Allison Moorer

For The Record...

Born on June 21, 1972, in Mobile, AL; married Doyle "Butch" Primm (divorced); Married Steve Earle. Education: Bachelor's degree in public relations, University of South Alabama, 1993. Signed with MCA Nashville, 1997; released debut album, Alabama Song, 1998; released Hardest Part, 2000; signed with Universal South, 2001; released Miss Fortune, 2002; toured with the Chieftains, and landed acting role on Showtime's Chris Isaak Show, 2002; released Show, 2003, and The Duel, 2004; released Getting Somewhere, 2006, and Mockingbird, 2008. Addresses: Record company—New Line Records. Web site—Allison Moorer Official Web site: http://www.allisonmoorer.com.

Singer, songwriter

Country-pop singer Allison Moorer released her first album, the traditional country Alabama Song, in 1998, to great critical acclaim. Her introduction to mainstream audiences came that same year, when her song "A Soft Place to Fall," which she cowrote with Gwil Owen, was featured on the soundtrack for the film The Horse Whisperer, at the behest of its star and director, Robert Redford. The song earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Song, and Moorer performed it at the 1999 Academy Awards ceremony. Her albums Hardest Part, released in 2000, and Miss Fortune, released in 2002, marked her as one of the most important new country artists of the period.

Moorer was a critic's darling from the start, when the alternative newsweekly Nashville Scene dubbed her the "Best Country Star in the Making" in 1998. That same year, following her triumphant performance at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, the Austin American-Statesman joked that she "makes nearly every female singer in Nashville sound as if they had emphysema."

In Nashville, Moorer was distinguished by her devotion to authenticity and country roots in a town where the music industry generally rewards adherence to sleek production values and strict formulas. This gave her more in common with artists like Lucinda Williams, Kim Richey, and Kelly Willis than with mainstream Nashville pop queens like Faith Hill and Shania Twain.

Moorer, the younger sister of country singer Shelby Lynne, was born in Mobile, Alabama, and raised in and around the city. She grew up in a musical family, and started singing at an early age. She earned a degree from the University of South Alabama in public relations in 1993, but she knew that her future lay in country music. "On the day I took my last exam, I moved to Nashville—they mailed me my diploma," she recalled on her official Web site.

She found work as a background singer and was also hired by songwriters to sing on demo tapes that were shopped around to some of Nashville's established country singers. "In the process, I met a guy named Doyle ‘Butch’ Primm, who became my collaborator, co-writer, co-producer and husband," continued Moorer, according to her official Web site. The two wrote songs together and shopped their own tunes; in 1997 Moorer was signed to MCA Nashville by renowned label chief Tony Brown.

While traditional country music was initially Moorer's primary focus, she later cast her net a bit wider to include country-rock and roots-pop while retaining her commitment to rootsy authenticity. Although the critics loved her, Moorer's album sales were modest; her first two albums sold between 50,000 and 58,000 copies each.

Nashville Scene's Bill Friskics-Warren wrote that "Moorer's debut, Alabama Song, isn't so much a honky-tonk record as a wedding of late-'60s and early-'70s country, rock, and pop sensibilities. Bob Dylan's Nashville sessions, Bobbie Gentry's sultry Delta soul, Gram Parson's stoner country, and the fiery independence of Waylon (Jennings) and Willie (Nelson) all jump to mind on first listen."

Moorer also drank deeply from the trad-country well and intuitively alchemized her musical influences. Friskics-Warren observed that her "allusions are seductive: It takes a handful of listens to suss them out, at which point one has already succumbed to the longing in Moorer's humid contralto." Rolling Stone's Grant Alden was equally beguiled by Moorer's debut: "The [album's] best moment goes to death; the closing euology, ‘Is Heaven Good Enough for You,’ is spectacular, full of that rare, elegant intimacy that was once the cornerstone of country music."

Although most critics were effusive in their praise, not all of them got on board right away. In his review of The Hardest Part, released in 2000, Rolling Stone's James Hunter felt that Moorer delivered her music with "conviction and authority," but called her "still a work in progress."

In the spring of 2002, Moorer went on a six-week tour with the Chieftains, lending her supple voice to the Irish band's Celtic interpretations of country and bluegrass tunes. The tour included a performance on the David Letterman show. That same year, Moorer also landed a part on the Showtime network's Chris Isaak Show.

