Origins · places I call home
South Carolina beginnings, Appalachian family roots, Richmond adulthood—and a practice that keeps moving between music, advocacy, and the stories people trust us to hold.
01 · Pee Dee
Randy grew up in South Carolina’s Pee Dee region. He sang in church, recorded voice and instruments onto cassette as a child, learned piano by ear at ten, and picked up guitar at thirteen.
The early method was simple: listen, repeat, notice what changes, and keep going until the sound feels inhabited. That instinct still guides the work.
02 · Appalachia
Appalachia enters Randy’s story through his paternal family roots and a personal connection to Southwest Virginia’s Cumberland Mountains—not as a claim that he grew up there.
His family history connects back to Virginia mountain lore—“I’m a cousin of the Carters and the Stanleys”—alongside an inherited love of old-time music, folklore, and the way songs carry memory across generations.
03 · On the air
At fifteen, Randy hosted country programming on WAGS AM in Bishopville, South Carolina. During undergraduate study, he spent two years as an on-air personality and producer at WUSC 90.5 FM, developing live broadcasting, music curation, production, and interviewing skills.
That listening practice later became The Degrees of Freedom: A Mental Health Journey, a podcast Randy hosts, writes, records, produces, and uses to interview guests.
04 · Education
Randy returned to education through a GED, then earned a Bachelor of Social Work and a Master of Social Work from the University of South Carolina. His graduate training centered macro social work: the policies, organizations, coalitions, and public systems that shape people’s choices.
That education did not replace the musical life. It sharpened the same muscles—attention, pattern recognition, communication, and respect for lived experience.
05 · Richmond
Richmond is home: the city where Randy performs piano, records and produces music, builds collaborations, works in public advocacy, and keeps the 1,000 Songs practice moving.
The artist name Randy Bryan belongs to the recording project. Randy Bryan Moore is the whole person around it—the pianist, producer, social worker, broadcaster, collaborator, and advocate.
In pictures
The through-line
The music and advocacy are not separate biographies. Both ask what changes when another person is truly heard—and what responsibility begins after listening.
