Allison Moorer

Allison performs Dancing Barefoot on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno!
ALLISON MOORER – MOCKINGBIRD
“The running thread - and I didn’t notice it at the time -?is strength…Even if they’re not hitting you over the head,?they are strong songs, coming from a worldly place,?yet the language is really feminine…?and people lose sight of that strength, courage and dignity that is womanly.”
When Allison Moorer decided to make a record of other people’s songs, you know she wasn’t just going to grab a handful of whatever and set her slow burning alto to them like a low flame to dry twigs. No, the woman whose very first single was nominated for an Academy Award, whose albums have been marked by an artistic restlessness and passion and whose willingness to expose her deepest truths has yielded some of pop music’s subtlest, but most enduring treasures wanted to do something special - and in looking around the vastness of American music, she realized how much of the glory of women songwriters was overlooked and oversimplified.
“I think true feminity is not encouraged,” she says in that smoky drawl. “In the music business, you have two little boxes. Either you’re a whirly twirly girl or you’re a too-angry raging woman - and that’s just not even close. Men face their own share of problems, but they don’t face that.” Certainly Moorer - working with producer and acclaimed roots artist Buddy Miller - have conjured a rich pastiche of the phases of women’s hearts, lives, needs and yearnings. Whether it’s a dervish take on Patti Smith’s “Dancing Barefoot,” a stoic, proud embrace of Kate McGarrigle’s “Go, Leave,” a winking nod to the naughty that is Nina Simone’s “Sugar In My Bowl” or the elegant survival of her sister Shelby Lynne’s “She Knows Where She Goes, the lithe songstress demonstrates diversity, eclecticism and the range of the XX chromosome set.
“I wanted to do this record to become a better writer,” the now New York-residing, former Alabama-girl concedes. “I have spent years and years in my own head and my own little world, and this was a break to explore how other singer/songwriters experience life,”
Laughing, she concedes, “It made me a better singer, too… Both working with Buddy and considering how these lyrics, melodies and emotions fell. This got me to stretch vocally more than I have in a long time, so that growth was thrilling.”
Cut over a little less than a week’s time in Buddy Miller’s Dogtown Studio, what Moorer thought might be a quiet meditation on emotional tides and gilded moments of loss and desire turned into something far more dynamic, a bit surprising and ultimately thrilling for her.
“Every time I go into the studio with a notion of how it’s gonna be, it always comes out differently. If you go in with a severe notion of how something’s gonna be and you cling to it, you sometimes come out with something that is so much less than it could be - and to me, at this point in my life, it’s seeing how the idea grows that is so fascinating.
“I started with around 40 songs, culled it down to 24 by the time I got to Buddy - because there were soooo many songs once I got started that it felt like they all should be heard. But Buddy’s instincts about the songs and what would suit me were great… He knew I could do more than I did, actually! He definitely kept it from being a really quiet record. He brought a lot of dynamics to it, and made it kick in places.”
Whether it was learning to play acoustic guitar in open G for an elegiac take on Joni Mitchell’s knowing-beyond-her-years “Both Sides Now,” putting husband Steve Earle’s thumb to good use on Ma Rainey’s swampy “Daddy Good-bye Blues,” the hushed string section and French boite accordion that bathes “Go, Leave” or embracing the Gershwin-esque beauty of Cat Powers’ “Where Is My Love,” it is the interpretation that ignites the subtlest possibilities within the songs. and that also open up caverns of nuance in Moorer’s and the largely organic band’s performances.
For Moorer, who penned the title song, it was also about honoring the women who inspired her, calling attention to some who may’ve been overlooked and exploring songs that demonstrate the real female perspective. It was a labor of love as much as an unearthing.
“There were certain things… I couldn’t make this record without including a Joni Mitchell tune because where would girls with guitars be without her? The same goes for Patti Smith,” Moorer laughs. “Without her, there is a whole slew of women who wouldn’t have known where they fit in.” I wanted to make sure there were songs from some artists who were influential to me - Jessi Colter’s ’I’m Looking For Blue Eyes’ was the first song my Dad taught me to sing… And I wanted to include some people who were overlooked, because maybe people don’t realize who the McGarrigles are or that June Carter Cash wrote ’Ring of Fire.’
“That image (a ring of fire) is exactly what the first throes of falling in love feels like. It’s dangerous and people know that, but they don’t really care… and she captures that! I don’t think anyone, though, has ever explored how pretty it is and how sweet and smart. It really sums the whole complicated mess of emotions up in a very few words.”
In the complexity is the truth. In the simplicity is the essence. Yet far be it from Moorer to suggest that this is the definitive work on women songwriters. “Oh, my… yes,” she explains, almost apologetically, “There is no Lucinda (Williams), no Carly (Simon), no Stevie (Nicks), no Emmylou (Harris). There’s no a lot of people! I couldn’t do everyone I loved… and it came down to what could I bring the most to, what my gut wanted to do and my spine knew was right.”
“The thing about a lot of these songs,” says the woman whose voice is the essence of late nights, old quilts and vintage brandy, “they have so many layers. The further into them you go, the more you see… Look at the Ma Rainey song: in the first verse, she’s frustrated, in the next confused, then pissed off, then in the last verse, she’s sad. It really sums up a relationship and to me, it sounded like real life, because that’s how real life really is.
“People might wanna make women singer/songwriters these 2-dimensional, what’s defined as ‘hot things in the marketplace,’ but just like real life, female artists are so much more interesting than that. If you can capture the intelligence, the emotions, the rest of it… which is what we tried to do… well, you’ve got something.”
Listening to Mockingbird, you do. It’s an album of subtlety, sensuality, smolder and grace. For a woman who’s always walked the line between slow burning erotic charge and being both tender and aware, what else would there be?