While her first two discs were released on MCA Nashville, she shifted to the independent Universal South label for her third disc, Miss Fortune. Coproduced by her husband and R.S. Field (a versatile knob-twiddler who also produced bluesmaster Buddy Guy and Louisiana slide guitarist Sonny Landreth), Miss Fortune broadened Moorer's sonic palette a bit further, employing strings on the opening track, "Tumbling Down." Jim Caliguiri of the Austin Chronicle noted that Miss Fortune added "a healthy dose of Southern soul to the mix, and the effect is extraordinary. Where before she has only hinted at the Dusty Springfield in her, now it's in full blossom."

"Miss Fortune was born in a place where hit singles, formats and abdominizers don't matter," said Moorer on her Web site, taking a playful swipe at Shania Twain's celebrated bare midriff. "Making it was easy, hard, fun, a pain in the butt, and altogether one of the best times in my life. It introduced me to a new way of making records, and I'm never looking back."

In 2003 Moorer sang "Picture" with Kid Rock, after Sheryl Crow declined. Later, however, Crow changed her mind, and the version she made with Kid Rock became a hit. Moorer and Kid Rock's version of "Picture" was nonetheless issued as a single from Universal, selling a half million copies. Also in 2003, Moore issued Show, a live album compiled from two shows performed on the same night. "The balance of ringing acoustic guitars, whinnying pedal steels, and crunching electric guitars juxtaposed with Hammond B3s and honky tonk pianos is stirring," wrote Thom Jurek in All Music Guide. Show also featured a duet with Moorer's sister, Shelby Lynne, on "Going Down," and another duet with Kid Rock on "Bully Jones."

Following the release of Show in 2003, Moorer left Universal South for the independent Sugar Hill Records. The following year she released The Duel, a hard-hitting album that drew heavily from the roots of rock and country. Featuring the gritty "I Ain't Giving Up on You" and the dark but dreamy "When Will You Ever Come Down," The Duel reached number 55 on Billboard's Top Country Albums and number 41 on the Top Independent Albums charts. After the release of The Duel, Moorer divorced Doyle Primm and married country music singer Steve Earle. Earle produced Moorer's next Sugar Hill album, Getting Somewhere, and it was released in 2006. "Moorer has delivered a small wonder with Getting Somewhere," wrote Mark Deming in All Music Guide, "and it ranks with her best music to date."

Moorer released her sixth album, Mockingbird, on New Line in 2008, and it rose to number 18 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers and 44 on the Top Independent Albums charts. "Moorer, who has followed a restless career path through the wiles of Nashville's machine and lived to tell about it, ups her own ante here both creatively and emotionally," wrote Jurek. "It is her warmest, most ambitious, and gutsy record yet."

Selected discography
Alabama Song, MCA, 1998.
(Contributor) The Horse Whisperer: Songs From and Inspired by the Motion Picture (soundtrack), MCA, 1998.
The Hardest Part, MCA, 2000.
Miss Fortune, Universal South, 2002.
Show, Universal South, 2003.
The Duel, Sugar Hill, 2004.
Getting Somewhere, Sugar Hill, 2006.
Mockingbird, New Line, 2008.

Sources
Periodicals
Atlanta Journal-Constitution, August 9, 2002.
Cosmopolitan, April 2001.
Harper's Bazaar, October 2000.
Independent (London, England), July 5, 2002.
People, September 16, 2002.
Rolling Stone, September 17, 1998.
Time, October 19, 1998.

Online
"Allison Moorer: Alabama Song," Rolling Stone, http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/cd/review.asp?aid=19400&cf=6172 (December 2, 2002).
"Allison Moorer," All Music Guide, http://www.allmusic.com (June 15, 2008).
"Allison Moorer: The Hardest Part," Rolling Stone, http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/cd/review.asp?aid=12797&cf=6172 (December 2, 2002).
"Allison Moorer: Miss Fortune," Rolling Stone, http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/cd/review.asp?aid=2044583&cf=6172 (December 2, 2002).
"Allison Moorer: Miss Fortune (Universal South)," Austin Chronicle, http://www.austinchronicle.com/issues/dispatch/2002-09-20/music_phases4.html (December 2, 2002).
"Allison Moorer," Nashville Scene, http://www.nashvillescene.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?story=Back_Issues:2002:April_11-17_2002:Special_Section:Best_of_Nashville_2002:Sound_and_Fury:Allison_Moorer (December 2, 2002).
Allison Moorer Official Web site, http://www.allisonmoorer.com (December 2, 2002).
"Biography: Allison Moorer," Rolling Stone, http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/bio.asp?oid=6172&cf=6172 (December 2, 2002).
"Going Soft: Is There a Place for Hard Country on Music Row These Days?," Nashville Scene, http://www.nashvillescene.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?story=Back_Issues:1998:November_12_1998:Music&version=1 (December 2, 2002).
Additional materials were provided by Girlie Action Marketing & Media, 2002.