeling, in 1949, where they became regulars on the Wheeling Jamboree. Moore always portrayed the cowboy image (he even wore a pair of Colt revolvers on stage) but their repertoire was wide and varied from popular ballads and country songs to religious numbers at which Juanita excelled. Their young son, Roger Lee Moore (b. 1940), also appeared with them from a very early age. Between 1953 and 1969, quite apart from his performing, Moore also presented a four-hour late night country music programme on WWVA, which gained him the nickname of the Coffee Drinking Night Hawk. They made their first recordings in 1953 and Moore became popular for his version of ‘The Cat Came Back’, which he used as a signature tune. He and Juanita divorced in 1960 but he stayed on theJamboree as a solo act, until 1974 when, after remarrying (he later divorced and married for the third time), he relocated to Troy, New York, where he continued to perform at various events throughout the Northeastern US States into the 80s when, except for special events, he basically retired. He recorded for several labels over the years, including albums for the Canadian ARC and the German Cattle but his main input to country music was as an important radio performer. In 1983, Cattle even released an album of previously unissued RCA Bluebird recordings.