Allison Moorer

Allison Moorer (born June 21, 1972) is an American alternative country singer and the younger sister of Shelby Lynne.^[1] She signed to MCA Nashville in 1998 and made her debut on the U.S. Billboard country charts with the release of her debut single "A Soft Place to Fall", which reached No. 73.

Since the release of her debut album Alabama Song, she released seven albums and 11 singles, five of which reached positions on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.

Biography

Early years

Moorer was raised in Monroeville, Alabama, just north of Mobile. Raised on George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash and Emmylou Harris, she sang harmonies as a toddler, eventually thinking she'd make a career of it. Following the murder-suicide of her parents (perpetrated by her father) in 1986, she moved into her aunt and uncle's home.

Musical career

Not long afterwards, sister Shelby Lynne moved to Nashville for a career in music, and after her high school graduation, Moorer followed. She sang harmonies with her sister for a while but returned to Alabama to earn a degree in public relations. She skipped the graduation ceremony to move back to Nashville.

There, she met Doyle "Butch" Primm, an Oklahoma-reared musician who soon became her husband and frequent songwriting partner. In June 1996, she took part in a series of tributes to her songwriter friend, the late Walter Hyatt, singing his "Tell Me Baby" at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. Nashville agent Bobby Cudd was sufficiently impressed to introduce her to producer Tony Brown. After a few meetings, Brown asked her to cut some demos, from which two tracks—"Pardon Me" and "Call My Name"—ended up on her first MCA album, Alabama Song.

Moorer and Steve Earle in 2008.

Her song "A Soft Place to Fall" was tapped for Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer in 1998, and she also appeared in the movie. Because the ballad earned her an Academy Award nomination,^[2] she performed it on the 1999 Oscars ceremony. However, none of her singles from Alabama Song or its follow-up The Hardest Part caught on at radio, though both projects were highly praised by critics.

Moorer's version of the traditional folk song "Moonshiner" was featured in the 2000 film Songcatcher.

When Brown moved from MCA to sister label Universal South, Moorer followed. Her 2002 album Miss Fortune earned more raves, but didn't meet sales expectations. She almost got another big break by recording the duet "Picture" with Kid Rock after Sheryl Crow had bowed out. However, Crow changed her mind, and the Rock/Crow-version became a huge radio hit. Yet, the song was credited on the charts to both Crow and Moorer. In addition, the CD single featuring Moorer sold 500,000 copies and is certified Gold by the RIAA.

Her ballad "Tumbling Down" (from Miss Fortune) was featured on the soundtrack of the popular 2002 film The Rookie.

Her album Show was recorded in one night (two performances) at the 12th and Porter in Nashville and despite popular belief, it features the first recorded collaboration by both Moorer sisters.

After releasing Show and a DVD on Universal South, Moorer moved to independent label Sugar Hill Records. With a slightly rougher edge than past efforts, The Duel was released in April 2004.

A year after The Duel, Moorer divorced Primm and married Steve Earle, after serving as his opening act on a European tour. Earle produced her 2006 album, Getting Somewhere. Moorer wrote all the songs, with the exception of one co-written with Earle. She and Earle were nominated for a Grammy award in the category Best Country Collaboration with Vocals, for the song "Days Aren't Long Enough" from Earle's "Washington Square Serenade." Moorer gave birth to the couple's first child, John Henry Earle, on April 5, 2010. In March 2014, Earle announced that he and Moorer had separated.^[3]

Moorer released the Buddy Miller-produced Mockingbird in February 2008;^[4] an album mainly of covers of songs by female singer/songwriters including her sister, Shelby Lynne.

In 2009, Moorer performed in The People Speak, a documentary feature film that uses dramatic and musical performances of the letters, diaries, and speeches of everyday Americans, based on historian Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States”.^[5]

Also, in 2009, she appeared on the BBC series Transatlantic Sessions, Series 4, Episodes 4 and 5, performing a version of the Irish folk song, "Carrickfergus".

In 2015, Moorer released Down To Believing. The album marked a return to collaborating with Kenny Greenberg. Moorer said in an interview,"He produced my first two albums and I just felt like the time was right. for us to work together again. He’s simply one of my most favorite guitar players. He’s probably my favorite guitar player and he’s definitely the guitar player that I know the best. I’m very comfortable with him as a producer. He’s someone that I trust implicitly as a human being and a musician. And I think the time was right for us to do it."^[6]

Discography

Studio albums

Compilation albums

Singles

• ^A "Alabama Song" reached number 73 on the Canadian RPM Country Tracks chart.

Guest singles

• ^A Song was credited on the charts to Kid Rock with Sheryl Crow or Allison Moorer.

Music videos

Collaborations

• Contributed vocals for two songs, "When She Passed By" and "A Perfect Hand", on David Byrne and Fatboy Slim's concept album, Here Lies Love (2009).
• Appears on two albums with The Chieftains: In 2003 on Further Down the Old Plank Road singing "Hick's Farewell" and in 2005 on Live From Dublin: A Tribute To Derek Bell singing "Carrickfergus".
• Performed with Steve Earle on the song "After the Fire is Gone" from Coal Miner's Daughter: A Tribute To Loretta Lynn (2010).
• Performed the female lead vocals in a reworked version Kid Rock's hit "Picture". The song was co-written and originally recorded with Sheryl Crow. Rock's label, Atlantic Records, was unable to obtain permission from Crow's label, A&M Records, to release the original version as a single, thus it was rerecorded with Moorer.
• Has often toured and recorded vocals with Steve Earle since 2006, and was a member of his band the Dukes and Duchesses.

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Allison Moorer.

• Allison Moorer official website
• CMT.com profile
• Allison Moorer discography at MusicBrainz
• Allison Moorer at NPR Music
• Articles.latimes.com
• The People Speak at the Internet Movie Database