Hey Mr. Gatemouth reissues the complete King recordings of
Gatemouth Moore, an R&B shouter and blues balladeer who recorded for the Cincinnati label in 1947. The "complete recordings" subtitle comes with an asterisk since one of
Moore's King recordings could not be located for inclusion on the anthology and is presumed lost. All of the recordings hail from three sessions
Moore cut in a five-month period, and Westside legitimately licensed them from King Records. That means that, unlike the typical European public domain package, the compilers had access to the original masters, including several previously unreleased recordings. King often had its R&B artists record country songs (and its country artists record R&B songs), so the package leads off with
Moore's rendition of
Ted Daffan's country standard "I'm a Fool to Care." Like
the Ink Spots,
Moore had a signature riff that introduced many of his songs, which served to immediately identify his records to jukebox patrons or radio listeners. That formula may have worked in the singles era, but it becomes very repetitive over the course of a 27-track CD.