Dallas Moore has seen better days. Or, at least that’s what the road-worn, outlaw singer-songwriter says on his new single, “Better Days,” which dropped on March 18.
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With an irresistible honky-tonk swagger—augmented by twangy guitars, a wistful harmonica and Moore’s gritty voice—the tune is one of the most authentically uplifting products of the COVID-19 pandemic thus far. But, as Moore explained, there was a year-long-journey leading to this moment.
“It’s crazy because I wrote ‘Better Days’ on March 18, 2020,” Moore told American Songwriter. “2020 would’ve been our 10th year in a row logging over 300 shows, but everything came to a screeching halt for us on March 18. That was the first day of the shutdown for us. We were supposed to play a show in Austin, Texas that night and it was the first time that we had to cancel.”
Not really knowing what to do next, Moore and his band packed up their stuff and headed back to their home-base in Universal City, Texas, right outside of San Antonio. Like countless working musicians across the country, the band was trying to understand the grim reality unfolding before them: they might lose months of income. Dumbfounded, they began discussing their options over a few rounds of drinks.
“Nobody had any idea what was happening, everything was still unknown—we were just trying to sort out the specifics of the storm we were about to weather,” Moore continued. “It got to my turn to go grab a round of drinks, so I went back into the house and, all of a sudden, the song ‘Better Days’ literally popped into my head like a lightning bolt. I sat my ass down on the couch and wrote the whole thing in a straight line. I brought the drinks back to the guys and said ‘Sorry, I gotta go find my guitar—I think I just wrote a song!’”
For Moore, this was a bittersweet moment. On one hand, the notion of canceling a year’s worth of tour dates was a hard pill to swallow. On the other hand, it had been quite a while since he had the time and headspace to write songs… and once the ice was broken, they just started flowing out of him.
“At the time, I hadn’t written anything in two years,” Moore said. “It’s different for everybody, but I usually do my writing when I’m either riding my Harley-Davidson Road King or out cutting grass on the tractor. Over the past few years with a relentless touring schedule, I haven’t gotten much time to do either, so I wasn’t writing very many songs. But then, all of sudden, the pandemic gave me a whole lot more time to ride the Road King and cut the grass. Next thing I knew, I had a brand-new album.”
And it’s true—a whole batch of songs kinda just fell right out of Moore. In the three weeks following his initial spark of inspiration on March 18, he managed to write an entire album. Entitled The Rain, the record (set to drop on April 9) is a 10-tune journey showcasing Moore’s adept talents as a songwriter, performer and entertainer. Even though it was written in the depths of an unprecedented pause in live music, his decades of touring experience gave Moore an intuitive sense of how to get toes tapping, heads bobbing and heart-strings tugging.
“We’re a live band, that’s how it’s always existed, survived and thrived,” Moore explained. “So, when I’m telling my stories—writing them into songs and recording them—the whole point is to go out and play them for people live. That’s my goal. Obviously, you want to sell records, get streams and get your music into folks’ ears however you can, but for a guy like me, my main thing is getting to interact with people, live and in-person. So, when I’m writing songs, I keep that in mind. We even structure the tracklisting on the album in a way that it works as a complete setlist, which ensures that it works in front of a live audience. We flow from one story into another, and it seems to work out pretty good that way.”
And while most venues remain closed in America, Moore managed to play a handful of sets here and there through the latter half of 2020. “We were able to return to touring quicker than just about anybody I know,” he said. “We started playing shows again in June 2020, although the process had become considerably more complex. You can literally count on one hand how many full-band shows we were able to play. But, at the places where we were able to perform ‘COVID-compliant shows’—which is what it’s called, I guess—the people were all grateful to get out and hear live music again. It let us get back out, which was great, not only because we got to play music again, but also just to have that connection with a live audience again (even if they were seated far away with a mask on).”
Nonetheless, things stayed in a frustrating state of limbo as the pandemic sludged onward. One of the only things that offered Moore a bit of reprieve was the chance to get into OmniSound Studios in Nashville and cut The Rain this past fall.
“I think The Rain is my best effort yet,” Moore said. “It’s the third album that Dean Miller produced for me and I think we just got great recordings on a great batch of songs. I’m happier with it than any recording I’ve ever done. The situation this past year has been so bad for so many people on so many levels. There’s that old saying ‘You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone,’ well, for some people, it was gone. For us, it was certainly gone for a while there. I never took it for granted to being with, but that’s how I’ve always been. I’ve always loved, respected and valued the relationship we have with our audience. So, I treated this situation the same way I treat all the other situations I’ve been faced with in my life: you gotta roll with the punches and make the best out of a bad situation.”
So, that leads us to March 2021, a full year after Moore first wrote “Better Days.” Looking back, he still stands by the message it sends. “The shutdown was different for everybody,” he reflected. “The days leading up to my writing ‘Better Days’ are really what put me in that mindset where the words just fell right out of me. There is a touch of hope in the song, but at the time, everything was so uncertain, so there’s a lot of uncertainty in there too. It was like a cloud hanging over us. At the time of writing it, it was very realistic, very in-the-moment. I had seen better days and it was a pretty bad day that day. But, at the same time, I always try to be positive, so I end the song on a positive note. There’s hope that we will see better days again.”
And now, with vaccines for all adults on the horizon and a timid-yet-hopeful sense that the world will begin opening up again, maybe those better days will find us sooner than we even realize.
Listen to Dallas Moore’s new single “Better Days” below:
