Second Cup Cafe: Allison Moorer
Singer/songwriter Allison Moorer, one of country music's sweetest voices, got off to a roaring start back in 1999 when her very first single earned her an Academy Award nomination. With a delicate sound and heartfelt lyrics, she's become a darling of the critics and fans alike.
Her most recent release, "Mockingbird," is a tribute to some of music's heaviest female hitters. She performed songs from the album in The Saturday Early Show's Second Cup Café.
When Moorer decided to make a record of other people's songs, she didn't just 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, "A Soft Place to Fall," was included on "The Horse Whisperer" soundtrack and nominated for an Oscar, 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 femininity is not encouraged," she says on her Web site. "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."
Moorer - working with producer and acclaimed roots artist Buddy Miller - has conjured a rich assortment 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 former Alabama-girl concedes on her Web site. "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. 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."
For Moorer, who wrote 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 said on her Web site. "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.'"
Moorer, a multiple Grammy award nominee, was raised in Frankville, Ala., just north of Mobile. Weaned 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. At 14, her father killed her mother after an argument, then killed himself. Following the tragedy, she and sister Shelby Lynne moved into their aunt and uncle's home.
Not long afterwards, Lynne moved to Nashville for a career in music, and after her high school graduation, Moorer followed. She sang harmonies with Lynne for a while but returned to Alabama to earn a degree in public relations. She skipped the graduation ceremony to move back to Nashville. She now lives in New York.