Moorer gets personal

Blood

Allison Moorer's new disc, billed as a "companion piece" to her recently published memoir of the same title, stands powerfully as a "musical memoir" on its own. Moorer is a gifted singer and songwriter, but the book and album tell a real-life story that she has struggled for more than three decades to come to grips with. Tragedy struck Moorer at the age of 14 when her father, Franklin Moorer, a musician and alcoholic with abusive tendencies, shot his wife Lynn (the ...

Down to Believing

Allison Moorer's eighth studio album may be her finest yet; her voice rings clear, soaring on the tender ballads of loss and fiercely raging through the rockers that name the ongoing struggles we all face as we maneuver in and around the vagaries of love, failure, momentary hope and disillusion. Moorer joins forces with her old producer Kenny Greenberg, who also plays electric guitar on several songs and co-wrote the title track, and though it took them two years to record the album, it was worth the wait. ...

Crows

Allison Moorer is known as much for her own material as she is for her family in sister Shelby Lynne and hubby Steve Earle. However, here, Moorer seems to move from previous Americana albums for a haunting, jazz-accented approach on the opener Abalone Sky. Think of Cowboy Junkies' Margo Timmins fronting a seasoned jazz trio, and you should get the picture for that tune and especially the engaging Should I Be Concerned. And it's a very good idea, which sets things off on the right foot. ...