Billie “Tiny” Moore was born in Port Arthur, Texas, and became a celebrated Western Swing musician known for his work on the electric mandolin and fiddle with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Western Swing blends country, blues, and jazz, and Moore became one of its most inventive instrumental voices.

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While a member of the Texas Playboys from 1946 to 1950, Moore played Gibson electric mandolins—initially an EM-125 and, after 1948, an EM-150. Although these were 8-string instruments, Moore removed one string from each pair and used only four single strings. This produced a brighter, more electric-guitar-like tone that became his trademark. In 1952, he commissioned one of the first American-built 5-string electric mandolins from pioneer luthier Paul Bigsby.

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At the time, Moore was performing in a band led by Bob Wills’ brother, Billy Jack Wills. The custom Bigsby mandolin featured single-course strings and added a low C string to the standard G, D, A, and E, giving the instrument a wider range than a guitar. Although best known for his mandolin work, Moore played multiple instruments and, in the mid-1960s, taught group guitar lessons at the YMCA in Sacramento, California. He covered styles ranging from old-time folk to the Beatles. He also operated Tiny Moore Music, a Sacramento music store that sold reproductions of his Bigsby mandolin made by Jay Roberts of Yuba City.

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In the 1970s, Moore performed as a member of Merle Haggard’s band, The Strangers. He also recorded two albums with mandolinist David Grisman for Kaleidoscope Records: Tiny Moore Music and Back to Back, a duet project with Jethro Burns. In 1999, Tiny Moore was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Early Influences category as a member of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys.