Some albums are made to introduce an artist; others are made to keep someone’s memory alive. David Moore’s A Wink Is As Good As A Nod To A Blind Mule belongs firmly to the latter camp. Released August 24, 2026, the Knox City artist’s twelve-track album is an affectionate tribute to his late friend and writing partner James Masters Patterson (1956–2013), the musician who encouraged Moore when a soccer injury ended his professional ambitions and pushed him toward music. Nearly two years of painstaking work went into turning Patterson’s writing, recordings and influence into a finished musical memorial.
The album’s scope is remarkable for such a personal project. Musicians from Texas, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and the UK contributed remotely, including Jay Michael Smith and Brian Patterson of The Speaker Wars, while veteran engineer Stuart Epps, whose credits include Led Zeppelin’s Coda and work with Jimmy Page and Paul Rodgers, also lent his expertise. Moore reconstructed numerous drum parts from older recordings measure by measure using MIDI, deliberately avoiding AI, before building the arrangements piece by piece.
“Chasing the Mothership” gets things moving with fuzzy, grinding guitars and brisk, smacking drums. The guitars carry a gritty catchiness, while the upbeat momentum gives the song an immediately uplifting, windows-down kind of energy. “Bryn Mawr,” meanwhile, opens on bending, shimmery melodic guitars before fuzzy riffs begin playfully bouncing around the smacking rhythm section. Moore’s husky high voice arrives with a catchy, slightly echoing quality, as though he is singing from inside a reverberant room.
Then comes “When Lightning Strikes,” where warm guitars strum firmly beneath steadily pacing beats and a soaring vocal that seems to float above the arrangement. A stirring guitar solo bends and churns through the bridge before a moody whistling wind instrument appears toward the close.
Yet the emotional centerpiece may be “Mysteries Of Life,” where Smith recreates Patterson’s guitar style so convincingly that Moore hears his old friend in the recording.
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Review by: Naomi Joan