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A great deal has taken place in Allison Moorer’s musical career, and for that matter her personal life but it is her recording output we focus on here. On listening to the twin-set I can’t help but become snared by the beautiful tones of Moorer, her worth as a songwriter able to maximise emotions of the heart as with backing doused in country instrumentation she speaks of love, hurt and loss with unerring conviction.
Moorer’s early and arguably biggest indents has come via songs “A Softer Place To Fall” (used in the film, Horse Whisperer), “Alabama Song” and with a feel it could have come from early songbook entry from George Jones “The One That Got Away (Got Away With My Heart)” the music of the Alabama-born songbird is catapulted into an area few acts come near. It doesn’t stop there, for her co-write with her first husband (as most songs are) “I Found A Letter” is a classic country song. Her performance likewise oozes class. The period over covers her MCA years, 1998-2002 the listener becomes a great deal closer than possible to most artists, and with the collection including a song written about her tragic youth that saw her father shot and kill her mother in a drunken rage, before killing himself “Cold Cold Earth” rounds off the set.
Where now are songs like “The Hardest Part” today; with a winning formula of fiddle, banjo, mandolin and upright bass heard in all their glory Moorer shows just what a treasure she is. While her career hasn’t always been smooth as it could have been, and music as pure as heard here she remains a wonderful act. Among the pick of the remaining tracks you have brooding ode “Dying Breed” coupled with tender ballads “Tell Me Baby” and “Feeling That Feeling Again” that extract all the beauty going from her gorgeous tones, the latter especially with super pedal steel and fiddle is enough to melt stone.
Maurice Hope