Stant & Moore Lou Stant, Marina Stant, and Curt Moore at Story Inn. courtesy photo
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~by Ryan Stacy
hen the pandemic hit in March of 2020, Lou Stant wasn’t sure what to do next. His band, the Mizfits, had fizzled (founding members Mel Chance and Steve Mara would eventually die of COVID), and since recording his latest solo album Pilgrimage a couple of years earlier, he hadn’t written much new material of his own. Not that it would have mattered much: thanks to the statewide lockdown that soon followed, there was no place to play, and nobody to play for. In that downtime, however, Lou watched Ken Burns’ Country Music documentary and, inspired, began writing new songs in the vein of some of country’s biggest names: Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash. Which, as it happened, was about the same thing Curtis Moore, the Mizfits’ bassist, had been doing too. “We hadn’t talked in a while,” says Lou, “and one day just out of the blue, Curt and I were on the phone, and we found out that we had both been writing country songs.” Soon the two were getting together, both on acoustic guitars, sharing ideas and working on new material. Their voices and their playing were a good match, they discovered, with Curt singing the low parts and taking the lead parts on guitar, and Lou playing
50 Our Brown County Jan./Feb. 2022
rhythm and adding tenor vocals. As for the sound, “It’s country, with rockabilly, and kind of folksy,” Curt explains. Lyrically, he says, “It’s based upon working men and women, the people we’ve encountered. My experience is as a factory worker, and Lou’s is in mental health services.” Calling themselves Stant & Moore, Lou and Curt began to play live at places that had opened back up, like the Bird’s Nest and the Story Inn, with Lou’s daughter Marina joining them on the fiddle. The
