Sonny Moorman

Sonny Moorman, an Ohio bluesman, applies the phrase “power blues” to the sound he makes with his trio the Dogs. He and the band have carried the blues and blues-rock revival of the 1960s forward into the present century, drawing on a core set of influences both black and white—Eric Clapton, early Fleetwood Mac, Rory Gallagher, Roy Buchanan, Jimi Hendrix and B.B. King. Raised in the Cincinnati area by parents who operated nightclubs, Moorman encountered guitar maestro Lonnie Mack in close proximity while still young. He did not start performing professionally until his junior year at Michigan State University; after graduation he spent fifteen years in bands in the Detroit and Los Angeles markets before returning to Hamilton, Ohio, just outside Cincinnati. During his Los Angeles period he played with the Tomcats, whose lineup included members of Sly and the Family Stone, and also toured with Warren Zevon’s band. Following a 1994 appearance at Memphis’ Crossroads festival, the group signed to Sun Records’ 706 label. Moorman and the Dogs issued two recordings on 706 Records, the in-house imprint of Sun Studios in Memphis—the numeral referring to the studio’s address on Union Avenue. The titles are “Live” and “Telegraph Road,” the latter cut at Sun Studios in the same room where Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Howlin’ Wolf, Big Walter “Shakey” Horton and Jerry Lee Lewis cut their first sides. Moorman and the Dogs maintain a regional circuit that covers southern Ohio, Kentucky, Memphis and additional parts of the South.