Jason Moore played bass in bluegrass for almost 30 years, with the James King Band, Mountain Heart, and Sideline, which he helped found. He died of a heart attack in November 2021. The next year the IBMA named him Bass Player of the Year. He played on close to 100 recordings.
Why Moore matters
Moore’s career ran through three well-known bands. He played on James King’s records in the 1990s, held the Mountain Heart bass job for 14 years as the band moved from bluegrass toward Americana, and then helped build Sideline into an IBMA winner. His peers voted him Bass Player of the Year after his death.
Life and career
Moore came from a family of bass players. His father, an uncle, and both grandfathers played, and his aunt married Allen Mills, the bass player for the Lost and Found. He played the same bass his father played, a 1945 Kay M-1, all his life.
He began working in bluegrass with James King in 1993 and stayed through 1999. He played on King’s Bed by the Window and other King records. Early in 2000 he joined Mountain Heart, replacing the band’s first bass player, and stayed until July 2014. In those years he also recorded with Michael Cleveland and on projects such as A Tribute to the King of Bluegrass, Jimmy Martin and Tim Stafford’s Endless Line.
He was a founding member of Sideline and helped bring the band to Mountain Home Music Company in 2017. Sideline won IBMA Song of the Year in 2019 for Thunder Dan and released Ups, Downs and No Name Towns in September 2021. Moore died of a heart attack that November. In 2022 the IBMA named him Bass Player of the Year.
Playing style
Moore played his father’s 1945 Kay through a Fishman pickup. He said the bluegrass records he loved taught him timing, tone, and how not to play too much. From rock bands such as the Beatles, Metallica, and AC/DC he took energy and melodic bass lines. He tried to bring both into every song Sideline worked up.
Influences and legacy
Moore named the Lost and Found, the Bluegrass Cardinals, Alison Krauss and Union Station, Flatt and Scruggs, and Jimmy Martin as his bluegrass favorites. He played beside Adam Steffey in Mountain Heart, and with Michael Cleveland and Tim Stafford on record. His uncle Allen Mills’s band, the Lost and Found, entered the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame in 2026.
Signature tunes and songs
Thunder Dan, Sideline’s IBMA Song of the Year.
Essential recordings
Bed by the Window, James King Ups, Downs and No Name Towns, Sideline (Mountain Home, 2021)
Awards and honors
IBMA Bass Player of the Year (2022)
What to learn from Moore
Take Moore’s own advice from his favorite records: learn timing, tone, and how not to play too much. Pick a Sideline or Mountain Heart song and play only what the song needs. Then add one melodic fill on the turnaround, the way a rock bass player would. Keep the fill short and get back to the beat.
Sources
Bluegrass Community Mourns Sudden Loss of Musician Jason Moore, MusicRow Sideline’s Bassist Jason Moore Dies, Hallels Remembering Jason Moore, Acoustic Ult Mountain Heart, Wikipedia Awards by Category, IBMA
Related players
See the bass players hub and the bass guide. Adam Steffey was his Mountain Heart bandmate. Vickie Vaughn won the IBMA bass award the year after his.