Red Moses Biography

Red Moses feels at home with his music

e talks with a soft voice and never seems to talk very loud. Red Moses is probably the kindest old Cracker I ever knew. There is something about him that always stands out. I have never heard Red say an unkind word about anyone, and I don't believe anyone else has either. Red appears to see only the good part of a person.
I first met Red in the early '40s and have enjoyed knowing him all these years. He is always the same wherever you meet him. Red sure loves his music as well as anyone I have ever known and he would rather play and sing than to eat.
Around here he is known as the man of a thousand songs. If someone asks him to play something he doesn't know, he will say to ask him the next time and he will know it.
Red once told me that he was born up near Mayo, Fla., and that his family had a farm there and used to grow a lot of tobacco. All his family was born in that area and were typical Florida farmers.
James Moses told me his brother's real name is Jessie Clayton Moses Jr., but all I ever heard him called was Red. James says everyone around Mayo knew him as Red.
James tells me that when Red was just a little fellow, about 4 years old, they found out something was wrong with his foot and he couldn't walk for a few years. He later learned to walk with crutches. However, you couldn't tell that Red ever had a problem now.
It was during these years that Red taught himself to play the guitar. He laughs when he tells how his mother traded a hen for an old guitar that he learned to play on. James tells me that his mother loved to talk about how Red would sit on the front porch and play and sing for
hours at a time. Red was in his early teens then and he sang the old songs of that time. James recalls that back then, most of the songs Red learned were from listening to the radio, or from friends coming out to play and sing with him.
I remember when I first met Red, he was working for Mr. Shultz, who I guess founded the Polk Nursery. At this time they were drying oak leaves and shipping them up north where there was a market for them. I had helped gather some of these leaves and when I came in to the old Exchange packing house where they were painting the leaves, I saw Red for the first time. As you may have guessed, he was singing as he worked.
We got to know each other and later fished together at an old crawdad hole and I remember how he would sit on the bank and fish and sing.
Red says that the best thing that ever happened to him was when he met and married Kathrine Valentine on Nov. 2, 1946. She understood Red's passion for music and knew that he had to play and sing, for she had met him on her 17th birthday where he had been asked to come and play.
Red has come a long way from that ole front porch in Mayo where he used to sing to himself, for later he played on W.L.A.K. radio when Zeke Holland was master of ceremonies on the Saturday afternoon country hour. He also played on another radio station in Haines City. At this time, it was quite an honor to play on a radio program.
I remember that Red used to always be a regular at Boggy Creek campgrounds, where all the old bluegrass pickers used to go. He also played with the BlueGrass Pioneers out of Tampa. In this band, he was their lead singer. In 1973, they won the Florida State Bluegrass Championship and in 1979, they won the Mid-Florida Bluegrass Championship.
Red has always taken his music seriously. Everyone knows Red loves what he does. I think Ed Mitchell, who is also an outstanding musician, says it all when he declares no man ever loved music the way Red does. And Barney Lee, who is one of the best guitar players around says, "If there isn't music in heaven, then Red isn't going to be happy in the hereafter. Sometimes when I watch Red singing some of the old songs like "When I Get to Glory, I'm Gonna Sing, Sing, Sing," then I understand what Barney means about Red.
Red sings at my place about every weekend and I always like to listen to him sing so many of the old songs that are slowly dying out.
Sometimes when I am watching him entertaining, I recall the words that James said his mother told Red after she had lost her hearing. She told him she couldn't hear his pretty music, but she could see the smile on his face when he was singing. Red still wears a happy smile when he is on stage and singing. He sure is a great guy to know.